Armed with her tangled weapon, she felt footsteps begin to make their way up the stairs. Gabriella and Emma tensed. Laurie steadied herself. She felt calm, ready, even as adrenaline flushed her face and neck. Laurie didn’t care what came through that door—it was not going to kill her. She was going to do everything in her power to protect herself and her baby. She was going to fight like mad.

As the two intruders entered the room, she prayed for everyone she loved: Dante, Gabriella, Emma, Bob, even Albert, and most of all, the unborn child she carried. Then the room erupted into gunfire and strangled cries.

CHAPTER

TWENTY-ONE

Dante

Dante hurled himself through the door of the plane into the cold Nebraska morning. His leg throbbed like mad. The frigid air wasn’t much of a distraction from it. Bob had flown them all night, only stopping to refuel once. Albert and Dante didn’t sleep at all. They twisted and turned in their seats for hours, waiting to land.

“I know he was lying,” Albert had said to Dante somewhere over California. “No one has the faintest idea where we live. Kaimi wouldn’t even know where to start.”

Albert still fidgeted in his seat, to the point that Dante was ready to tie him to it. Dante held himself in check, knowing he was worried and exhausted. Instead, he passed the dreadful hours with dull tasks, redressing his wound, checking his gear. It all kept him sane long enough to make it to their final descent.

The three men jogged into the small airport. The same teenager sat at the counter as before. Albert told him what truck he owned, and the boy charged them a large sum for their parking. Albert paid without hesitation. Then they picked up their bags, racing to the door. They piled into the cold truck. The leather and plastic interior felt like ice. Albert didn’t wait for the engine to warm up, instead, he peeled out of the parking lot onto the road.

Snow had fallen, dusting the broken corn stalks of the landscape with a crisp, white shield. It blurred in Dante’s tired eyes as he stared out into the distance. He drummed his fingers on the pack settled in his lap. He ran his hand through his hair several times. The drive took much longer than he remembered, and with every passing minute, the nightmares in his head grew stronger, more insistent.

It wasn’t quite an hour before Dante spotted the farmhouse in the distance. Albert raced the truck the last half-mile up the road and down the driveway, bouncing on the pitted holes as they went. They pulled up to a quiet house. Nothing stirred or rippled at the windows as they pulled in.

“Let’s just be careful here. Be ready for anything.” Albert turned around, looking at Dante. “We go in like it’s hostile.”

“Well, with Emma in there, for you it is hostile.” Bob took his gun in hand.

Albert glowered at him.

“Oh, I was just lightening the mood. Why does the CIA have to be so damn serious all the time?” Bob rolled his eyes.

Dante half-smiled in spite of the tingling sensation at the nape of his neck. He didn’t like the fact that no one greeted them; he had had a fantasy in his head of Laurie running out to the truck so he could breathe a sigh of relief and sweep her off her feet. That dream crumbled under the weight of each passing minute.

The men slid out of the truck, leaving the doors open. They approached each vehicle, checking for occupants before moving onto the house. When they reached the front door, Dante choked on the frigid air when he saw the slit in the screen, and the scratches along the doorframe. Albert saw it too, his eyes narrowing. They positioned themselves beside the door. Dante reached over, turning the knob.

Albert barreled into the house; Bob and Dante followed. All was quiet. No one was downstairs. They moved from room to room. The house was a mess. The boys had left homework and video games out; the kitchen had dishes piled in the sink. No one was there. Then they moved up the stairs. Dante saw the bullet holes in Gabriella’s open door, and he froze. He swallowed hard, as Albert, seeing the damage, moved passed him, into Gabriella’s room.

There were more bullet holes, laundry was everywhere, and a large pool of blood was on the floor of the bedroom. Someone had smeared the blood out into the hallway, where the trail disappeared altogether going down the stairs. Dante clenched his jaw, trying to hold onto his sanity. He would not breakdown until he knew where Laurie was and what had happened. Nobody, no person was in the room to tell them more. So they continued into Laurie’s and Emma’s bedrooms. There was no one there either. Something had happened, and then they had all just disappeared.

“The barn,” Albert ordered.

Bob and Dante nodded. They avoided each other’s gaze as they moved down the stairs, staring at the banister or their gun. They didn’t want to see their own waning hope reflected back at them.

They moved out of the kitchen door into the sun, then jogged across the snow-coated grass, running to their last hope. They moved up alongside the barn door. Albert reached over and opened it.

Dante charged inside. He heard the surprised screams of the boys, before something hit the back of his head. He dropped to his knees, his ears ringing.

“Dante?” came a breathless voice. The voice rang crystal clear in his head; Laurie was alive.

“Laurie!” he exclaimed, turning. His vision blurred, and the pain escalated. The world swam before his eyes, but the joy bursting in his chest made him reach for her.

“Oh, God! Oh, thank God it’s you!” Laurie threw down the rake she used as a weapon.

Dizzy and disoriented, Dante lunged for Laurie as best he could. He nearly knocked them both off balance, before he caught himself. He leaned into the wall, with his love wrapped in his arms. Against his will, the tears that had been burning the back of his throat all morning filled his eyes. She was alive. She was alive, they were together again, and that was all he cared about.

“Thank God you’re alive,” he said repeatedly as she cried into his shoulder. He kissed her, holding her tighter until she told him she couldn’t breathe. He laughed and loosened his hold just a little bit. Then he kissed her again, sweeping his tongue into her mouth, desperate to taste her.

“Laurie, where are Emma and Gabriella?” Albert demanded through their haze. He shouted the question at them, since they ignored him for the past three times he asked.

Dante broke off the kiss with a soft groan of dismay. His eyes focused on his father’s face. Albert looked drawn and pale in the morning light.

“Oh, um.” Laurie turned her head to look at him. “Something happened last night and they had to take care of it. They should be back soon.”

“What happened?” Bob took a step forward.

Laurie looked at the boys, who were now clinging to their father.

“You were attacked?” Albert lifted his hands in frustration. “What happened to the men who attacked you? Where did they go?”

Laurie looked unsure for a moment. Then she gestured to the rack of yard tools beside her, which had an empty space where two shovels should rest.

“They wanted me to bring the boys out here to wait while they…” Laurie waved her hand in a circle. “Emma and Gabriella left a long time ago. They should be back soon.”

Albert looked at the rack for a moment, then visibly relaxed. Bob hugged the boys tighter, his worst fears relieved.

“I’ll wait at the door, so they know we’re back. I’m sure my wife will have some choice words for me that shouldn’t be said in front of the boys anyway.” Albert headed for the door.

Laurie and Dante smiled. Dante brushed her hair back from her temple. Then he kissed her, tasting her lips in a gentle caress. He kissed her forehead, her cheeks, and her eyelids. He pulled her closer, until her body pressed against the length of his.