Page 67 of Love Me (Touch of Death 3)
Even if these Elite kill me now, I did what I set out to do. I may not have gotten to kill him myself, but…this is enough. This is justice for my father, for my sister. I can die happily. My only regret is Sasha. For him to have come so far, to have learned to love…something I would never think any of these soldiers here capable of…and to lose it; there’s something inherently tragic in that.
After all we’ve been through together: the loss, the heartache, the deceit… For this to all end here just seems so pointless. I wonder if he’ll slip back into one of these soulless robots. Or maybe he’ll find someone else to love, someone who needs a monster dressed as a knight. The thought has a lump forming in my throat and irrational anger tearing over my skin. No. He’s mine, and only mine.
As if on a silent cue, all the car doors open, and I’m suddenly surrounded by soldiers. The car starts moving, and none of them speak to me. Tatianna sits in the passenger seat, wiping blood from her hands. I wanted Enrique to suffer, but when it came to it, I couldn’t watch. Maybe that makes me weak.
We drive for well over an hour before we reach the port once again. Instead of going to the water’s edge, we pull onto a narrow side street shrouded in darkness. Cars are parked on both sides, and the convoy stops in the middle of the street before the engines cut out.
When I’m escorted from the car, I fully expect to be forced to my knees and have a gun put to my head. We stand for a moment in complete silence. A seagull caws on the wind, and a boat horn blares in the distance.
The door of a parked car ahead of us swing open, and two figures slip into the darkness like shadows.
They approach, and though their hoods are pulled up, I know the first one is Una. She’s tiny but oozes confidence and power with every step, every swing of her hips. The other figure lingers a step behind her, his steps more cautious, his body tense. I don’t recognize him, but I know it’s not Sasha.
They stop, a few feet away, and Una pushes back her hood. Her fingers wrap around the hilt of the knife at her thigh, poised, ready. The tension in the air is so thick, I’m practically choking on it.
Tatianna steps around me.
“My boss would like to speak with you,” she says it to Una, but turns to me, holding out a phone.
I stare at the device before carefully taking it from her hand and placing it to my ear.
“Hello?”
“Adelina Ricci-Bianchi.”
“Yes?”
“I have saved your life. You now owe me a debt.”
Someone moves behind me, and two soldiers step out between Una and me. They dump something on the ground. A body wrapped in a sheet. One of them tugs back the sheet revealing the face. Oh my god. Vomit hits the back of my throat, and I want to look away. More than anything, I want to look away, but I can’t. Bloody craters are where his eyes once sat, and something has been carved into his head in Russian letters.
“You will dispose of Enrique Bianchi’s body, somewhere…obvious. Somewhere that my message will be heard.”
“Okay,” I barely whisper.
“You are now the leader of the Bianchi-Ricci mafia. What’s left of it at least. You will control almost all the illegal activity in Sicily, and you will give me access to all your resources, shipping routes, blah, blah, you get my drift.”
I look around at the Elite surrounding me. I have little choice. I meet Una’s hard gaze, though she gives away nothing. “If I agree, your soldiers won’t harm Una or Sasha Ivanov?”
He laughs. “Making deals already? No need, Nero Verdi already bartered their safety, for now at least. Do we have an agreement?”
I have absolutely no idea what I’m getting involved with, but at this point, I’m grateful to this stranger. And Nero made a deal with him, which means he must have predicted this outcome.
“We have an agreement.”
“Good. And Ms. Ricci, you should know, I’m not a man to trifle with.” That really didn’t need saying. The Elite and Enrique’s missing eyes said it for him. A man with an army this lethal is not a man to cross, and I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t scared of that.
The phone cuts off, and I hand it back to Tatianna. She nods, and her soldiers all retreat as one. I walk toward Una, my shoulders tight the entire time as I fight the urge to look behind me. She grabs my wrist the moment I reach her, wrenching me behind her. I willingly oblige, and when I glance at the man next to me, I realize it’s Tommy. He’s the last person I expected to see here, facing off against the Elite. He doesn’t look at me, but takes my hand, clasping it tightly.
