Chapter 16

16

MONA

I lie in bed, unable to sleep. All I can think about is Matteo and what might be happening right this very second. I toss and turn until I finally give up and decide to go make some tea. When I open the bedroom door, I freeze when I see a figure standing in the hallway outside Riley's door.

"It's me." Nikolai flips on the hallway light. I notice blood on the corner of his mouth and right eyebrow. But more than that, I see that he's holding a gun.

"What are you doing?"

"I think the better question is, what is Riley doing?" Nikolai tries the handle on her door without knocking, but it doesn't open.

"The hell are you doing?" I rush toward him as he lifts his foot, kicking the door right in. "Stop!" I grab the back of his shirt, but it does nothing but slip right out of my grasp. I fall back on my ass into the hallway. Riley shoots up from the bed, trying to blink away the sleep.

"Nikolai?" She rubs her eyes.

"Where is it?" He towers over her on the bed. Riley scoots until her back hits the headboard.

"You got them?" Sal shouts from down the hallway. He's stumbling toward me. I see blood running down his arm. Sal, too, has a gun in his hand.

"Where is it?" Nikolai leans down, getting right into Riley's face. "Tell me and your punishment won't be so bad."

"What is wrong with you?" I get to my feet.

"Stop!" Sal leans against the wall to prop himself up. I ignore him, rushing into the room.

"Don't." Nikolai turns and shoots me a glare, his eyes dark as night. I halt in my tracks. He turns his attention back to my sister.

"I don't know what you're talking about," she whispers.

"Fine." He grabs her wrist, pulling her from the bed. Nikolai lets out a string of curses. "What are you wearing?" Riley is only in a pair of panties and a tee.

"I was sleeping," Riley snips back at him. Nikolai pulls his own shirt off before putting it on her. "My glasses." She grabs them off the nightstand. Without them, Riley can't see for shit. Nikolai snatches them out of her hand.

"What else did you bring with you from your old life?" Riley's brows furrow together.

"She has a tracker." Sal coughs out, giving me insight into what the hell Nikolai is going crazy about.

"Sal!" Riley notices him in the hallway. She goes to run to him, but Nikolai snags her around the waist, lifting her off her feet to stop her. He pulls her snug against himself when she tries to fight to get away. Her feet dangle a few inches from the ground.

"I'm all right, Red."

"What the fuck you call her?" Nikolai barks.

"Oh my God! Focus." I throw my hands up.

"There is only one way your brother knows the two of you are here," Nikolai says. "Now, what did you bring with you?"

"Nothing. You all kidnapped me. I only had what was on me, which was my clothes."

"Those aren't here." We had to get Riley new things. She's not lying. They took her with nothing else but what was on her body.

"The glasses." Nikolai drops them on the floor before stomping on them.

"No." Riley lets out a whimper.

"Mad he can't track you now?" Nikolai drops her back onto the bed, bending down to check the glasses.

"I can't see, you jerkface!" Riley throws a pillow at him. He bats it away, standing with a tiny chip on the end of his finger.

"This." He shows Riley.

"I. Can't. See!" She punctuates each word.

"They must have put it on her," I tell Nikolai. His whole body is tense. He's like a bomb about to go off, and I really don't want to see that. I didn't miss the scars that looked like slashes across his back. I get a sense that Nikolai can be scary when provoked.

"I hate them. I would never do anything to help them or risk my sister's life." Riley sinks down onto the bed. She's right; neither one of us would knowingly do anything to help our family. In fact, they're not our family. They never were.

Nikolai goes into the bathroom. A second later, I hear the toilet flush. "Come on," he orders, but he doesn't wait for Riley to get up. He plucks her off the bed.

"What's happening?" I block Nikolai's path to the door.

"Your brother is in the building."

"Where's Matteo?" Before Nikolai can respond, I hear gunfire. Nikolai lets out another string of Russian. Sal steps into the room and checks his own gun, and I hear it cock.

"Stay with them," Sal orders.

"You're fucking hurt. I'll go." Nikolai puts Riley back down. "Keep your little ass in this room," he half-growls at her. I move out of his way. Nikolai steps out into the hallway. The second he does, he lifts his gun and fires two shots. Riley screams.

"It's fine," Nikolai says nonchalantly like he knocked a vase over or something. He drops his arm down to his side. "I didn't kill him."

"But I will." I hear Matteo's voice. I rush out into the hallway to see Matteo standing over a body. It groans before trying to get up. My eyes lock with the same ones I see in the mirror every day.

"You think you can come into my home?" Matteo grabs him from off the floor by the hair of his head. I see the gunshot wounds in Aidan's leg. I almost don't recognize Matteo. "Come for my wife and child." Matteo brings a knife to my brother's neck. I stand there, unable to look away.

"In the room." Nikolai pushes my sister back into the bedroom where she'd poked her head out. It's then Matteo notices me standing at the end of the hallway. My brother does too.

"Mona," he calls out to me.

"Speak to her again and I'll cut your fucking tongue out." This is the Matteo Cattaneo I've heard stories about. "Go back to the bedroom, amore mio." His tone softens when he speaks to me.

I cock my head to the side. If I want to be this man's wife, to live this life, I need to show him that I can.

"Okay, love." I give him a smile. "Don't stay out too late. I love you."

He smirks.

"I love you too, little rabbit."

I turn my back on Aidan O'Haire. The same way he has always done when it comes to me and Riley. The family name dies with him.

I was born to be a Cattaneo. That has always been my fate.