Chapter 98

CESARE

I crouch beside the mattress, dabbing sweat off Rosalind's brow. It's been hours since Tommy hurled the courier package against the wall, leaving us with a large supply of antidotes. Dr. Cortese's drug has plunged Rosalind into a state of accelerated withdrawal, giving her a low-grade fever. In her brief moments of consciousness, she alternates from having convulsions to being barely responsive.

Tommy thinks she's been poisoned and has allowed us bottled water. I picked up Dr. Cortese's box and found strips of ibuprofen glued to its base, along with chewable ginger tablets to help with nausea. As soon as Rosalind was stable enough to swallow, I crushed the tablets between my teeth and fed them to her, mixed with water.

Telling myself to concentrate on helping Rosalind through her withdrawal is futile, I know there's no way I can escape a mafia stronghold with an unconscious woman. No matter how much I try to stay in the moment, my mind keeps drifting to Miranda.

My little sister.

Everything I've learned so far about life in the Moirai has been terrible, and knowing the man who made Rosalind's life hell is still alive and has taken Miranda for revenge….

It's unthinkable.

She's an innocent child.

Rosalind groans, pulling me back to the present. Her eyes flutter open, revealing dull irises set within bloodshot whites. The drugs have sapped her strength, and I've never seen her look so weakened, not even when she was my captive. She tries to push herself up on her elbows, but I ease her back down on the mattress.

"Take it easy." I run my fingers through her hair.

"Miri," she croaks. "You have to convince Tommaso to do the swap."

Even in her weakened state, she's determined to save Miranda. I grit my teeth, forcing back a surge of fury. Tommy refuses to set aside his thirst for power to save his own niece.

Leaning into Rosalind, I whisper, "I'm working on something, love. If my plan goes right, we'll restore you to health and get Miranda back ourselves."

Her pained whimper is a knife to the chest. I can't believe I once wanted to see this woman break. Now, all I want to do is protect her from any more pain.

"You're going through withdrawal, love," I whisper into her ear.

She grimaces, seeming to understand.

"I went through something similar. You'll come out of it, just like I did."

"Rehab?" she whispers back.

"Benito and Gil locked me in a room like this for a month and forced me to go cold turkey."

She shudders.

"It wasn't as bad as this," I add with a chuckle. "Sofia brought me different soups every day and Gil kept me entertained with horror movies."

My smile fades when I remember this was the time Matty Galliano first reached out with text messages, wanting to talk. He wasn't so pushy back then because his other children were still alive.

"They made us go through withdrawal at the academy, too," she murmurs into my chest. "Only there was no naked man on call to help me through the symptoms."

I tighten my arms around her and press a kiss into the top of her head.

She trembles. At first, I think it's another wave of withdrawal, but then hot tears spill on my chest. I cradle her closer, my fingers threading through her damp hair.

"I'm sorry," I whisper into her ear. "We'll get through it. She's a lot stronger than you think."

"You don't understand," she sobs. "Gunther is furious about what we did. What if he takes out his anger on Miranda?"

My jaw clenches. That thought has also been racing through my mind. We reduced his power base into a smoking crater. "He wouldn't dare, knowing you have powerful allies. Miranda had to grow up fast. She's a survivor."

The locks on the door click, breaking our moment.

"Don't move," I whisper.

Not waiting for her to nod, I rise off the mattress, making sure to cover her with the sheet. As far as the Galliano family knows, Rosalind is still under the influence of a tainted batch of benzo.

Matty walks in, holding Rosalind's phone, flanked on either side by a pair of armed men in black suits. He's dressed in a tan safari suit buttoned up to the neck with a white cravat identical to his brothers.

"Cesare, you look so beautiful naked."

Disgust ripples through my gut. I step back, resisting the urge to cover my junk. "What kind of fucking comment is that?"

"That Moirai bastard still has my Miriam," he says. "He could be doing anything to your sister."

A shudder runs down my spine at the chilling image, but I keep my face neutral.

"Tommy told me she wasn't of strategic importance."

Matty presses his lips together, his jaw tightening. It's the same expression he made when I told him Tommy ordered my assassination along with Benito and Roman. The more discord I can create between the brothers, the better chance Rosalind and I have to take them down.

"Tommy doesn't get to make decisions about my children," Matty snarls.

I nod. "So, we're getting her back?"

His eyes soften. "Will you help me make the handover?"

My chest squeezes at the thought of putting Rosalind in danger, but it's in line with what she wants and part of my plan to free Miranda while taking down the Gallianos. Sucking in a deep breath, I draw out the tension.

"I'll help, but we're going to need something to eat, as well as our phones and clothes."

He turns to the larger of his men. "Gio, pick her up and put her in the back of the car."

Gio swaggers toward Rosalind, but I step in his path. "Clothes first, and no one touches her but me."

An hour later, after Matty insisted that I give Rosalind another dose of Dr. Cortese's ruined batch, I'm carrying her out of the mansion and into a courtyard surrounded by low shrubs.

A full moon hangs high in the cloudless sky, illuminating the swathes of rolling hills surrounding the mansion. We're in the middle of nowhere, and the only route out of this deserted location is by car.

Matty leads the way with Gio at his side, their cowboy boots clicking on the gravel.

A bearded asshole named Nino shoves a gun at my back. "No funny business."

"How would you like me to stick that gun up your ass and fire?" I growl.

Matty's feet make an abrupt stop. He turns around, his features hardening into a mask of fury. "Cesare is my son, and you will give him his due respect."

Nino lowers his gun. "Sorry, Mr. Galliano."

Matty gives me what he thinks is a reassuring smile.

I'm too preoccupied with Rosalind to curl my lip at his attempt to create a familial bond. She's getting stronger. I can tell that much from the way she wraps her arms around my neck and how her muscles tense in preparation to attack.

She's triggered by his voice, but I can't let her react. They may not know she's an assassin, but they know she's dangerous. The only reason she isn't shackled or restrained is because they think she's reacting badly to the tampered benzo.

"The sooner we get moving, the sooner we'll save the girl," I say.

Matty's eyes soften, and the corners of his lips lift at the prospect of getting his gloved hands on a child.

He looks like a specter in the moonlight, a parasitical human clinging to existence, feeding on the lives and souls of innocent women. I'll make sure he dies before he gets the chance to lay those beady eyes on Miranda.

At the sound of tires rolling over gravel, Matty's attention switches to a black limo approaching from further down the driveway. It stops in front of us, and the driver hurries out to open the back passenger door.

"Lay her on the back seat," Matty says.

Nino steps forward to take her out of my hands, but I sidestep. "Do I have to repeat myself? No one touches her but me."

He pauses, his beady eyes flickering with annoyance, but backs off to let me place her on the seat. I sit beside her, arranging her head on my lap, but another door swings open, and Gio presses a gun into the back of my head.

"You're driving," he sneers.