Page 58 of Twisted Throne
“Can we keep them out of the house for that long?”
“We’ll have to,” Frank answered grimly.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Gia
“So they said that they have Alec locked up somewhere?” Elena spoke up.
“Y-yeah, that’s what they said. Shit, Elena, I’m sorry,” Lucy twirled her long hair back and forth around her fingers. If she tugged at it much harder she was going to yank out a clump.
“We just wanted to get you first, now we can go to Angelo or Paul and find out more about what’s going on. I’m sure this is some kind of mistake.” I tried to sound reassuring, although my limited interactions with Alec made it fairly easy to believe he could turn out to be the bad guy in all of this. But in this world, isn’t everyone one of the bad guys?
“What do you know about what happened at the docks? Do you know what went wrong down there?” Elena looked fierce, despite the worry in her eyes.
“What are you talking about?” Lucy shot a look at me. “Who cares about whatever happened at the damn dock? Your husband is in some deep shit!”
“I know, it’s just a lot to take in, that’s all,” Elena said calmly. “I thought maybe something had gone wrong when they went out that night. If so, it could help us get to the bottom of all of this.”
“Frank was talking to Ricky earlier this morning and said nothing happened down at the docks. They blew up some warehouse full of guns and shit across town instead.” Lucy shrugged.
“So nothing happened with the three shipments at the docks?” Elena stood up.
“No, I don’t think so, that’s not what Frank and Ricky were saying anyway.” Lucy gave Elena a longer look, her brows pulling together.
“Look, Elena.” I stood and approached her cautiously, the way you walk up to a stray dog when you don’t know if it’s friendly or not. “We need to go find out what’s happening, okay? Me and Lucy will go with you and we’ll all go talk to Angelo together and get everything straightened out.”
Elena opened her mouth and took a breath. Whatever she meant to say, though, vanished under a loud popping noise.
The three of us froze in place, listening intently.
We heard nothing but silence for what seemed like an eternity, and then two more cracks resounded and men started to shout outside.
Lucy jumped up so fast that she knocked her chair over. “Fuck! That was gunfire!”
If I didn’t know better, I’d say she looked almost excited by the thought.
Shit. I did know better.
Another round rang out. It sounded like it was just outside the window, and we moved as one and hit the floor by animal instinct. As soon as there was another pause, Elena jumped up and grabbed both Lucy and me by our arms and hauled us upright.
“Come on, we have to get you two somewhere safer,” she called as she dashed out of the room, dragging us behind her.
“Jesus, Elena! Let go of me! I can walk by myself!” Lucy jerked her arm free from Elena but stayed behind her as we followed her out into the upstairs hallway.
There was no one upstairs, but we heard more shots from outside, and men yelling out orders from the first floor below us. Just as we reached the door to Elena’s suite, a tall man in a dark gray suit appeared at the top of the servants' stairs at the opposite end of the hall, pistol drawn. The three of us skidded to a stop. Lucy was behind Elena, and I slowly inched up beside her, trying to nudge her behind me as best as I could.
“Davide!” Elena exclaimed in surprise.
The man frowned and lowered his gun slightly, but kept it trained on us.
“They aren’t supposed to be he–”
Before he had completed his sentence, Elena pulled a gun from a hidden holster on her thigh and shot him through the throat. He dropped like a rock, gurgling as blood spurted out onto the polished floor.
“Move!” Elena ran into her room across the hall from mine and shut and locked the door as soon as Lucy and I followed her through.behind us.
“What the fuck is that going to do against a bullet, Elena!” Lucy screeched. “We could have just stayed in Gia’s room!”