Page 95 of Vendetta
Then something unexpected happened: I heard another door shut, and another, and finally a fourth. Jack wasn’t alone.
Nic peered around the warehouse entrance and then pulled his head back in a blur. ‘He’s got company,’ he announced to the others, backing away from his post and coming to stand beside Luca. Both of them looked uneasy, but no one seemed particularly surprised. I don’t know why I was so shocked: walking into a dark warehouse alone was suicide. Jack was smarter than that, and, to my dismay, he was obviously used to this world and how things worked in it.
‘They’ll have guns,’ said Dom casually.
‘Classic Gracewell,’ said Felice with a mirthless laugh. ‘There is never any honour in his agreements. We always knew he would come heavy. How many are there?’
‘It’s too dark, I couldn’t tell.’ Nic’s voice was tight with frustration. He pulled out his gun and double-checked to make sure it was loaded. How could I get to him now, when he was so close to his brothers? Maybe if I made it to Jack before he came inside, it would stop him from trying to come in at all. All this time I had been so worried about my uncle that I hadn’t stopped to think about the possibility that he might come prepared too. And that meant Nic and Luca weren’t any safer than he was.
Stupid vendetta.
I became more deliberate about my steps as the crates grew fewer and further between. They were getting trickier to hide behind and, with each shallow breath like a stab in my cracked ribcage, I was finding it harder to exert myself. If I could just make it through that front door before anyone came in, I might be able to stop a massacre.
‘I knew this would get messy,’ Felice was ranting. ‘And if he sees we don’t have the girl any more, then he won’t hesitate to shoot first. We need to be on our guard – we’ve lost the upper hand.’
The shadows of Dom and Gino murmured their agreement. Luca’s voice was too low to hear, but by the way his hands were gesturing, I guessed he was protesting his innocence. From my vantage point, it looked convincing. I hoped it was.
‘And you’re not even fully protected.’ Felice motioned towards Luca’s and Nic’s chests. ‘Go out back before you getinjured. Valentino’s angry enough already. We can’t afford to have anything else go wrong.’
Neither of them moved. ‘We’ll see this through,’ said Luca.
Nic rolled his neck around until it cracked. He squared his shoulders and clenched his jaw. If this was him in soldier mode, it was damn effective. And that made me want to pull my hair out of my scalp, because he was preparing to kill my uncle.
The Falcones fell out of their conversation; no one wanted to argue any more. They grew silent, each of them boring holes in the door with their eyes, waiting for Jack to make his move. They knew he was out there; he knew they were inside. Both sides had backup and both sides, presumably, had guns. And I was stuck, crouching in rat piss behind a stack of mouldy crates in a warehouse in the middle of nowhere, wondering which of the people I cared about would die first, and whether I would survive long enough to try and forgive the ones that didn’t. If this wasn’t rock bottom, I shuddered to think what was.
I was trying to sneak across a gap between two toppled crates when the door to the warehouse creaked open, first one notch, and then another. I froze. The Falcones raised their guns at the entranceway. I was too late. I had failed.
‘Hello,’ said a quiet, nervous voice.
My whole body turned to ice.
No one answered her.
‘Hello?’ she said again, the word just a wavering tinkle in this huge, barren space.
In one echoing click, they set their guns ready to fire, and aimed them at my mother as she edged into the warehouse.
CHAPTER THIRTYTHE CHOICE
Her hair was falling in messy strands across her ashen face, and she’d pulled her old cardigan over her pyjamas. She was still wearing her slippers.
Suddenly it felt like all my nightmares were colliding with each other and exploding into one dreadful spectacle. And this?Thiswas my rock bottom.
If I thought I’d known anger before, this was something else entirely. Heat surged through me, and I could barely keep from screaming. What was Jackthinking? How could he do this to my ownmother? To his brother’swife? I felt sick, and suddenly I didn’t know which side I was on any more. Luca was right; I should have gone home. I should have left Cedar Hill with my mother. I should have kept her safe. She was the only person in my family I could rely on, and I had been a fool to thinkanything different.
When she saw the guns that were pointed at her, my mother let out a strangled gasp. Her hands flew to her mouth and she stumbled backwards.
The Falcones hesitated, glancing at one another, but they didn’t lower their guns. I couldn’t understand why they would see anything remotely threatening about her. She was five feet tall, a hundred pounds, and shaking like a leaf.
I bit the back of my hand and tried to centre myself, but I was screaming on the inside. I crept closer – as close as I could get to her before I couldn’t hide behind the dwindling crates any more. It still wasn’t close enough. I desperately wanted to spring from the shadows and pull her out of there, but I knew I’d probably be shot before I got to her.
My mother shuffled forwards again, cradling herself. ‘I’m here for my daughter.’ The fear made her voice unrecognizable. ‘I’m here for Sophie.’
Luca lowered his gun. ‘What the hell does Gracewell think he’s doing?’
The others didn’t move.
‘Keep your defences up,’ cautioned Felice. ‘This is clearly a trap.’
