Page 29 of Twisted Kings

14

Kyril

20 minutes earlier

The bomb in the cellar went off while Connor and I waited outside, ostensibly checking the contents of the van. I felt the ground shake beneath my feet. Windows shattered, mortar crumbled, and several crows launched into the sky cawing in alarm.

In the distance, a huge fireball engulfed a large outbuilding, sending thick black smoke skyward. I grinned to myself. Francesco’s car collection was worth a fortune. Millions. Now it was nothing more than a pile of charred, twisted metal.

From what I knew of the man, he’d probably mourn the loss of his precious cars more than his daughters.

“Help!” a man screamed as thick smoke billowed out of the kitchen. “Fire!”Dammit.Dario must have used too much C-4.We wanted a distraction, not a raging fucking inferno. At this rate, the fucking house would burn down before we located Thea.

Connor grabbed the uniforms from the front seat. A few minutes later, a fire engine sped down the drive, sirens blaring.

“Oh, thank god,” breathed a guy wearing chef’s whites. I chuckled to myself while pulling on a firefighter’s uniform and helmet. The team poured out of the fire engine while a few of Francesco’s guards milled around.

“Gather everyone you find and take them into the woods,” the guy in charge yelled. His Italian was flawless, like Connor’s. The guards all seemed relieved help was here, rather than suspicious of how fast the fire crew showed up. If I were them, I’d be asking questions, but Francesco’s men were clearly not that bright.

Staff continued to emerge from the house, many of them coughing from the smoke. Nobody appeared to be injured, which was good. Not that I cared especially. Anyone working for a mafia don had blood on their hands by association.

Connor and I ran into the house, searching for our target.

“Where’s the wedding?” Connor asked a woman in a silk dress as she stumbled past clutching her purse.

She pointed back the way she’d come, and we hurried on. More people passed us and a few guards milled around, but none of them seemed to have a clue what was happening.

We entered a large hall with a vaulted ceiling and galleried landing. The thick stone walls had largely contained the fire in the cellar, but a pall of smoke hung in the air, adding to the confusion.

“Wait up,” a voice crackled in my ear-piece. Two people wearing black uniforms ran past in full panic mode while we paused for Ash.

“Let’s split up,” I said in a low voice when the Irishman had caught us up. “You do the official rescue role-play game while I search for the girls. If you spot them, let me know.”

Declan’s guys nodded and grinned like psychos under their helmets. This shit was all in a day’s work for them. I got the impression they were rather enjoying their little Italian mini-break. I guess it made a change from busting heads in Irish bars and clubs. They jogged off down a hallway while I turned left and headed downstairs to the lower level.

The house was old, in poor repair, and not at all what I expected, given the scale of Francesco di Luca’s criminal empire. My father’s many mansions and estates showcased his art collection and prized possessions. Every house he owned had at least ten priceless works of art. The house in Mayfair was home to a Picasso sketch, a Monet landscape, and a priceless collection of Fabergé eggs.

Judging from the lack of artwork or indeed furniture in this house, di Luca had been selling off his assets at an unprecedented rate. No wonder he was so desperate to claw back cash from marrying off his daughters to Marku. Honestly, it was surprising he hadn’t asked for more money.

Thea was worth way more than five million Euros.

To me, she was priceless.

The smoke thickened as I ventured down another flight of steps. This one ended at a reinforced metal door set into a thick stone wall and protected by a keypad. Dammit. This had to be where he kept his prisoners. There was no way I could get through. Not in the time I had available, anyway.

I’d circle back here if we couldn’t locate the girls. Just as I was heading back upstairs, I heard Connor in my ear.

“Found them,” he whispered into his microphone. I pulled my phone from my pocket and opened the tracking app. Milo had made us wear GPS trackers, so we knew where everyone was ifit all went to shit. He’d downloaded a map of the property and looking at the small dots representing Ash and Connor, they were on the ground floor near the stairs I’d taken.

My instinct told me Torrance had the girls. Di Luca would be way too busy trying to manage the chaos. He’d have trusted his attack dog to guard the girls if they hadn’t already been turned over to Marku. Which I knew wasn’t the case because one of our guys had reported two blacked-out SUVs leaving at speed a few minutes ago.

Marku and his men had clearly decided not to stick around.

I hurried back the way I’d come, jogging up a second staircase that emerged near an empty room facing the front parking area. Two guards lay dead on the gravel. A third emerged from a side room. He took one look at the gun in my hand and went to pull his own weapon, so I shot him in the head.

The muffled sound of the gunshot barely registered thanks to the continuing wail of sirens from outside.

I heard voices via the guys’ microphones and sped up. Just as I turned a corner, I saw them. Torrance, my kitten, and a small female lying still on the floor.

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