I smiled at the memory. “Remember when the cook woke up and found the mess Ariana made in the kitchen? Fuck, it looked like a hurricane hit the place.”
“And then we wanted to take the blame for her, but Luca stepped in.” Dominic gazed out the window with a wistful smile on his face. “He sure got a whipping for that one.”
“Do you think…” I began and stopped myself.
“She’ll be the same as she was back then,” he declared. “She has to be. She must be a nice girl. She couldn’t get all those good grades if she wasn’t.”
“A girl doesn’t have to be nice to get good grades. You’re such a sucker, Dom. I swear you’d lose your heart over a garden snail if I wasn’t around to straighten you out.”
He didn’t rise to the bait. He only smirked at me. “Did you see the way she acts with that friend of hers? She’s nice.” He clapped me on the shoulder. “You mark my words.”
I shook my head. We’d been staking her out since we found out where Matteo La Rosa was hiding. We’d both seen her enough around her friends and schoolmates.
I saw her being nice to all kinds of people, even total strangers, but I didn’t want to let my guard down in case she turned out to be a raving bitch instead.
“She’s the enemy,” I told my brother. “Her father killed our parents.”
His smile evaporated. “You don’t have to remind me.”
“Luca’s right. She should have been dead a long time ago to repay her dad for his crimes. If it comes to that, I’ll do it myself.”
Even as I said those words, doubt gnawed at my insides, and Dominic looked away. Did he suspect that I doubted it as much as him? Could I really cap Ariana La Rosa? I still didn’t know for sure.
Fortunately for me, a car pulled into the driveway at that moment, so I didn’t have to think about it. Dominic and I both raised our binoculars to our eyes.
“It’s Matteo!” Dominic whispered. “I knew it! They’re coming back from Europe early. They must know about the newspaper article.”
“Now’s our chance.” I dropped my binoculars, checked my sidearm in my armpit holster, and pulled on my leather gloves. “Let’s roll.”
Dominic and I swung out of the car, crossing the street fast. Matteo La Rosa and his wife went into the house and shut the door behind them. I signaled Dominic, and we slipped through the side gate to the backyard. We could hear yelling coming from the front entrance.
I pointed upward toward Ariana’s window, and Dominic nodded. A wooden balcony extended from her bedroom with a sliding glass door leading inside. It was the stupidest place in the world for someone to hide who wanted to escape mob justice.
I laced my fingers together and formed a step. Dominic planted his foot in my hands, and I boosted him onto the balcony. He leaned over and hoisted me up after him.
We flattened ourselves to the wall, and I peeked through the curtains. Ariana was racing around the room, stuffing clothes and toiletries into a suitcase. We were right. Matteo freaked when he saw the newspaper headline with Ariana’s picture plastered all over it. He must be planning on getting her away right now.
My heart stood still when I saw her. She looked as stunning in person as she did in her picture. Her chestnut hair swayed down to the middle of her back, and glowing green eyes sparkled in her fresh, ruddy face. She looked like a million bucks, even in her baggy T-shirt and sweatpants.
I couldn’t let Matteo take her away. Luca knew what he was doing when he ordered us to bring her to Boston where he could question her and include her in his plans.
Of course, he wanted her near him. What red-blooded man wouldn’t want her near him? She would be near me too once we got here there. All I had to do was get her out of this room and into the car.
I dodged out of sight when Ariana paused in the middle of the room to cast one last look around. Then she spun the other way and slumped down on the mattress. She buried her face in her hands and let out a shaky sigh.
I nodded to Dominic, and he nodded back. This was it. We would never get a better chance to ambush her.
I pulled a bottle of chloroform and a cotton handkerchief out of my pocket and poured a healthy dose of the stuff into the cloth. Dominic did the same thing in case one of us failed or missed. Then the other could swoop in and finish the job.
I eased the door open. The fumes stung my nostrils. Would Ariana smell them and turn around to catch us in the act of sneaking into her bedroom?
She gasped, and I froze in place, but she only pulled out her phone and muttered under her breath. “Jen! Now how am I gonna explain this?”
She started tapping at the screen, and a bomb went off in my head. I sprang forward and clamped the handkerchief over her nose and mouth. She tensed, and I moved in fast. I grabbed her by the back of the neck and pressed her head hard into the handkerchief.
She dropped her phone, letting out a muffled scream against my hand. Her fingers flew to my wrists, trying to rip my arms away, but Dominic caught her and wrestled her down on the bed.
She fell face down into the bedspread and went limp under me. The instant we got her subdued, a female voice shouted from downstairs. Her mother was calling her.