She moved through the spacious kitchen with its hardwood floors, white cabinets, white marble counters and the double sliding glass doors surrounded by rustic wood that matched the overhead hand-hewn beams. Outside, on the patio, two five-man teams were in the act of consulting with their team leaders in an effort to find a way through the house’s defenses.
“They obviously thought, with so much glass, it would be easier to gain entry,” Leone said. “The man in the blue is the team leader. He’s got a layout of the house.” He fit binoculars to his eyes to bring the document closer. “It’s newer, looks like they bribed someone Elie paid to make changes.”
“He wouldn’t have shown security changes,” Raimondo declared. “Emilio and our crews handled all of that. Whatever printout he has doesn’t show anything of use to him.”
“It shows enough,” Brielle contradicted. “He had the safe room built downstairs off the master bedroom and another one upstairs. He also created space in between the walls. That was done by carpenters. Whoever took that money for the blueprints knew the location of the safe rooms.”
“She’s right about that,” Leone admitted. He immediately sent the information to Elie. “Who would be stupid enough to cross the Ferraro family, the Saldis and Dario Bosco?”
Brielle took as many photographs as she could, zooming in to get the individual faces as clearly as possible. At first, the men weren’t aware of being observed because the three of them were hanging back in the shadows of the kitchen. Once one of the men noticed them, one of the team leaders walked right up to the sliding glass door, took out a gun and held it up to the height of Brielle’s forehead. He pulled the trigger repeatedly.
She smiled at him, held her phone up and snapped his photograph repeatedly. Then she sent the picture to every Ferraro she knew before sending it to Elie, Val and Dario. She held up her phone to show a picture of Stefano walking her down the aisle to Elie and she smiled again, pointed to the shooter and made the age-old gesture of someone cutting a throat—namely his.
Once she was done, Brielle turned and walked out of the kitchen. “I’ll just be a minute. I’m running upstairs to get my laptop. Even if they know where the safe room is and they break into the house, I would assume they can’t get into it, right? Or would I be safer in a shadow?”
Leone texted Elie immediately, frowning as he and Raimondo closed ranks behind her, so none of the would-be assassins could even think of getting a shot at Brielle. She shook her head, but kept walking around the long counter that would take her out of sight of the sliding glass doors.
“Do you think the picture of me with Stefano scared him a little bit?”
“It should. I’d be afraid of messing with Ferraros. Everyone knows that’s a death sentence. They just don’t understand how it happens,” Raimondo said.
“The Archambaults are the acknowledged fastest and deadliest riders in the world,” Brielle said. “I don’t understand why they aren’t feared throughout the world in the same way the Ferraros are. It’s never made sense to me. None of the other families are as feared as the Ferraros.”
Leone shrugged. “You’d have to ask the council that question. Or Stefano. Even Elie might be able to tell you. I certainly can’t. I do know outsiders are afraid of the Ferraros because they believe them to be a crime family, they just don’t understand how they work. Only that if you cross them, you don’t live through it.”
Once back in the office, Brielle sent another message to Elie. She didn’t want to take her equipment apart if she didn’t need to. I sent pictures to your phone. I sent the team leader to Stefano, his brothers and M as well as Val and Dario, just to warn him we had friends.
Am outside now. M’s with me. Val and Dario are nearly here. They’re coming through a private drive unseen. We asked the Ferraros to pass on this one.
Brielle’s heart jumped. She left her laptop on her desk and went to the huge glass wall overlooking the lake to look down at the patio below. The intruders had spread out. Most had donned climbing gear and were moving around to various positions, clearly planning to scale the outside walls.
She paid attention to the way the shadows fell across the grass. The large ominous cloud had grown, throwing a dark, brooding mass of purple and blue into the sky. Shadows fell across the grasses on the shore and the rolling lawn leading to the patio, striping it in places and putting blotches in others. One of the stripes led straight to an intruder as he stepped close to the stone fireplace. He placed one hand on it and then a foot. A figure much shorter than he was shimmered to life directly behind him. Emmanuelle raised her arms, her hands catching him perfectly on his jaw and skull as she snapped his neck. She lowered his body to the ground and was gone.