Page 34 of Ruthless Secrets (Alpha Mafia Daddies #6)

Chapter Twenty-Nine

CLARA

If I close my eyes, for a moment I can pretend that Marco is sitting next to me on the couch. His musky cologne in the air, his deep chuckle echoing in my ears, the weight of his hand on my thigh…

It’s all I can do to keep from breaking.

We should have had so much more time together, and now I’m not even sure if I’ll ever see him again.

The burner phone has been deathly silent, and I no longer see that as a good sign. Something must have happened, and I might go crazy from not knowing.

I force my eyes open and glance down at my daughter.

Zoe snores softly in my arms, having fallen straight back to sleep after her feed.

Holly is cuddled up beside me, her eyelids heavy as she fights to stay awake also. They both look so peaceful, both so unaware that their fathers might never come home.

The cabin is quiet. Even the sound of the trees rustling outside has subsided, so all I can focus on is the sound of my heartbeat pounding in my ears .

I can’t be expected to sit around here for much longer, not when Marco could be in trouble. Not that I would be much help to him but surely, there is something I could do. Anything is better than this .

I’m tempted to carry the girls back to their cots and maybe pick up a book to try and distract myself when there’s a noise.

I freeze, my breath catching in my throat as I strain my ears.

The soft rustling outside is subtle, almost easy to dismiss as nothing more than the wind shifting through the trees.

It’s likely I imagined it in my sleep-deprived state, but then it happens again. The distinctive crunch of gravel beneath a shoe.

“Oh, my god,” I breathe.

Someone is out there.

My heart hammers in my chest as I glance down at Zoe and Holly, both now fully asleep in my arms.

I can’t panic, not when their lives are depending on me.

Right now, I need to alert Lila and Rosa, and then we can come up with a plan.

I carefully scoop both girls into my arms and carry them back through to the bedroom as quietly as I can.

Every creak of the wooden floor beneath my bare feet feels deafening as I move quickly toward Lila’s bed.

She’s fast asleep, her hands resting protectively on her abdomen.

I think of the baby growing inside her, and bile rises in my throat.

This can’t be how it ends.

"Lila," I whisper urgently. “ Lila .”

She stirs, squinting up at me as she comes to. But the second she sees the look on my face, she sits bolt upright in bed, her dark hair falling around her shoulders as she glances anxiously at Holly. “What is it?”

“Somebody is outside.”

Lila frowns as she looks over at the small window.

“Are Marco and Andre back?”

I swallow past the lump in my throat as I shake my head.

If they were, they wouldn’t be sneaking around outside the cabin. Whoever is out there is not here for a friendly visit, that much I’m sure of.

The color drains from Lila’s face as she looks over at Rosa’s sleeping form.

“No, no, no…” She scrambles out of bed, the fear finally setting in. “We have to get out of here.”

“And go where? We have nowhere to go.”

Lila runs her hand over her face as she frantically looks around the room.

Alio might have a good security system but if that fails, we’re completely unprotected, and it seems Lila has realized this too.

“Oh, god, what do we do?” She reaches for Holly and cradles her closely.

“We need to focus.” I keep my voice low but firm so as not to panic her further. I’m not usually one for keeping calm in a crisis, but right now our survival might depend on it. “Think of the girls. We have to keep it together.”

Lila squeezes her eyes shut for a second before inhaling sharply and nodding. “Okay, I’m…I’m okay.”

“I’ll go and wake Alio and Marissa. Stay here with Rosa and the girls and don’t move until I come back.”

I lay Zoe gently down in the cot, my arms feeling painfully empty without her. I hate leaving her, but Alio is our best chance of surviving whatever threat is waiting for us outside.

I brush my hand against Lila’s arm before hurrying out of the room .

The rest of the cabin is still painfully silent. Whoever is waiting for us out there hasn’t made a move yet, but it’s only a matter of time.

I creep down the narrow hall toward Alio and Marissa’s room and gently open the door.

Their bedroom is cast in darkness, the thick curtains blocking out most of the sunlight, and both of them are sound asleep, completely unaware of the threat outside.

“Alio?”

It seems Marco’s cousin is a light sleeper as the sheets rustle and then the outline of his body sits up in bed.

“Clara?”

“There’s someone outside.”

Alio is instantly alert. He’s out of bed and reaching for something on the bedside table before shaking his wife awake.

“Marissa. Wake up. We need to move now .”

I glance nervously over my shoulder, praying that Alio’s security system will buy us some time.

Alio rushes over to me and when I notice the gun in his hand, I fight the urge to vomit.

“Get back in the room with the girls and lock the door.”

I shake my head. “Not yet.”

