Page 140 of Forsaking All Others

“Fuck,” Luca cursed. “I’ll deal with you later. For now . . .”

He pushed me aside, snorting at the lock picks I’d left lodged in the padlock. Without hesitation, he removed a small backpack from his person and reached inside for industrial bolt cutters. I watched as he applied force to the chains and broke them apart without breaking a sweat.

Even with the same tool, I wouldn’t have been strong enough to do that.

He caught the chains in his huge hands before they could clang to the ground and carefully unwound them from the handles of the doors before setting them softly on the grass to one side.

“Stay behind me if you insist on playing the heroine,” he muttered darkly over his shoulder before he heaved the storm doors open and disappeared down the dark stairs.

I followed him, slipping the gun from my thigh holster and adjusting it into a two-handed grip. Cerberus followed, a streak of black against the wall as he moved between the two of us.

Ahead of me, Luca had a small penlight between his teeth to illuminate the way and a bigger handgun locked in one hand. The ground was slick in the cellar, the early-evening autumn rain having sunk inside the cracked foundation. Our feet sloshed quietly as we pressed forward, but otherwise, everything was silent.

My heartbeat rushed through my ears as we passed two open doorways.

“The room Dario is in should be on the main floor,” I moved up to Luca to whisper.

He jerked his chin in acknowledgment but didn’t otherwise look at me.

I swallowed thickly, hoping my friends were okay. They were waiting until I found Dario to creep inside the building themselves, but I knew Hank was already at the front door, Elijah and Finn at the side entrances, ready to move.

Even though he was angry with me, I felt unspeakably more at ease with Luca beside me in the dark.

We reached a narrow set of stairs just as something rasped at the top of them. Luca pressed me to the wall beside him, raised a finger to his lips as he turned off his small flashlight, and made the gesture to stop to Cerberus with his other hand. My dog obeyed, sitting obediently beside my hip as I nodded, holding my breath while someone descended.

It was a dark-clad man holding a fucking assault rifle, obviously doing his rounds. Behind him came another.

Luca waited until the first man was in the basement and lunged forward sinuously, at one with the shadows so it was hard to even mark his movements as he took the man in a kind of bear hug with one arm up under his neck. With a loud crack, he twisted his torso, and the man fell to the ground with a thump and a gentle clatter, neck broken.

The man behind him had time to open his mouth on an inarticulate sound and raise his gun at Luca’s chest. Cerberus darted forward soundlessly, lips peeled back as he latched vicious teeth around the man’s wrists, blood spurting instantly from the torn, delicate skin. Before the enemy had time to call out, I dropped into a squat and lunged partially up the steps, slashing out with my knife so it cut through the tendons at the back of his knee.

He went down like a sack of bricks, tumbling headlong down the stairs.

Luca caught him before he could cause a cacophony, broke his neck with a seamless snap, and lay him down lightly against the wall beside the staircase.

I could feel his eyes in the dark, staring at me as I straightened and wiped the blood from my blade off on my thigh.

“Fiamma,” he whispered. “It seems I am not the only Ferretti who keeps secrets.”

Before I could respond, he was softly padding up the stairs with his gun raised.

I followed, even though my hands were slick with sweat around my weapon. I’d been in dangerous spots before, but never quite like this. Back rooms with bad men, or interloping in someone’s home or business, careful not to be caught.

Infiltrating a building filled with enemies was beyond my scope.

Sensing my unease, Cerberus pressed his blood-wet muzzle into my bottom thigh as he followed us. I reached down to curl a hand around his soft ear, taking brief comfort from the heat and solidity of my beloved companion.

We emerged into one of the transepts, a branch off the side of the altar.

Happily, it was empty, and the corridor that stretched along the nave toward the front door seemed abandoned too. I followed Luca, noting the light was on over the altar, and there was a low murmur of voices from the apse, behind the altar.

Luca checked each door on the right side, but there was no sign of Dario.

My heart beat like a war drum, so loud I could barely hear myself think.

Luca looked over his shoulder at me as we paused behind a statue of the Virgin Mary at the right side of the entrance, readying me with his eyes to race across the open space to the other side.

He went first, and it shocked me that such a big man could be so light and swift on his feet.