I shake the thought off and turn to find her and answers. My thoughts go to how long I can keep her here. Leonardo has been up to his old tricks.
I would destroy him if anything happened to Sim. However, I’m not willing to risk it. She shouldn’t remain here long.
A few days. I want to keep her with me for a few days before she returns to America, where I’ll know she’s safe. I wonder if that will make her happy.
“There you are,” Nico croons as I enter the kitchen.
I get this feeling in the pit of my stomach. Something doesn’t seem right. I look to Annabella and she has a sad look on her face. My heart tightens and I feel like I can’t breathe.
“She’s gone?” I choke out, not asking a question.
I already know. She has left. This heartache is so sharp and painful.
I’ve hurt her enough to send her running from me. This isn’t going to work between us. My love will never be enough to fix what’s broken.
CHAPTER 33
Lost Monsters
Michael
Five months later …
Uri has asked us to come to America. He wants to introduce us to his wife before the baby is born. I think he has made a mistake. His wife was right on our property, and he chose to keep us hidden.
I know who his wife really is. She is one of us. A hitter.
At times, I have wished Sim could be by my side in all of this. Then I realize how ridiculous that is. This darkness shouldn’t belong to anyone.
“I may not have a choice,” I mutter to myself.
I may have to go to America. Italy has been compromised. Leonardo has gotten too close to our home.
He is forcing my hand. I will either have to reveal myself or I will be revealed. This vise grip and my confusion about what happened with Symphony have strained my vision.
It feels like I no longer have a purpose. I feel nothing. Bitterness always fills me.
I’ve been lost since the day Sim left without a word. Leonardo kept me from running after her. He had me ambushed the day I decided to head to Boston for answers.
Sim wouldn’t answer my calls. I had no idea what I did wrong. However, after the attack, I knew her leaving was for the best.
It happened between the properties, so I couldn’t be sure if it was an attack meant for me or Uri. The real supposed husband of Symphony. Now that Uri is married to a Caprisi, this cover we have kept will be blown soon.
I’m infuriated with the situation. Not that my brother has found happiness, but the fact that his new life threatens all I have been protecting for the last fourteen years. Now, I move with rage.
It’s only been five months, but I have been on a warpath during this time. Leonardo has only fueled my rage and the fire building inside. If I can’t get to him, I will kill everyone he sends and anyone connected to them until they give him up or give me the proof I need for the families to okay his kill.
These German bastards are only the latest victims he has sent my way. It wasn’t hard to find them. Their arrogance led me straight to them. I enter the old run-down hideout I’ve followed them to from the bar.
To sit in one of my cities and speak so freely of your crimes is like buying the Grim Reaper a first-class ticket to your funeral. You might as well go running through the streets screamingsilenzio. I don’t think they know they have been calling my fucking name, but I’m here to answer.
Pulling my gun with the silencer already in place, I shoot out the lame surveillance cameras they have in place. Then, like a thief in the night, I move through their hideout like a freighttrain. I hit hard and fast. There are about twenty of them to one me, but you wouldn’t know that by the time I have the last one by the back of his hair as I walk him through the carnage I’ve left behind.
“Please, I have son,” he says in a heavy Czech accent.
“Not German,” I murmur to myself.
“No, I get job through cousin smuggling in Germany. He runs with Germans. I come along to drive. I know nothing more.”