Marissa rushes past me as she heads into the guest bedroom where Lila and Rosa are waiting without hesitation.

Alio turns to me, his voice low but commanding. “Clara, go with them.”

“No. If my daughter is in danger, I am not hiding.”

“I promised Marco that I would keep you safe.”

“And I made a promise the day I gave birth to Zoe that I would keep her safe, so nothing you can say is going to change my mind, Alio.”

There’s no time to argue, and Alio knows it. He curses under his breath but doesn’t fight me further .

“Fine, but I want you to stay out of sight until we know what we’re dealing with.”

I nod and press myself flat against the wall, my heart pounding as Alio moves through into the living area.

I hold my breath as I follow behind him, trying not to make a sound.

“Wait here,” he mouths before stepping out in the living room, his finger hovering on the trigger of his gun.

For a second, everything stands still.

Then all hell breaks loose.

The alarms explode into action, cutting through the silence like a knife.

I jump as the front door is blasted open, followed by heavy footsteps.

Alio stands strong, his gun raised as he faces whoever it is that was lurking outside.

“Where are the girls?” a man demands.

I don’t recognize his voice, which only adds to my fear.

My body trembles as I glance at the door to the guest room, praying that the sound of the alarms will mask Zoe and Holly’s cries.

“What girls?” Alio’s face is a mask of false confusion.

I fight the urge to run to Zoe, but I’m stopped by the sound of a gunshot.

For a moment, I can’t work out if Alio was the one to fire.

But then his gun slips from his grip, before he goes crashing to the floor.

I swallow my cry of horror as blood starts to soak into his white t-shirt from the wound in his chest, and I know that it’s all over.

He’s dead.

Every instinct in my body screams at me to run, but I can’t risk it .

Zoe, Holly, Lila, and Rosa. I have to keep them safe, if not for me, for Marco and Andre.

My feet are moving before I have a chance to think. Slowly, I step out of the shadows, my legs shaking so badly I can barely stay upright with my hands help up in surrender.

Two huge men stand in the doorway, their guns now aimed at me, not that they need them. From the looks of their heavily muscled bodies, they could kill me without even breaking a sweat. They know it, and I know it.

Whatever words come out of my mouth next will determine my fate, and the fate of the De Luca family.

“I-I’m the only one here.” My voice trembles. “Andre took Lila and the babies. H-he’s meeting with Marco and t-they’re coming back for me.”

I glance quickly at Alio’s unmoving body on the floor and my stomach churns.

This will be my fate also if the two men decide not to believe me, but there’s no turning back now. I’m the only thing standing between them and my daughter, and I’m not going to go down without a fight.

“Shit.” The one on the right still has his gun pointed at my chest.

“Just grab the girl,” the other grunts. “One is better than nothing.”

I barely have time to process the words before they’re lunging for me.

Rough hands grab my arms, yanking them behind my back.

A sharp, burning pain shoots up my right shoulder as they shove me forward toward the open doorway.

My breath is ragged, and I can barely keep myself upright, but I don’t fight them as they drag me outside.

I can’t risk them changing their minds and decide to go looking through the other rooms .

I stumble forward as they drag me down the front steps of the cabin toward a waiting black SUV.

The ground is damp beneath my bare feet and the slight chill in the air has my arms breaking out with goosebumps.

“Put her in the trunk,” one of them growls, his breath hot on my skin as he pulls me against him.

My heart is hammering so violently in my chest that it feels like it’s going to tear right through my ribcage as the other man steps up to the car and opens the trunk.

They’re going to lock me in there.

The panic sets in, and I start squirming, though the arms around my body only tighten.

“Please. Marco is coming?—”

“I hope he is. Then he’ll see our little message,” the one standing idle by the trunk says, his lips pulled up into a cruel sneer.

“Please—”

Without warning, I’m shoved inside the trunk and plunged into darkness as they slam it shut.

My shoulder collides with the hard metal sides and pain flares up my arm once again, but I bite back a cry.

I don’t want to give these men the satisfaction of knowing that they hurt me.

As the car lurches forward and starts to vibrate as the tires crunch over the gravel, I squeeze my eyes shut, trying not to panic.

I might never see Zoe again.

I know that I did the right thing, I saved the girls. But I’m not sure Marco would agree with my choice.

I just hope he knows that I did this to keep our daughter safe. The thought of Zoe in their hands… I can’t even bear to imagine it.

I press my forehead against the cool metal wall of the trunk, my cheeks now wet with tears. All I can do now is hope that Marco will come for me.

But as the SUV speeds down the dark road, taking me further away from the cabin, I realize I might not be alive when he does.