Page 70 of The Secrets We Keep

Matteo’s brow shot up. “And how do you know that?”

“According to my contact, you need a special badge to get up to that floor. And security is tight.” He thought of Sienna’s plan to sacrifice herself. “If we send someone in there, there’s a good chance they don’t make it out alive.”

Carina reached for Alexei’s hand and laced their fingers together. “So what do you suggest?”

“We make hacking the house a priority.”

“Good luck with that,” Dom said. “He guards that thing like the Vatican. He makes Stefano and his wife live in the compound just to be safe.”

Luca tapped his pen on his notebook. “Which makes it easier for us, really. No survivors. Acceptable collateral damage to sell the story.”

“Taking out the entire family,” Dom said.

“Or blowing up the office building,” Carina suggested. “You could easily spin that in the papers to mean if he couldn’t have the business, no one could.”

“Especially if we feed them stories about his declining mental state,” Matteo murmured. “Truthfully, I don’t care how he dies as long as he’s dead, Gallo Industries falls into my hands, and we don’t have to deal with the cops sniffing around.”

“So the house then,” Carina said.

“Splashy wasn’t the way I wanted to go, but let’s explore all our options. Alexei, put something together with Luca based on whatever you can get from his contact and Maeve, and we’ll set it in motion.”

“Why don’t you give this one to Dom?” Alexei asked. “He likes the messy work of obliterating someone instead of carefully carving them into pieces.”

“Because I’m busy,” Dom replied. “Besides, it’ll be good for you. Not all kills can be precise and methodical.”

“Right,” Alexei agreed. “And we have you when we need a boring, basic explosion or gunshot to the face.”

Carina chuckled and gave Alexei’s hand a pat. “Don’t pout, amore. The sooner we finish this, the sooner we can get married. Unless you want to wait.”

Alexei tugged Carina closer and nuzzled her neck. “Of course I don’t want to wait. I tried to convince you to elope with me last weekend.”

“Will the two of you please get a room?” Matteo asked, rolling his eyes. “There will be no eloping in this family. We have enough secrets as it is. Now, can we get back to the matter at hand?”

Luca wasn’t entirely sold on the idea of derailing a train carrying millions in freight, if only because it put Sienna in danger. They’d need her in place until the last possible second to make sure nothing changed, and it wouldn’t leave much of a window to get her out of there.

If Sienna didn’t think she could do it without getting caught, Luca wasn’t going to make her. And Matteo could shove his displeasure about that up his ass. They had done enough to justify taking out Gallo at this point.

Sabotaging the train might make their story stronger when it came to killing Gallo, but it certainly wasn’t vital to finishing this. Sienna would come first here. Her safety was paramount, and if he couldn’t guarantee it, they’d have to find another way.

“Once we know the train route isn’t changing, we can get everything set up. We’ll need your contact in place to make sure nothing deviates. Can he do that?”

“Yes. But I’m not leaving them to the slaughter. We have to get them clear before Gallo digs them out as the mole.”

“Of course,” Matteo replied, but Luca wasn’t convinced. Matteo often did whatever the fuck he wanted, no matter what he promised. “We owe him a debt. We’ll make sure he’s good once the train job is done.”

“Matteo,” Luca said, waiting for his brother to make eye contact before continuing. “I will not sacrifice them for your end game. If I can’t guarantee their safety, I’ll pull the plug on this myself.”

Matteo cocked his head, eyes narrowing. “If I’d known you were going to get so attached, Luca, I’d have insisted you hand your contact off for me to manage. Weren’t we just talking about collateral damage?”

“Not with them, not for this. If you think I’m kidding, Matteo, then test me and find out.”

“Don’t threaten me, little brother. I’m not in the mood. You don’t have the authority to stop this once I set it in motion.”

“Fucking watch me.”

Matteo cast a quick glance around the table and leaned forward, resting his elbows on the glass surface. “This is the last piece of the puzzle when it comes to taking out Gallo without drawing suspicion. I will not abandon it because you became friends with your contact. I will do what I can to get them out when the time is right. That’s the best I can do.”

“That isn’t good enough.”

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