Page 47 of His Wicked Wants (West Coast Mobsters #6)

CHAPTER 43

GAbrIEL

I’ve walked this tunnel many times during the restoration, and never has it felt safe . But it does now. It’s a strange thing to feel in this tight, dark place, but there’s a part of me that wants to stay down here in the silent earth. To stay in this liminal place between Nero and Julian behind me and the Retreat at the other end; between the earth below and the war going on overhead. And as I walk on, trying to hurry but needing to be cautious of my footing, I’m certain for a moment that the passage will never end. I’ll be walking this tunnel for the rest of eternity.

And the idea doesn’t horrify me. It comforts me.

So it’s almost a shock when I come to the end, to the door that will send me through to the other side. For a moment I don’t want to leave this passage between the worlds.

But I can’t hide anymore.

The door, hidden in what looks like a maintenance block, opens at the touch of a button. It’s only a few feet away from the deck stairs at the back of the house, near the path that leads into the redwoods. I pause for a moment to make sure the coast is clear, and then I run quickly and quietly up the deck stairs.

The glass door that leads into Julian and Leo’s bedroom is thankfully open, and when I move carefully into the room, I can sense other people there. I just can’t see them. For a long, terrifying moment, I think I’m about to die. And then?—

“Gabriel?”

“Hey,” I whisper back, intensely relieved to hear the voice of Miller Beaumont.

“Where’s Julian?”

“Nero had to rest, so he sent me on ahead. He’s coming behind with Julian. We should leave this side door open for them, but keep watch.” I move closer to see Darian has already opened the walk-in armory that comes off the bedroom and is huddled in there with Nate. Both appear to be packing weapons into duffel bags.

“Still can’t believe Julian saved me,” Miller goes on.

I touch his arm briefly as I pass by, attempting to offer strength, but I don’t have time to do more. “Is anyone else here? Leo?”

“No one,” Miller sighs. “But there’s also no fighting around here, not that I can hear, anyway.”

“We need to move fast. We’ll get as many weapons out to the men as we can.”

“Any other secret passages we can use?” Miller asks hopefully. “Like one that leads straight to the pool area, or back into the main house?”

I look at Darian, who is looking at me. “Nothing I’m aware of,” I say.

“And nothing that I’m aware of,” Darian says. “But perhaps when Mr. Castellani gets here?—”

Nero has an uncanny sense of timing. The glass door slides open again and he staggers in with Julian Castellani slung over his shoulders. “Mr. Castellani is not going to be of much use,” Nero pants. “Where should I put him down?”

Miller’s hand flies to his mouth. “Is he?—”

“He’s alive. But he won’t be for much longer.” Nero follows Darian’s quick instructions to lay out the unconscious Julian on the bed. “Lock that damn door behind me. You have weapons?” Nero asks, without looking up. He’s checking Julian’s pulse.

“We collected as many as we could,” Darian assures him, rushing to lock the sliding door as Nate drags the duffel bags out of the bedroom for Nero to inspect.

Nero glances at the bags and gives a nod. “You all need to stay here?—”

“I’m not staying here,” I say at once. I left him back in the tunnel because I knew he was safe down there, and I knew I’d see him again. But I’m not letting him out of my sight again tonight. “I mean it, Nero,” I go on, anticipating his refusal.

But Nero gives a small smile. “If you would let me finish? I was going to say, you all need to stay here, except for Gabriel, who will come with me and carry one of the bags.”

“It’s too dangerous,” Darian says at once. “Raffi would want no untrained men out there.”

“I’m going with him,” I say firmly. “If we run into Leo, we’ll tell him about Julian, and send him down here to protect you all.”

“In the meantime, at least one among you needs to stand guard,” Nero says, looking into the bag to pull out a handgun. “Who will it be?”

“I’ll do it,” Miller says after a brief pause. “JJ says I’m a good shot these days.”

Nero looks him up and down. “Shooting a man is not like shooting a target.”

“Maybe not,” Miller says, “but I’m not going to let someone shoot me or any of these guys—and I’m not going to let anyone get to Julian, either. I owe that asshole my life now. So if I get a chance to clear that debt, you want to bet I’ll take it.”

Nero grins at him. “Good,” he says approvingly. And I feel a strange trickle of something run through my veins.

Envy? At a time like this?

I pick up the bag. It’s heavy, but I make no indication that it worries me. Maybe I just want Nero’s approval too, but this doesn’t feel like the moment to whine about a bag being too heavy.

“Don’t worry,” Nero murmurs to me. “We won’t be relying on strength or speed to get where we’re going.”

It’s like he read my mind. But still, I’m not sure what other options there are to get where we’re going. “So what’s the plan?”

“Stealth,” he tells me. “We go back through the maze. It’s much closer to the house, which means we can get a long way without worrying about being seen.”

“But the maze will be swarming with enemies by now!”

“There are only so many of them. And I have a significant advantage over them.”

“Oh, yeah? And what’s that?”

“You,” he says simply. “You know the maze better than any man on these grounds, except the unconscious one lying in the other room. Whatever these invaders think they know about the maze, they’re wrong. Wasn’t that the point of the restructuring?”

