Page 5 of The Sicilian Brotherhood I

I continued to shake, trying to calm myself down enough to make sense of the situation. They’d killed Ana. I didn’t even know who they were. My body stopped shaking just enough to get out that one question.

“Who are you?”

“We are the Sicilian Brotherhood.”

“No,” I whispered.

I didn't mean to whisper it out loud but my stomach flipped when I heard who they were. Whatever they wanted from me, I was as good as dead. Franco had screwed with the Sicilians every summer for the past five years in a row.

Revenge had been a long time coming.

Raimondo laughed.

“Scared?” He asked, bursting into laughter again.

I rested my head against the window. The cars started moving away from our wedding venue. A lump formed in my throat as I realized they were probably going to kill me if not now, once they’d had their way with me. I tried to stop myself from crying so I could think clearly, but my maid of honor had just been killed, I’d been kidnapped and Franco was still nowhere to be seen.

I was in shock from what I'd seen and my brain too foggy to think much.

I didn’t doubt for a second Franco was capable of setting us up. I knew what I’d signed up for by getting involved with a man like him. He’d killed before and I knew that. I just thought that I could make things different. Holding out hope he would change kept me bound to him.

He'd promised to retire. He'd promised I wouldn't get caught up in his life.

Hell, he'd fought tooth and nail to hold onto me. I never expected for him to let me go.

He probably thought they'd kill me, I mused to myself. The realization depressed me.

Franco must have known who they were looking for, that we could be hurt, that Ana could be killed. He must have known all of that.

I drove down the highway in silence for two hours. I peered through the thick, black tinted windows at the highway signs. We went west until sunset and then veered south. After those long two hours, the shock wore off enough for me to think of my options.

I could die if I tried to escape but if I didn’t try, I’d definitely die. The Sardinians were nothing like the Sicilians. Franco would always say to me, “There’s something in the water over there. The men are more aggressive… more dangerous…”

Franco had said many other things. He’d made many promises that were now broken.

“Where are we going?” I asked, breaking my silence again.

Raimondo laughed, “Did you hear that, Giac?”

I looked up and saw the driver, my kidnapper, grinning in the rearview mirror.

“You’ll find out where we’re going when we get there.”

Raimondo laughed again and shook his head so his dreadlocks framed his face. His eyebrow wasn’t the only scarred part of his face. He had three slices in his cheek and a few on his arms. The lump in my throat expanded like a wet sponge.

How the hell was I going to escape a guy like that? He could choke me to death with one hand. He’d clearly been in many fights before, not to mention, all the men were armed. I had nothing. Franco never allowed me to carry weapons.

We pulled off the highway after dark. I didn’t recognize where we were going. I must have dozed off once or twice. There were cornfields, so many that I got twisted and turned around too much to regain my bearings.

I wasn’t even sure which state we were in on account of having crossed too many borders, and on account of the exhaustion, hunger, and thirst. I was sure that the tight wedding dress squeezing my stomach would suffocate me eventually.

The SUV started off the main road onto bumpy backroads and the houses grew fewer and farther between. We were in farm country, but I couldn’t determine what that meant. How far was I from my people?

I had to stay focused, ignore the digging into my ribcage, ignore hunger twisting my stomach into knots and ignore the dry thirst parching my mouth until I thought my lips would crack.

“Where are we?” I asked.

“Quiet,” Raimondo growled back.

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