David and Killian had whipped around at the sound of her falling. I slammed the van’s door shut. “Fucking drive,” I snarled. “Get us the hell out of here.”
David pressed on the gas, the tires squealing against the pavement.
29
SIENNA
For the second time that week, I found myself waking with a pounding headache, pain flaring along my body. Groaning, I turned, feeling the soft fabric of bedsheets beneath me. Opening my eyes, I found myself back at the safe house, in my bedroom. The room was dark, the only light faintly filtering in through the window from the street lamps outside. Mentally, I checked myself over, making sure I wasn’t injured—or shot again—but I seemed fine. Just tired.
Then the memories came pouring in. I jolted upright, gasping. Searching the floor, I looked for my purse. It had been tossed beside the bed. Bending over the side, I riffled through it, trying to find my phone. Even though I knew it was real, I had to see the message again for myself. I needed to see hard proof of what happened.
My search came up empty. My phone wasn’t here, but the memory was. Pain shot through my heart, and the air caught in my throat. The Snake had warned me to stop Dante from searching in the back, or my family would pay the ultimate price. And I had been too late.
A sob broke past my lips. I tried to stifle it with my hand, pressing my fingers against my mouth until I felt the sharp sting of my teeth against my lips. My fingers came away smeared with red, and all I could picture was the color splattered across my mother’s body. Gemma’s face.
Stomach churning, I rushed to the bathroom, making it just in time before emptying its contents into the toilet. When I’d finished, I slumped against the bathtub, hugging my knees to my chest. Someone had changed me out of the dress I’d worn to the auction. I was back in my shorts and tank-top, the stitches across my arm bared to the world.
I didn’t know how long I sat there, staring blankly at the cabinet sink. I felt too exhausted to try and get up to check on the others. There was no use in trying anymore—I’d lost everything. My father, my mother, my best friend, and my underboss. There was nothing left. Without them, there was no point in trying anymore.
The Snake would win. That much was clear now. We had tried—and failed—to take them out time and time again, and it had all been for nothing. We weren’t any closer to killing the Snake than we had been when this first started. I didn’t understand how they were always one step ahead, always in front of us.
Loss hit like an arrow to the heart. It made me too weak to move, exhaustion and despair pinning me to the floor. I thought about my father and my mother. I remembered my father’s strength, his wisdom. I clung to my mother’s kindness, her understanding. Those memories alone could not fill the gaping hole in my chest, the loneliness that crashed down around me.
Unable to be alone any longer, I stood on shaky legs. No one was in their rooms when I knocked. Assuming they were downstairs, I stumbled down, fighting back against the exhaustion. I found them in the living room, David taking over the chair, his head in his hands, with the brothers crowded on the couch. Guns were laid out on the table as if forgotten, stray bullets littering the glass surface. Dante’s head snapped up as soon as I entered, eyes searching.
Seeing them all look as dejected and defeated as I felt sent a rush of rage through me. Now more than ever, we had to keep fighting back. I had nothing left to lose.
“You shouldn’t be up,” Dante said quietly. His hand reached out, leading me to him. “You should go back to bed.”
I shook my head. “I can’t rest now. Not after what happened.”
Killian and David exchanged looks, shifting in their seats. “Are you sure you can do this?” David asked. “We would understand if you—if you need to go home.”
My eyes flashed. “Right now, I have no home except this one. There’s no going back. My mother and Gemma are probably dead. Mateo is still missing. I have no one but you guys. And I’m not leaving.”
“Why shouldn’t we leave?” Killian shot back. “Every time we’ve attempted to finally catch the bastard, they pull one over on us. That auction was a set-up. It was all over the damn news. The Snake sent in assassins to find you two. The only reason why they didn’t succeed was because you disappeared into those offices.” His face looked strained. “You really could have died tonight.”
Dante’s grip on my waist tightened. “I wouldn’t have let that happen.”
“You wouldn’t be able to defend Sienna from six men,” Killian snapped. “No matter how well trained you are.”
“I’ve faced worse odds,” Dante growled. “They wouldn’t have succeeded.”
Killian shot to his feet, pacing beside the coffee table. “You think you actually beat those men before? From what I heard, their orders were to keep the two of you alive. You wouldn’t have walked away otherwise.” His fingers raked through his hair. “This is fucking insane.”
“If you want to run away, then, by all means, there’s the door.” Dante glowered at his brother, lip curling. “But I didn’t think my own blood would be this much of a coward.”
“I’m not a coward,” Killian snapped. “I’m being realistic.”
“I can’t just leave,” David muttered. The brothers glanced over at him. “The Snake killed my family, too. I can’t just walk away now.” He caught my eye.
I nodded subtly, letting him know I understood completely. “We have to keep trying.”
“Tonight wasn’t a total loss,” Dante said, pulling out his phone. He swiped it open, the screen lighting up, casting sharp shadows across his face. He passed the phone to me, letting me see what he pulled up.
My eyes scanned the pictures, not entirely understanding what I was seeing. There were transcripts that looked as if they’d been pulled from phone records. Messages with orders. Receipts for transactions to off-short accounts. News articles of my father’s and Dante’s parents’ deaths. Each printed page had the same snake logo at the top. The phone dropped from my hand, slipping into my lap.
“This is—”