I stare at him, because he’s totally right. Julian was worried, after the parley when the Bernardi factions were crawling all over Redwood, that they were basically measuring up for curtains. As another precaution, he instructed me to change the layout of the maze. At the time I told him it seemed wildly unnecessary, and that he risked destroying the hedges altogether. But he insisted.

And my God, I’m glad now that he did, especially after Miller found that map.

“Yeah,” I say slowly. “The maze has changed. And they don’t know—they have maps to it, but the maps will be wrong. And you’re right. I know the new maze better than I know anything.” Except maybe Nero Andretti. Because I’m seeing him in a whole new way, these days.

“And that is our advantage,” he says.

I want to argue with him, but his logic holds up. I know the maze. I’m just not sure my panic won’t overtake me in the middle of it. But there’s no point arguing; I want to run across the open spaces of Redwood Manor even less than I want to track back through the tunnel and then the maze.

Nero shows Miller where to stand and how to aim the gun. Nate says that he’ll sit with Miller and keep a close watch on the surroundings. Darian, meanwhile, is doing what he can for Julian.

Which isn’t much.

“If we don’t get this invasion shut down soon, get proper medical help into Redwood, Julian will die,” Nero announces, after leaning over Julian to check his state once more.

“We won’t let that happen,” Darian says, with much more conviction than I feel. “Good luck.”

Nero and I slip outside and down to the tunnel entrance. I open it and then step back, assuming Nero will want to lead the way, as always.

But Nero just opens his hand, gesturing me in. “After you, little gardener,” he says gallantly. “You know the way better than I do.” He’s right, but still… “I’ll have your back,” he promises. “And your ass, for that matter. Once this hell is over. My reward, eh?”

Somehow, I find myself grinning. “Let’s do this.”

It’s not fun making our way back through that small, claustrophobic tunnel, especially with my shoulder weighted down by the straps of a duffel bag stuffed full of guns. Nero gave me a handgun to carry as well, and the feel of it strapped to my waist keeps reminding me how much danger we’re in.

“Why did you agree to let me come with you?” I puff when we’re about halfway there.

“I knew that if I made you stay behind you would disobey me. Do something foolish.”

“Like follow you?” I give a huff of laughter. “That’s true.”

We walk on in silence another minute, and then Nero says, “And you weren’t always the peace-loving tree-hugger you like to portray yourself as. You grew up in the Irish Mob, after all.”

So he really does know about my past. “Who told you all those things about me? Because I doubt the security staff here would have spilled.”

“One day soon I’ll tell you everything. Not tonight, though. We have other things to worry about tonight.” We arrive at the other end before I can protest, and Nero pulls me back. “Here is where I must take the lead once more. You will open the door and we will wait to see if anyone is foolish enough to rush in. After that, I will venture out and make sure the immediate area is safe. If you hear any gunfire at all, you close the door and get back to the Retreat.”

“I’m not leaving you in a fucking maze to face all those enemies alone,” I tell him.

“You will do as I tell you, Gabriel,” he says, coming close to me once more. “This is not your fight.”

I stare at him. I know what he says is not true, because in my time here, I have found a place for myself. I never wanted to be involved in this kind of world, I ran away from it—but now there’s nothing that could pull me away from it. Not when Nero is fully immersed in it. “Okay,” I say at last. “I’ll close the door if I hear any gunfire.”

We both know I’m lying. But there’s no time for Nero to argue. He takes his place at the bottom of the steps and waits for me to open the door.

I’ve never stood so still and quiet in my whole life as after I’ve hit that button. But I hear nothing, and obviously, Nero doesn’t either, because he moves up and into the center of the maze.

I creep up after him, the Glock he gave me raised and steady. And still there’s no sound.

Nero glances behind at me and gives an irritated roll of his eyes to see my disobedience. But he says nothing, merely waits for me to point him to the best exit route from the center.

Only once do we come across an enemy. We hear him tramping on the other side of a hedge, bashing angrily at the walls of the maze as he goes, and muttering under his breath.

I tap Nero on the shoulder and give him a few hand signals. Left, left, right. That will bring him up behind this man. He puts a gentle hand in the middle of my chest in a clear indication to stay behind him, and holsters his gun. And so I shadow Nero as he glides around the corners, coming up behind a man I can see only vaguely in the dark, and doing something to him to make the man give out one quiet choke… Nero helps him fall noiselessly to the ground.

I beckon Nero back the way we came, and we reach the exit with no other encounters. I was worried that there would be scores of men running around at the front of Redwood Manor, but the hedge maze and fountain both seem deserted.

And I know why. The gunfire starts up again as we head toward the pool.

“We left Sandro there with no support,” Nero says under his breath. “Gabriel—you need to stay behind me at all times. Do exactly what I say, when I say it. Understand?”

“I understand.”

He stops dead, turns, and grabs me into a hard, sudden kiss. “And you are not to die,” he tells me, after breaking away. “That’s an order.”

“Okay,” I say unsteadily. “I’ll do my best.”