Page 53 of Ho Ho Mafioso

She rested her head in between my shoulder blades. “Do you think we could have something outside of here?”

A lump formed in my throat. “You mean back home?”

I felt her nod against my back.

“Doubtful. If your dad knew about us, I’d end up in a body bag.”

She responded with a heavy sigh. “I don’t want us to end.”

I squeezed her hands. I didn’t want us to end either. She’d chipped away at my hardened exterior and burrowed inside, making a place for herself that felt like home. “Let’s just focus on making it out alive right now. We can worry about us later.”

Her face fell but she nodded. “Okay. So what’s the plan?”

It was hard to come up with a definite plan when I didn’t know exactly how things would go down, but I had a general idea. “If we see them coming, I think it would be best to draw them to the basement; make them come to us.”

Her grip on my waist tightened. “And if we don’t see them coming?”

My jaw tensed. “Get to one of the guns fast and go from there.”

She didn’t respond.

“And Gia?”

“Yeah?”

“If I say run, you run.”

She stiffened. “I won’t”

I let out an exasperated sigh and turned to face her, tipping her chin up to look at me. “I mean it, Gia. You need to run if I tell you to.”

Her mouth set in a frown and she narrowed her eyes at me. “I won’t leave you. I’d be good as dead out there without you anyway.”

She was probably right, but I wouldn’t accept that. “Please, Gia. Just do as ask this one time.”

Her gaze softened and her eyes searched mine for a few seconds. “Fine.”

I felt like a weight had been lifted off my shoulders. I caressed her cheek with my thumb, then pressed a quick kiss to her lips. “Thank you.”

The rest of the day was uneventful. I stayed at my post except when I had to go to the bathroom, and even then I took my tablet with the camera footage with me to keep watch.

Then, sometime after dark, my proximity lights went off.

Even before I saw them, something in the air shifted; a pressure, a weight.

Then the tree line moved.

Not from wind.

From men.

One shadow. Then two. Then many.

Shit.

My whole body tensed. They had found us.

We had about a minute before they reached the cabin. Several would be taken out by my traps, but not all of them. I waited until I was able to count all the men as they emerged from the trees.