Page 91 of Runaway Queen

“Loyal, you say? I don’t think loyalty is something you have any authority to speak on.”

“I inspire the kind of loyalty you can only dream about.”

“We’ll see.” I clasped my hands behind my back and turned to check out exactly how many men we were dealing with in here.

The men in the room with us were older than those with Renato. A typical scenario where the younger generation supported the heir, while the older were dedicated to the agingcapo, even if his methods had become too old-school to make sense anymore. Just the state of the house revealed that the De Sanctis family wasn’t the force it had once been.

Antonio confirmed my suspicions when he leaned forward and stabbed a finger toward one of the men watching me from the sidelines, a gun clasped in his hand.

“Every single man in this room would die for me. That’s loyalty.”

“Is it? Sounds like a death wish to me.”

The room had an inner balcony that ran around the entire second floor, leaving a gallery below. Now, I stared up at the men poised around the gallery at even intervals. Not so many. About twenty, at most. Renato De Sanctis wouldn’t find it too hard to take over the family, if this was the total number of men who were loyal, diehard Antonio supporters.

Silence stretched between us. I ambled around the small circle in the middle of the armed men, whistling softly. Antonio scowled. I wasn’t afraid enough for him. For a while, there was only the sound of my obnoxiously cheerful tune and my boots scuffing against the parquet floor.

While I was physically here, my mind was far away, traveling the passages into the compound with Kirill and Angelo. Were they already in the house? Had Angelo found Leo and Chiara? Every second that Renato took to go and check on Leo, the better. We needed time to get into place.

The door at the top of the hall opened, and Renato appeared, nearly ducking to get through the old-fashioned, low doorway. He was alone.

“Well? Where is the brat?” Antonio snapped at his son.

“I don’t know. He’s gone.” Renato’s powerful voice froze his father to the spot for a second. He crossed to his father and handed him a soft toy. A stuffed dinosaur. It was familiar-looking, except for the fact that it had four feet instead of three.

Antonio blinked at it with fury.

“This was all that was left.”

Antonio stood, crushing the soft toy in a death grip. “Find him, now! Search the house. This Russian swine didn’t come alone!” His voice thundered around the room.

His men split in two, and half left the room.

“I’ll help,” Renato said, backing away from his father.

Antonio spun toward his son and pointed at him with an accusing finger. “Your men did a piss-poor job of watching your sister’s bastard, and now you volunteer to go and help them? You’re a disgrace, Renato.”

Renato didn’t flinch from his father’s words but merely nodded. “As you say, Father.”

“You wanted to keep the boy in comfort. You didn’t like seeing his tears. You’re weak. Love for your sister and your sister’s whelp is disappointing. You’ll never learn, and this is exactly why you’re not ready to be capo. Maybe you never will be.”

Renato’s hands curled into fists, but his face was impassive.

“If you’re having a spat, I can always come back later.”

Antonio’s head snapped toward me. “You can shut your mouth, or I’ll have your tongue cut out before I kill you.”

I rocked back on my heels and shrugged. “Whatever floats your boat.”

Antonio opened his mouth to retort, just as a loud, electronic tone cut through the tension.

The sound repeated again and again, and the remaining men in the room looked at each other. It was a phone ringing, and no one wanted to take responsibility for it.

“Oh, my bad. That’s mine. Can I take it? We’re not doing anything else, right?” I grinned at Antonio, sending his face an even deeper shade of tomato.

Antonio turned to stare at the man who’d patted me down outside and taken my phone. I wandered toward him. Antonio held his hand up to stop me.

“Don’t even think about it, Chernov. Renato,via,”he snapped at his son.

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