Page 49 of Sacred Sin

Romeo stepped up. “Simo, let’s get these guys into Malvasian cells at our number two location.”

Tony, Paulo and Matteo arrived.

“Numbers?” Romeo barked at them.

“We have one dead, and three injured,” Paulo replied.

“On it,” Tano said, and was led away by Paulo to tend to our three wounded.

“Rom, Marko and I need to go and find Niki.” Gio spoke with a new urgency, and I could tell he was over the bloodbath and revenge. All he cared about now was finding our girl.

I couldn’t blame him. Neither, apparently, could Romeo, who nodded his head in agreement.

“Simon messaged me just as the fight began; he has an address, and it was sent to your phone. The closest street cam shows a few suspicious vehicles headed that way, but beyond that, we have no way of knowing how many men are inside the compound. Take as many men as you need, brother, and be safe.”

Fausto appeared behind Gio. “I’m going with him.”

“Me as well,” Tony said, “and we’ll take four snipers with us, and a dozen soldiers.”

“Good, go,” Romeo agreed. “We gotta get this mess cleaned up before the cops get here.”

He was right, despite having half the force and a dozen judges in our pocket, we couldn’t hold off what must have been heard by dozens of witnesses, gunshot fire on the docks.

We hustled back the way we’d come with our soldiers covering our backs. The urgency to get to Niki was a constant push. Being reunited with her was all I really cared about.

We made sure to take exits that had no cam feed just in case Liam had people watching. That was no guarantee, of course, that they wouldn’t be alerted to our arrival anyway, but it couldn’t hurt.

The closer we got to Scarsdale, the harder it became to hold my errant fears at bay. Gio was unreadable with the exception of drumming his fingers. I knew better than to try and talk to him when he was in a dark place, and I could only imagine what thoughts he was entertaining.

Fausto, Tony and the team of sharpshooters got out of the car about half a mile away from our location and disappeared into the darkness. Tony had been going back and forth the entire way with Simon, who’d been sending him images for the best vantage points.

“I think I need to take stealth lessons from your brothers,” I said aloud in a weak attempt to lighten the mood.

Gio’s normally light eyes were so dark they appeared almost black. “Let’s go get our girl back.”

Most of the homes in this area sat on heavily wooded acreage, providing plenty of cover for our team.

Simon texted.

I can disable the security system, but it will only last for about thirty seconds before the place will lock down. When you’re in position, let me know and I will let you in. I don’t know yet if I can do it again, when it is time for you to leave. In theory it will work but I don’t know what types of safety encryption they may have in place.

We’ll figure out how to leave. We are in position.

Ready, Fausto typed.

One moment… Now!

We exploded into action and it was almost anticlimactic to see the outer perimeter guards already dead as we passed through the grounds and to the door in under thirty seconds.

We entered the building with no one to stop us.

“They must be using their limited coverage to guard Niki. Marko, Fausto, you take half the men and go up. Tony and the other half will go with me to the basement.”

I was pissed I wasn’t going to the basement which in all likelihood was where she was being kept. I wanted to argue with Gio, but to do so in front of our men would be a misstep. Regardless of our friendship, he was still my boss, first and foremost, and the eldest Vitale here by a few months which put him in charge of the mission. Not that he would have allowed anyone else to lead anyway.

Fausto didn’t hesitate. He took three men to explore the main level. That left me with Sandro and two others. Taking the lead, we moved silently up the carpeted stairs to investigate the upper level. When we arrived at the first door, I nodded to Sandro and he stood to the side, ready to cover me if anyone opened fire when I kicked in the door.

It was a non-descript bedroom, probably reserved for guests and currently empty. Still, we entered and did a search for hiding spots and secret doors. When we came up empty-handed, we moved our search down the hallway, and applied the same strategy at the next door, revealing a large room with two additional doors.