Page 69 of Ruined By the Enemy
My eyes pop open. That can’t be good. They’re talking about us—Dom and I. Unless there’s another set of people leaving in the morning, and I’m just being paranoid.
“What’s the plan?” Another man. “It has to be airtight. The boss said it should look like an accident. Remember—” I hear something like a shove, “—he said not to touch the woman.”
They speak Italian, which I understand fluently, but years of speaking English automatically translate it into my head.
“Easy.” The first man chuckles. I hear keys. “I got it from the front desk. I gathered that they’re not lovers, meaning they sleep in different rooms. We just have to find out which is which. You distract the woman, and I take care of the other one.”
Kill. He’s going to kill Domenico. I slap my hand over my mouth to muffle a frightened gasp.
But who? The question stops me from running to inform Dom or reaching for my phone. I need to know who put the hit on him.
“But,” I hear a third voice, one that sounds unsure. “He’s a big shot. What if they trace it back to us? We’ll be as good as dead.”
The one who spoke up first huffs. “Don’t you know who Mr. Bellini is? And this is a different country. The cops have been paid off already. By the time we’re done, nobody will find his body.”
My blood turns cold. Mr. Bellini.My uncle?No other person would know of our presence here… nobody else with an agenda against Dom.
The chill spreads through my body until I’m visibly shaking and holding my breath, afraid that if I breathe, I’ll be found.
Why would he want to kill him?The plan was to infiltrate the company and tear it down from within. The plan did not include eliminating Dom.
Another lie.
I’ve lost count of how many lies my uncle had fed me over the years, but I never realized the extent until we turned up here.
“So, are we doing it now?” One of the men asks.
I look around frantically, trying to find a way to sneak away without blowing my cover. The house is surrounded by manicured grass and the gravel part is beyond it.
I’ll still have to walk a distance to the gate, and there’s no way I’ll get that far without one of them seeing me.
“Shit,” I mutter. My chest feels stuffy, and my heart thuds. I grip my face tighter, muffling the rapid exhales that escape as I struggle to breathe.
A loud sound from the other end of the winery has my heart leaping to my throat, but it also startles the others.
One of the men swears loudly. “There’s nobody in the distillery. You should’ve stayed back,” he accuses another, smacking him hard. Then he sighs. “Let’s handle that first. There’s plenty of time to get to the villa.”
I wait, like a mouse playing dead, until I can’t hear their footsteps or voices anymore. Even then, I creep from my hiding spot, walking on tiptoes to see they’re truly gone.
As soon as I see that they are, I run for it. I don’t stop, not when my shoe comes off and my toe scrapes the gravel, the loose stones cutting through my skin.
I flag down the first taxi and jump in, mumbling the address. My phone falls to the car floor as I rip my jeans trying to get it from my pocket.
The driver glances at me through the mirror with a curious, worried look, but I ignore him, punching buttons to Dom’s number.
“Pick up, pick up,” I grunt as the phone rings repeatedly with no response. “Please pick up,” I mutter in despair as I rub my forehead.
He doesn’t.
Could they have gotten to him already? “Please drive faster,” my voice trembles as I talk to the driver, grabbing the headrest of his chair.
The ten-minute drive to the villa feels like forever, and I toss as many bills as possible through the window without counting them.
My feet barely touch the ground as I race for the door, fumbling the key so badly it slips from my shaking fingers. I curse under my breath, then resort to pounding on the wood with my fists, wild and unthinking.
“Dom!” I shout, voice cracked and frantic. “Dom!”
I snatch up the key again, but the door swings open before I can use it. He’s standing there shirtless, damp hair curling at his temples, his chest still wet from a shower. His brows pull together the second he sees me.
