Page 132 of Deception

“Well, the basket’s full of shit, regardless.”

“What’s the play? I’ve got a few ideas?—”

“Adri. No.” I shake my head. “This ends tonight.”

“You’re…giving up?” Ero asks, genuinely confused.

“Dom is right about one thing. It’s the Don’s job to make the hard choice. Someone has topull the trigger.”

No matter what happens, every person in the Diamante syndicate is my responsibility. I won’t let my arrogance lead to lost lives, families being torn apart. If I surrender, at least they will live. Even if it’s under a tyrant.

I nod to Adriano, and he nods back, scowling. He knows my thoughts, enough not to argue.

“I hate this.”

“Me too, Adriano. But it has to be one of you.”

Ciro looks back and forth between us, a look of horror on his face. Suddenly his eyes widen and he makes an O shape with his lips. A wink is all I can spare him as I step away, back toward the center of the room and the waiting camera.

Staring right at the screen, the lens at the top, I kneel, glaring the whole while, hoping Dom can see the promise in my eyes. “I do this, so that my brothers may live, so that my people live. I’ll see you in hell, Domenico.”

I feel one of my brothers approaching from the side.

I close my eyes.

Three sharp blasts and everything goes dark.

29

ISABELLA

Something feels strange.

I feel groggy, disoriented. My thoughts congeal into solid forms.

Where am I?

Memories filter in, surfacing from the mire of my mind. I was kidnapped. Aless came for me.

We defeated my abductors, killed them. I remember flashes of my imprisonment, the freezing water torture. A shiver ripples through me and I’m there again, in the cell, alone and cold.

Panic rushing up through my chest and I try to rise, gasping.

“Shh…Isabella, it’s okay.” Angelica’s soft voice and warm hands clasp my shoulders, pressing me back down. Instead of a pillow, I feel the warmth of Angelica’s lap under my head, her fingers stroking my hair.

“You’ve been through a lot.”

“Are we still at the safe house?” I remember getting up, eating. Then…

“You fainted when Gigi and I got here. Tomas caught you.”

“Is the baby … ?”

“The baby is fine. Tomas called the doctor, someone they trust. He’s right out in the living room, but he says you’re both fine. You’re still just a little dehydrated, overwrought.”

“And Gigi?”

“She’s sleeping.” I open my eyes, tilting my head to look across the bed. Dark curls are splayed out across the pillow, a tiny bundle under the blankets.

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