Umberto nodded, then his eyes darted to Fabi. “I should take him to bed.”

I was about to nod when an ear-splitting alarm broke the silence, but it stopped a few seconds later. Fabi’s eyes were wide as he clung to Lily, both were looking at me as if I knew what was going on. Romero stormed toward us, two guns drawn, when a red dot appeared on Umberto’s forehead. I cried out but it was too late. There was a shot and Umberto’s head flung back, blood splattering everywhere. Lily started screaming, and I still couldn’t move. I stared at the dead eyes of Umberto. A man I’d known all my life.

Romero flung himself at me and we landed on the ground as a second bullet blasted the glass door, sending shards flying.

“What’s going on?” I screamed, hysteria rocking my body.

“The Bratva,” was all Romero said as he dragged me toward the living room. I struggled against him. Lily and Fabi cowered beside a lounge chair, still in shooting range of the sniper. “Get them!”

But Romero ignored my command and he was too strong for me. He shoved me against a wall inside the living room, his grip biting into my skin, his eyes hard and wild. “Stay here. Don’t move.”

“Lily and Fabi,” I gasped.

He nodded, then ducked and rushed back outside. I was shaking all over. Romero returned with my sister and brother, who clung to him desperately. I wrapped my arms around them tightly the moment they were at my side. And then my world tilted.

“Gianna,” I whispered.

Romero didn’t hear me. He was shouting into his phone. “Where? How many?” His face paled. “Fuck.” He turned to me, and his expression made my stomach drop. “The Russians are on the property. Too many for us. I’ll take you to the panic room in the basement where we’ll wait until backup arrives.”

He gripped my arm but I pulled away. “Take Fabi and Lily there. I need to warn Gianna.”

“You are my responsibility,” Romero hissed. Somewhere in the house glass shattered. Shots rang out.

“I don’t care. I won’t come with you. You will do as I say. Take them to the panic room. If something happens to Lily or Fabi, I will kill myself and nothing you or Luca or any other power in this world can do will change that. I want you to protect them. Keep them safe. That’s all that matters to me.”

“You should come with us.”

I shook my head. “I have to find Gianna.”

“Luca will be here soon.”

I knew that wasn’t true. “Go now!”

We stared at each other, then finally he turned to my siblings. “Stay down and follow my orders.”

Male voices screamed something in Russian, then more shots were fired. Cesare wouldn’t be able to keep them at bay for long if the number of voices were any indication.

Romero shoved a gun at me. I grabbed it, then I ducked and ran outside. Umberto’s blood covered the stone tiles but I didn’t look at his body. I hurried down the slope toward the bay when I noticed the vibrating of my phone. I pulled it out and pressed it to my ear as I scanned the beach for Gianna.

“Aria?” Luca’s worried voice sounded. “Are you safe?”

“They killed Umberto,” was the first thing out of my mouth.

“Where are you?”

“Searching for Gianna.”

“Aria, where’s Romero? Why isn’t he taking you to the panic room?”

“I have to find Gianna.”

“Aria,” Luca sounded desperate. “The Bratva wants you. Get into the panic room. I’m taking the helicopter. I’ll be there in twenty minutes. I’m already on the way.”

Luca would need more than twenty minutes even with a helicopter and he wouldn’t be able to take as many of his men with him, so there was no saying how long it would take him to fight his way into the mansion. There was the possibility that he would fail.

Gianna came running toward me, eyes wide.

“I can’t talk anymore,” I whispered.

“Aria—”

“What’s happening?” Gianna asked, as she stumbled against me.

“The Bratva.” I pulled her toward the dock where the boat was anchored. It would be safer to hide there than to go back inside and look for the panic room. The boards of the dock groaned under our weight as we walked toward the boat. But then Lily’s scream pierced the night and I froze. Gianna and I exchanged a glance. Without a word, we turned around and hurried back toward the house.

My heart hammered in my chest when we arrived on the loggia. The living room was deserted. I knelt beside Umberto and took his knives even as I shuddered. I handed one of them to Gianna and put the switchblade into my back pocket.

“Come on,” I whispered. I wasn’t even sure what Gianna and I were going to do once we got inside. I’d shot a gun once and I had handled a knife only when I’d sparred with Luca, that didn’t bode well in a fight against Russian mobsters. Yet I knew I wouldn’t be able to live with myself if I didn’t find Lily and Fabi.

Gianna and I crept inside. It was dark. Someone must have turned the lights off in the entire house. I held my breath but it was terrifyingly quiet. I approached the door that led into the lobby when an arm shot out and wrapped around my waist. I cried out, struggled, tried to angle the gun toward my attacker, but he twisted my wrist. Pain shot through my arm and the gun tumbled from my fingers. Gianna gasped behind me. I kicked out. A deep voice snarled at me in Russian. Oh God. My foot collided with his shin. He pushed me away but before I could catch my balance, his fist collided with my lips. My vision turned black and I dropped to my knees as blood filled my mouth and trickled over my chin, the warm salty taste making bile rise into my throat.

Fingers twisted into my hair and I was wrenched to my feet, crying out from the pain in my scalp. My attacker didn’t care. He dragged me into the lobby by my hair. I could see Gianna in the arms of another tall man. She was unconscious, a bruise already forming on her forehead.

I was thrown to the ground in front of jeans-clad legs and quickly peered up into a pockmarked face and cold blue eyes. “What’s your name, whore?” he asked in heavily accented English. Didn’t he recognize me? I supposed I looked different with blood all over my face. I stared back at him defiantly. He kicked me in the stomach and I toppled over, gasping for breath. “What’s your name?”

My eyes darted to a body to my right. Cesare. He was making gurgling noises, clutching at a bleeding wound in his stomach. I didn’t see Lily, Fabi or Romero anywhere and I hoped they’d made it to the panic room. At least, they would survive.

A hand gripped my chin and wrenched my head up. “Will you tell me your name or do I have to make Igor hurt her?” He nodded toward Gianna who lay on her side on the marble floor, blinking dazedly.

“Aria,” I said quietly.

“As in Aria Vitiello?” The man asked with a cruel smile.

I nodded. There was no use denying it. He said something in Russian and the men guffawed. My skin crawled from the way they were looking at me.

“Where are the others? Your shadow and the children?”

It took me a moment to realize whom he meant with shadow. “I don’t know,” I said.

Igor kicked Gianna. She screamed. Her eyes met mine and I could see she didn’t want me to say anything, but how could I watch them hurt her?