Conflict showed on his face. “If I let you leave, and someone finds out, they will kill me too. I could die an honest death if I tried to stop you.”

“You could, and they would sing your praise, but you’d be dead all the same. Do you want to die today?” He was still young. Death held more terror for him than it did for us. He hadn’t faced it often enough yet.

Fabiano lowered his gun a couple of inches. I doubted he noticed.

“Nobody has to find out that you let us leave. You could have tried to stop us but we were too many,” Romero said.

“They will think I was scared and ran away, and that’s why you escaped.”

I gave Romero a sign. I could tell that we had Fabiano. “Not if you got wounded. We could shoot you in the arm. This was meant as an easy first job—nobody expects you to be capable of stopping the best fighters of New York. They won’t hold it against you if you got shot.”

Aria stared. “You want to shoot my brother?”

“What if you injure him seriously?” Lily asked.

“I could hit the zit on his chin if I wanted to; I think I can manage to hit an unproblematic spot on his arm,” Matteo said. “And we’re taking a risk by not killing him, so an arm wound is really nothing.”

I ignored them and focused my attention on the boy. “So what do you say, Fabiano?”

There was conflict in his eyes but then he lowered his gun. “Okay. But I will have to call for help. I can’t wait more than a few minutes or they’ll get suspicious.”

I kept my gun pointed at Fabiano, as did Romero and Matteo. “A few minutes should be enough for us to drive away. They will follow us once they figure out what’s going on, but five minutes will bring enough distance between us and them. Dante isn’t someone who likes fighting in the open, so I doubt he’ll send his men on a wild car chase. He’ll attack us later, once he’s figured out the best way to hurt us.”

After we faked a shooting and Matteo shot Fabiano’s arm, we sped off in our rental cars. Romero and Lily made up the front in their car, and the rest of us got into the other car. Matteo was behind the wheel, Gianna beside him, while Aria and I sat in the backseat. I glanced through the window and after a few minutes, three black Outfit cars began chasing us.

“Down,” I ordered, and Aria complied at once, curling up on the seat, worry and fear on her face. I let down the window, preparing to shoot. So far Dante’s men hadn’t fired a single shot, probably because we were still in a residential area. Neither he nor I needed additional attention from the press or the police. The moment we passed into an industrial area, I held my gun out and began firing. Our window shattered and Aria let out a scream. I fired again and hit the shooter in the head. My next bullet tore through their tire, and the car spun out of control. The two other cars kept up their pursuit but eventually they slowed. Dante must have given the order for them to pull back. He would attack soon, after he’d made a plan where he could hurt us the most. Fuck.

When I was sure we wouldn’t be attacked again, I lowered my gaze to where Aria was pressed against the seat. I brushed shards off her hair and shoulder, and she opened her eyes, peering up at me with trust. Trust that I would protect her, but damn it, doing that had become more difficult today.

“You can never return to Chicago,” I said quietly as she sat up. “You will never see your brother again.”

Her expression crumpled, and she pressed against me and buried her face in my neck. I held her as she cried. Matteo met my gaze through the rearview mirror. We both knew shit would hit the fan soon, and we’d have our hands full controlling our uncles and keeping the Outfit out of our territory.

Love. The root of weakness.

Fuck.

Aria raised her head again, those fucking baby blues drawing me in as they always did.

chapter 14

ARIA

Luca was still tense around me, had been since he’d found out I’d known about Lily and Romero, and not told him. Since Dante Cavallaro had declared war on us because of it, Luca’s mood hadn’t improved.

He would never raise a hand to me or insult me, but he was colder than usual. He sought me out at night, still made love to me, but there was a barrier between us. I wasn’t sure how to tear it down again.

After we returned to our penthouse after Lily and Romero’s wedding, I pressed my hand against his chest over his heart, looking up into his guarded gray eyes. “Luca, I’m sorry I didn’t tell you about Romero and Lily. Please don’t be angry. I can’t bear it. I need you. I love you. I only meant to protect Lily, not betray you.”

His eyes softened marginally. “And I need to protect the Famiglia and you, but that will be more difficult now that we are at war with the Outfit. We have the Russians and the Outfit against us, and then there’s the Camorra in Las Vegas. If they decide to attack us too, or heaven forbid cooperate with the Outfit, we’ll be in trouble.”

I shivered. “Is it a real possibility that will happen?”

“The Camorra isn’t very strong at the moment, but that can change.”

Since I started working the books for the Famiglia, I was more involved in the business, but Luca still made sure I only got to experience a very small part of the bad.

“But most of your men don’t blame you for breaking truce with the Outfit, right? They are loyal to you because you are strong and capable.”

Luca smiled darkly. “They want war, but they don’t like why Dante declared war on us. And that I made Romero Captain hasn’t been received well either. It’s mostly still only my uncles stirring up shit, but if my other Underbosses decide to side with them, I will have to go on a killing spree I’m really not looking forward to.”

I shivered. “Be careful.”

Six weeks since war had been declared; six weeks of nothing but silence from Chicago, from Fabi.

I worried about him, couldn’t stop myself from worrying. My mind was whirring as I decorated the Christmas tree in the huge living area of our mansion with Lily and Gianna. This year we’d spend most of the Christmas time in the Hamptons. Luca wanted us out of New York. Things were tense there right now because everyone feared retaliation from Dante and the Outfit.

It was still only the beginning of December, but I hoped the Christmas decorations would lift our spirits.

Gianna slanted a look at me. “You are very quiet.”

I sighed. “I’m worried about Fabi. Now that I can’t talk to Val anymore, we have no way of finding out how he’s doing.”

“Val said they believed his story and won’t punish him. He’ll be fine,” Gianna said firmly. I wondered if she really believed what she said.

“We don’t know that. That was more than a month ago. I hate that he’ll have to celebrate Christmas without us. In the past we could at least visit him in Chicago, but this year he’ll be all alone with Father and his new wife.”

Father had never been kind to Fabi and now that he had a new wife, a young wife that could give birth to more heirs, I worried he’d be even less inclined to go gentle on my little brother.