Page 83 of The Secrets We Keep

By the time they arrived in Catania, the sun had fallen below the horizon, casting long shadows through the trees. Sienna’s heart pounded in her ears as the SUV rolled to a stop across the street from the Gallo villa. Her family’s old home wasn’t far, and she felt the acuteness of the loss being so close.

She moved to position the laptop on the center console, but Luca stopped her with a hand on her shoulder, cupping her face in his hands when she turned to him.

“I’ve never said this out loud, Sienna, but I’ve felt it since the moment I first laid eyes on you. I love you. And I’m not leaving here today without you. So don’t do anything stupid.”

Sienna pressed a soft, lingering kiss to Luca’s lips. “I’m not leaving here without you either. I love you, Luca. Until your last breath.”

“We’re in position,” Dom said through the walkie, drawing Sienna’s attention to the tinted window.

“Luca.” She gripped his hand as he reached for the door. “Come back to me.”

He climbed out, turning to face her as he adjusted the gun at his back. “Whatever happens, it’s all for you.”

The door closed, plunging the car into darkness, and Sienna quickly brought up the live feeds from her uncle’s security system. Maeve had been monitoring everything from Palermo while they made the drive, and it seemed like everyone was exactly where they needed them to be.

Cycling through the cameras to make sure while Dom’s orders squawked through the walkie, Sienna blew out a nervous breath. Everything was going to be fine. She trusted Luca, and Luca trusted his men. That’s all she could really ask for.

Pulling up the two camera feeds closest to the entrances where they would breach, she typed in the string of commands to disable the alarm system. No one would hear them coming.

“Alarm is down,” she said into the walkie.

A scant minute later, six men appeared on the left side of her screen, Dom at the front. They quickly climbed to the third floor, breaking off into teams of two while Luca’s group entered close to her uncle’s study. The bastard was sipping a glass of what she assumed was his favorite chianti without a care in the world.

The faint ping of silenced shots filtered through the speakers as they moved from room to room, clearing each one as they advanced. Dante dead, Stefano and his wife dead, her aunt dead. A part of her wondered if she should feel a pang of sadness for her aunt and Stefano’s wife.

But that feeling was quickly replaced by memories of Rina’s lifeless body shielding the twins and Pietro’s empty stare. In three years, they’d done nothing, said nothing. They’d made their beds, and now they were lying in them.

Just as the teams were preparing to clear the last room, movement out of the corner of her eye caught her attention, and she looked up to see headlights at the south gate.

“Fuck.” Grabbing the walkie and scooting toward the door, she pushed out into the night without thinking. “Someone’s escaping!” she yelled into the walkie, reaching back for the gun she’d stashed in her purse.

“Where?” came the quick reply.

“They’re leaving through the south gate. Black SUV. I can’t see inside. I’m going after them.”

“Sienna don—”

Luca’s command was cut off when she dropped the walkie and sprinted toward the fleeing vehicle. The car lurched forward as the gate continued its slow swing, and she had just reached the bottom of the drive when it finally pulled through.

Stepping directly into its path, she fired relentlessly in the direction of the tires, barely able to see beyond the glaring headlights and her own fury. No one was walking away from this. They all deserved to die.

The driver of the SUV floored it, forcing Sienna to dive out of the way. Grunting when she hit the ground, the air forced from her lungs, she rolled and scrambled to her feet in time to see the car’s taillights disappear around the corner.

“Fuck!”

Turning to head back to find the walkie she’d dropped, she stopped short when someone grabbed her arm, fighting and clawing against their grip until she realized it was Luca.

“What the hell are you doing out here?” he demanded. “I told you not to do anything stupid.”

“I was trying to clean up loose ends.” She rounded on Dom when he joined them. “Who the fuck did your men miss?”

“I don’t know,” Dom replied through gritted teeth, irritated with his men or her, she wasn’t sure. “They confirmed all the kills. Everyone who should be dead is.”

“And whoever that is”—Luca gestured toward the end of the street—“is probably on his way to tell the authorities the Bianchis just murdered the entire Gallo family.”

“I’ll send men to scour the area,” Dom assured them. “And make sure Matteo knows Maeve must have missed somebody on the security feeds.”

Sienna snorted as the walkie strapped to Dom’s belt crackled.

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