Page 113 of Not Mine to Keep

“Is he signaling something to us?” my father-in-law asked.

I zoomed in to see Alessandro subtly lifting his bound wrists near his heart, and with his finger he was tracing something there.

“I think so,” I whispered as I put it together. Then choked out, “X squared.”

CHAPTER FORTY

Calliope

“Still nothing from The League about Alessandro?” Gabriel asked as he entered the Costas’ front living room, where Izzy and I had been waiting for him. All it felt like I’d been doing since we’d lost contact with Alessandro fourteen hours ago was wait. Now there we were, waiting for the reason we were in this mess to arrive and for Armani to try and whisk me away.

“Unfortunately nothing new,” Izzy told him.

I admired her and how she managed to package her emotions up inside and hide them so neatly when necessary. Or maybe that was a survival mechanism, because before Alessandro took down my walls, I’d been that girl, too. I had known how to conceal my thoughts and feelings behind well-placed smiles and perfectly timed laughs.

“How’s my aunt? She doing okay?” On my feet, I joined Izzy in the face-off she was in with Gabriel.

She blamed him for bringing Armani into their lives, but I knew she wouldn’t say it out loud because my marriage was the by-product of his decision, and she was happy about that part.

“She wanted to come here, as you predicted, but she’s at your place in the city with two of Javier’s men.” He checked his gold watch.“Armani and Marcello will be here within fifteen minutes, so we need to figure out next steps.”

“You’re kidding me, right? You didn’t think of next steps on your flight from Oslo?” Izzy fixed her arms across her chest, whereas mine remained like useless rubbery limbs dangling at my sides. “Your intelligence buddies didn’t come up with a plan to keep DiMaggio off our backs?” The bite to her tone was like a gravitational pull, drawing my gaze her way.

“They were a little tied up taking down the Russian who’d been trying to start a war.” He matched her posture and her guarded stance. “You know, the same one who dropped a missile on your brother.”

“So they found the man responsible?” That’d be one less thing to worry about, if so, but until Alessandro was safe, nothing else truly mattered.

Gabriel gave me his eyes for a split second and nodded before returning to the staring contest my sister-in-law was having with him.

“AISE wants to try and turn Armani instead of killing him,” Gabriel revealed. “I don’t think that’s a good idea, though.”

I agreed with him on that. “He’s dying. He’ll never betray his organization.”

“We need to find a way to kill him,” Gabriel said, like a declaration of war. “Since we can’t blame Rocco for his death, we have to pin it on Marcello.”

“How would we do that?” Izzy asked.

My rag-doll arms decided to become rigid in that moment and lock across my chest. Now we were all in defensive positions, like we were enemies instead of on the same side.

“Calliope, is how. We bait Marcello into going after her, and I think Armani will try and save her.” Gabriel acted as though the “her” in question wasn’t in the room, dammit, but I was right freaking there. “If we do this right, Armani gets killed in the cross fire.”

“You’re kidding, right? My brother would put his hands around your throat for even suggesting something like that if he were here.”Izzy unfolded her arms, set her palms on his chest, and pushed, but he didn’t budge.

“But he’s not here.” Gabriel’s words were both the silver bullet and the stake to the heart that’d turn me to dust.

I whirled away from them both, panic mode setting in as I dove my hands through my tangled hair.

“This plan can work, I know it,” Gabriel went on, despite my borderline meltdown on the way. “Armani will sacrifice himself to save his bloodline.”

I bent forward and dropped my hands to my thighs, trying to remember how to breathe properly so I didn’t faint.

“And if Marcello winds up killing Calliope?” Izzy cut over to me and began rubbing her palm in small circles on my back.

“Hidden armor beneath a hoodie. It’ll hurt if she’s shot, but she won’t die,” Gabriel said casually, and I had a feeling this wasn’t him talking. These were his marching orders from Italian Intelligence. “The choice is yours, Calliope.”

Forcing myself to stand upright, my hand went to the column of my throat, unsure if I could get ayesto come out.

“What’s it going to be?” The kindness in his eyes remained despite what he was asking of me. “Are you helping us take out your father, or not?”

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