DANI“Get down!”I froze for a moment. My heart stopped to a halt as I tried to process what she meant by those words. It was not complicated, but I was caught by my fear first.I sucked in a breath as the sharp brief hiss sound pierced in the vehicle. The glass window broke. One moment, I was holding my breath, and the next second, I had blood all over my face, and the driver’s head just dropped to the steering wheel.Without blinking, I froze there and stared in shock. Then I started to shake. A bullet hole appeared in the window. Simultaneously, Celestina shrieked behind me, making me scream. The giant man Durragh just fell on top of her.I went down, covered my head, and squeezed my eyes shut while screaming silently. I didn’t want to hear any more gunfire. My instinct kicked in so late. I had poor survival skills. I wasn’t raised to face my fear or to be in this kind of environment. After marrying Terzo, I’d been kidnapped, fired at, choked to death, and kidnapped again. I had
TERZO“What is this time, Siciliano?” Linden’s playful voice came through. “Did you actually help a Russian bratva escape?”“Why does everyone think I would do such a thing after I put him there in the first place? But I have a more pressing matter at hand, Linden. I was hoping you could help me. I don’t have much time to explain.”“Of course. What is it?” “My computer expert is not around at this moment. I want the exact location of this plate number.” I gave him the number.“Give me a minute.” He then told his assistant not to disturb him. “Are you in some kind of trouble, Siciliano?”“You could say that. My house was blown up. My father is in a safe house recovering. My wife and my sister were kidnapped by an Irish lunatic, and I’m trying to find them.”“Wait. What? All done by this Irishman?” I heard keyboards clicking in the background.“Yes. A tall, white Irishman with white hair in his seventies, whom I never thought was lying to me all this time. I have a feeling he was worki
DANIThe SUV’s door was ajar. Aidan and his men were still waiting for us. I expected him to be gone by now that he got the money. I was surprised that he may have other plans for us. He would probably kill now that he was a hundred-million-dollar rich. I inwardly prayed, hoping the manager would relay my message. He was the only hope for Terzo to find us.“Now you get what you want, let Celestina go. Call your man to release her,” I demanded, frustration obvious in my voice.“Get in.” Aidan’s driver pushed and stuffed me back inside the SUV. This time, they did not put a bag over my head.“I’m not letting you go until I’m out of this island.” Aidan’s expression darkened. “You’re coming with me.”“I’m, huh? What about your men? They don’t matter anymore? What about the plan of sharing the hundred million dollars with them? How was it? 70-30?”“Shut up, bitch.” The giant man who escorted me earlier hit me in the head.“Don’t do that again. We still need her alive,” Aidan growled. “I k
TERZO“Son of a bitch. How did he fool us all?” Gio shook his head as he typed something on his phone. “I can do it faster. I’ll create his profile using AI.”“Great idea,” Tristan said. A minute later, Gio showed me an AI image he created. “Close enough. I’m sending it to everyone.”“Tell them not to approach. He is armed and dangerous. Just send his location to us, and we’ll get it from there.” I climbed into the SUV.“I’m sure he was not Ronan. That son of a bitch. I will kill him myself.” Gio joined me, carrying the military-grade rugged laptop.I called Massimo. “Take care of my father, okay? If anyone suspiciously approaches the gate, shoot them. No questions asked. This compound is rigged with tripped wires. You know when someone climbed from the cliff. Call me immediately.” The SUV drove off out of the gate. One more vehicle followed. I knew my father would be safe in the basement. The house was built to withstand calamities, even a nuclear blast, but I was worried that my
TERZO“Old man with an accent?” My stomach dropped. “Are you sure about it?” “I was very convincing. I told him I will have his family taken from his wife to his dog.” Gio shrugged. “Are we thinking the same old man?”“We should have checked him out before we went to Ireland. Fuck.” My hand formed into a fist. “And he followed us here?”“Then who the fuck is he? Why is he doing all this?”I drew a deep breath. I lost focus. I was too eager to help Dani, and I missed the important clues. “Now it made perfect sense. What doesn’t add up is the book. For a caretaker, he knows a lot of things, and of all people, why would Cillian trust him with a book? He even knew the trip to Türkiye. Son of a bitch.” I growled out. My stomach lurched at the thought that Dani was really the target. Violent anger churned inside me as the image of her, so terrified, began to torment me.“He took advantage of Dani’s unrecovered memory. He was probably the one who broke the drawers. He’s good. He made us bel
DANI“So you will let her die for money? You have five seconds to decide, Dani. 100 million dollars or her life?” “I will give you the hundred million dollars right now if I have it, but I don’t.” My chin trembled, and tears streaked down my cheeks.“I know you got your father’s money. One. Two—”“Wait. Wait. I can’t access the account from here. It’s a little complicated, but I can transfer the money from the bank.” I rushed out my words before he could shoot Celestina. “I swear.”“You’re lying. You’re stalling. Your husband is not coming here to rescue you if this is what’s all about. He hasn’t figured it out until now.”“Trust me. I don’t care about money—”Aidan pulled the trigger and shot Celestina. The gunfire jolted me, and my heart thundered in my chest. She screamed. Her arm bled, blood dripping from the wound down to the floor.“Son of a bitch!” I yelled at Aidan, but it didn’t even bother him. I cried in anger and helplessness to stop him from hurting Celestina. “I will fu