“Roger that,” Constantine answered, giving away the fact we were on comms, right on cue as planned.
“I was wondering why I didn’t see any guards when we came,” she steadily said. “They were hiding and waiting. Your people won’t be able to handle the Brambillas. There’s too many of them.”
“The Brambillas?” Giovanni asked in surprise.
“Who do you think I cut a deal with thirteen years ago to help me turn lemons into fucking lemonade?” Alice returned, and my father had to block my path to her yet again, which had the venomous woman smiling, thinking she was untouchable.
“I didn’t know any of this,” Giovanni quickly revealed.
“Of course you didn’t. You’ve spent too much time golfing and traveling to know I’ve been the real reason we’ve survived so long. It’s the deals I’ve been making with the Brambillas over the years that kept us afloat,” she went on, but then she surrendered a small flinch when an explosion just outside rattled the room, and I looked over to see a speedboat on fire.
Hudson never missed his mark. Thank God.
“Another deal I made with them,” Alice remarked, “is that you retire, Papa. I’m taking over. Not Nico. I’m done waiting. It’s—”
“You set everything in motion.” I cut off her solo act as realization struck me.
“It’s been years of promises from the Brambillas that they’d help me push Dad out. I was done waiting.”
“So you gave the Brambillas the motivation they needed,” I said in disbelief. “You set up the cleaner. Revealed his location. Waited for the right time to make your move.” That’s how Jesse’s team found him in the first place. The cleaner was always the bait. How long had she been keeping tabs on me? Preparing her plan? She’d used my career change, and the fact I’d stopped looking over my shoulder long ago, to her advantage.
She really had been playing chess. But like hell would I let her call checkmate.
Giovanni remained quiet, coming to terms with the fact he’d missed the signs when it came to his own flesh and blood going off the deep end. “You planning to kill me, Alice?” he asked her. “Because that’s the only way you’ll get rid of me.” He grabbed hold of a weapon from beneath his suit jacket and pointed it at her, seemingly on our side in all of this.
Alice kept steady, not faltering even though she had us and her father to deal with. “You won’t hurt me.”
“Do you really think you’re walking out of this room alive?” Constantine asked, breaking his silence.
“Absolutely. Because I’m seconds away from having what you want. Or I should say who you’ll do anything for.” The only real devil in the room was her, and I realized I didn’t belong in hell, she did. And I’d be sending her there soon. “Nice trick with the two vehicles,” she went on. “I knew you wouldn’t let the women be here for our meeting, whether you were aware of the truth or not.”
My turn for the surprise. The corners of my mouth lifted, and a smirk slid across my lips, which had Alice taking a step back, recognition dawning on her. “You didn’t send them away,” she said under her breath. “The vehicles are decoys.”
I exchanged a quick look with Constantine and nodded, letting him know it was time for phase two of the plan. Our turn to join the battle. He reached into his pocket for the remote detonator.
“Alice?” I waited for her to look at me. “We knew it was you before you walked into the house.” Thanks to Maria’s last-minute warning. “We just didn’t know if Nico and Giovanni were complicit,” I revealed right before we dropped to our knees and ducked behind the desk, anticipating the blast that’d soon knock them off their feet.
THIRTY
Maria
Thirty Minutes Before
“What are you doing?” I whispered when Enzo opened the SUV door inside the garage and grabbed my free hand, pulling me out seconds after leaving me speechless with his “I love you.”
“It’s a mistake to send you away,” Enzo rushed out. “My head was off. We’re all . . . a bit off.” He squeezed my hand. “You can’t leave. You’re right. You’re safer near me.”
Alessandro exited the front seat and Isabella and her mom joined us by the vehicle.
“They’ve been ahead of us this whole time,” Enzo said. “What if they have eyes in the sky and follow the SUV and use them to get to us?”