It was only a few minutes later when the keycard was slipped into the lock and the door was shoved open fast. Two men stepped inside, weapons drawn, Armando Lupez behind them, his nose crooked and very swollen, both eyes already looking bruised. He was also armed. Their gazes thoroughly swept what appeared to be an empty room and then they lowered their weapons and grinned at one another, carefully closing the door.
“Little bitches haven’t come home yet,” Armando said. “Rocko, check the other rooms just to be sure. Jorge, stay with me in case they come in.”
“Maybe they went running to the plane?” Rocko suggested as he started toward the library.
“Not without their clothes and jewelry.” Armando snickered. “These are rich little bitches, don’t go anywhere without their things.”
Taviano chose a shadow that would slide in right behind Rocko. He entered the library before Rocko because the tube was fast, but it gave him that moment to collect himself before the man crept in, his gun once more in his fist, sweeping the room, coming in deeper in order to make certain no one was hiding behind any of the chairs. Taviano emerged from the shadows behind him, caught his head in his hands and, using the signature move of all shadow riders, broke the man’s neck.
“Justice is served,” he murmured softly and lowered the body to the floor.
Dispensing justice in a hotel room rented to the Ferraros was strictly forbidden. They were always protected. They always had alibis. Stefano was going to lose his mind over this one, and frankly, Taviano wasn’t certain how this was all going to be explained. Hopefully his cousins in Los Angeles had cleaners in their family as good as those of the Ferraros in Chicago. Pia and Bianca couldn’t see any of the bodies and couldn’t know the men had actually come there to find them. They had to think the gang members had never found them. He counted on Nicoletta to provide some sort of distraction.
He stepped into the shadow and took it back into the living room and rode it straight behind Armando Lupez. He was second-in-command to Benito Valdez, and no matter which chapter he was visiting, he would be in charge. No one was going to want to tell Benito that Armando was dead. That would throw everyone into total chaos. Jorge would run straight back to wherever they had taken Clariss, giving Taviano the opportunity to follow.
“Rocko, what’s taking so long?” Jorge demanded, turning toward the library. He took several steps in that direction when there was no sound. Both men had seen Rocko enter, and he hadn’t come back out.
Armando exchanged a long look with Jorge, and both once more drew their weapons and started toward the library, coming up on either side of the door. The Demons risked a look through the open door, but the room appeared to be empty. Armando indicated for Jorge to enter first. Jorge nodded and stepped inside, immediately going to his right to give Armando a clear shot if anyone should leap out at him. He began to make his way slowly around the furniture in the room. Suddenly he stopped, his eyes on the body on the floor.
Taviano rode the shadow directly behind Armando. He waited a moment, right in the mouth of the tube, breathing deeply, collecting his body, letting the pain in his arm dissolve along with the sickness from traveling such a gut-wrenching, fast shadow, before stepping right behind Benito’s right-hand lieutenant, catching his neck in both hands and delivering the signature kill.
Riders began training as toddlers. It wasn’t as easy as it looked in movies to break a neck, and that particular move was introduced even when they were young, just two, in games and in the strict training regimes they underwent. They practiced endlessly all their lives, and even now, they continued to train.
Taviano broke Armando Lupez’s neck fast and professionally and lowered him to the floor gently. “Justice is served.” He slipped back into the shadows. He needed to be able to follow Jorge when he ran, and he was going to run.
He rode a shadow into the bedroom. Pia and Bianca were in the bathroom. Nicoletta was sitting in front of the bathroom door, looking very determined.
“They’re sitting in the bathtub with the doors closed around them.”
“Clever girl. I knew you would think of something.”
“It suddenly occurred to me if you had to—” She broke off and looked back at the door to the bathroom, shrugging. “It was just smarter to make certain no one saw or heard anything.”
“You have to go with the cousins, tesoro …”
She shook her head. “Don’t protest. Just listen. Clariss has been with them too long. I know what they’re probably doing to her. I’ve been through it. She’ll need me. A woman with her. I can’t let her be raped, possibly tortured, and not be there for her. I have to go, Taviano. Please understand.”