Page 96 of Wicked Rivals

The monster downstairs was the same man who had tried to kill my son.

And I didn’t have a way out for us.

“Fuck,” I whispered.

My mind raced, searching for possible moves.

The man down there would find the door for the staircase as soon as his destructive tirade moved into the kitchen. And that meant Enzo and I were trapped in the apartment.

All we could do was wait for him to find us.

No, I refused to be a damsel in distress or allow my son to be a sitting duck.

Enzo appeared inside the doorway, his eyes wide with fear.

“Mama?” he whispered.

I put my finger against my lips as he hurried closer, then I hugged him close to me and pulled us together into a crouch.

“We need to be very quiet, baby,” I whispered.

I thought I’d planned for everything, but I was wrong.

So fucking wrong.

I loved this little apartment. I had worked hard to make it perfect for us after Nonna passed, creating the warm, comfortable home my son deserved.

Everything from his overstuffed comforter he’d picked out for himself, to the colorful rugs on the wood flooring, to the bookcase wall we’d filled over the years with all the stories he loved so much and couldn’t bear to part with.

And a monster took it away from us.

Not Stefano.

I could no longer blame the destruction on him.

The fault belonged to the faceless monster downstairs, destroying everything as he headed our way.

I crept over to the window. A two-story drop onto concrete covered with broken glass. Visible from inside the café.

Dropping two stories into the filthy back alleyway with all the trash and metal dumpsters wouldn’t be any safer for my son.

We needed to run, and we couldn’t do that if either of us broke a leg jumping out the window.

I pulled Enzo with me into the connecting bathroom between the two bedrooms, then gently closed the doors.

My stupid brain paused for a second to note how odd it had been that our rooms at Stefano’s house also had a connecting bathroom.

“What are we going to do?” Enzo whispered.

Yes, what the hell were we going to do? What was I supposed to tell my terrified child? Shit. What was my plan?

“We wait quietly,” I blurted.

“Wait for what, Mama?”

I turned off the lights, plunging the windowless bathroom into darkness, and sat on the edge of the tub. Then I wrapped Enzo in my arms, so I could hold him and whisper to him.

“Okay, buddy, here’s what’s going to happen. Stefano will realize we're gone and come looking for us. If he gets here soon enough, we won’t have to worry about the man downstairs. Stefano will take care of him.”

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