Page 59 of Twisted Throne

“That door won’t do much of anything, but this one will.”

Elena opened up the door to the closet and motioned for us to come closer. She clicked a latch on the wall behind the clothes rack and ducked inside.

“Hurry up and get in here!” She grabbed Lucy’s arm and yanked her through the clothes and through the hidden doorway. I followed behind her. Once we were all inside, Elena reached out and readjusted the clothing to hide where we had gone through, then closed the door behind us, leaving us in the pitch dark.

“Hang on, there’s a light here somewhere.” I heard Elena rustling around, and then a dim light flicked on, illuminating the space we were in.

We were in a small room, we could move about fairly comfortably in it but if there had been anyone else with us it would have made for very cramped quarters. The walls were gray blocks of concrete, as was the floor. The door we had entered through was made of some sort of thick metal. Along the back wall was a small array of several guns and some ammunition mounted on the wall, and Elena still clasped her small pistol in her hand.

“Holy shit! You just shot that guy! You totally saved our asses!” Lucy threw her arms around Elena before taking a closer look at the display of weapons on the far wall. “This is awesome!” Lucy reached for one of the guns on the wall.

“We didn’t come here for the guns!” Elena smacked Lucy’s hand away. “We came here because it’s bulletproof and we can wait this out in safety.”

“What are you talking about? You just took out one of those Sabitino fuckers! We can help! We can’t just hide out here like a bunch of cowards when we could go help?!” Lucy threw her hands up in the air.

“Trust me, we’d be nothing but a hindrance down there. We’d only get in the way.” Elena frowned at her.

Something wasn’t right.

“How will we know what’s going on? Or when it’s safe to come out?” I asked Elena.

“Don’t worry, when it’s safe Angelo will send someone to check the saferooms. All we have to do is stay here until then.”

“And what if they burn the damn house down?” Lucy was so fired up she was practically hopping up and down on the balls of her toes. “We need to go out there and see what’s going on!”

“I saidno,” Elena snapped. “Trust me, getting shot is not the worst thing that could happen to us out there. And Emilio has already set his sights on Gia. We stay here until we get the all clear.”

Just the sound of Emilio’s name made me shudder. He’d made one hell of a reputation for himself.

But the man Elena had shot hadn’t. If he had, Lucy would have been all over it. And Elena had called him by name before… “How did you know that guy's name?”

She looked away. “We’ve never been friends with the Sabitinos, but we had something of a truce until recently. I must have bumped into him at some point at a social event. Before Junior stepped up, Alec and I would occasionally make an appearance at a wedding or christening.”

Her fingers tapped against her leg, and her eyes darted around the barren room, looking at everything except for me and Lucy.

“But it sounded like he knew you, too. That he was even looking for you. What aren’t you telling us, Elena?” I moved to stand in her field of vision and locked my eyes on hers. “Something has been going on with you. What is it?”

Elena turned away and faced the wall.

“Seriously, Elena, what the hell?” Lucy piped up, taking a step toward Elena.

“Look, this wasn’t what was supposed to happen.” Elena’s head dropped, but she kept her back to us.

“What do you mean?” A cold sense of dread rose up within me. I didn’t want to hear her answer, but I knew it was important to hear. “How do you know what was supposed to happen?”

“Because I’m not stupid.”

“Elena, what did you do?”

“You don’t understand what it’s like to be trapped in a relationship with someone who hates you!” Elena whirled around to face us. “All I wanted was to be free of him! I was willing to do anything I could for the family! I married him, even when I knew he was in love with someone else! I thought in time he’d…”

“It’s not Alec… it’s you,” I said slowly. “You were the one giving Sabitino the information on the hits. And on me?”

“It wasn’t supposed to go down like this. They moved in early.” She dropped her eyes to the floor. “I was going to get you to the safe room, then Davide was supposed to get me out. Sabitino promised me a new identity, money, a new life. But no one else was supposed to be hurt, I swear!”

“Youcagna!” Lucy hurled herself forward toward Elena, her long purple nails arched like claws.

“Lucy, no!” I wrapped my arm around her waist and pushed her back and away from Elena.

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