Page 24 of The Savage

My chest tightens.

God, she’s right there.

A breath away.

Alive.

The pain hits again, harder this time, like someone driving a fist into my ribs from the inside. My lungs seize. My fingers go numb. I grit my teeth and try to push through it, try to keep watching her.

Stay awake.

Stay awake.

Just a little longer.

But the darkness claws up anyway, thick and merciless.

I force my head towards my men, throat raw. ‘Listen to me… You don’t let her out of your sight. Not for a fucking second. If anyone comes for her before I wake⁠—’

‘We know, boss,’ the nearest one says, steady as steel. ‘She’s safe. We’ll bring her straight to the facility.’

Good.

Good.

The world tilts sideways. My head sags back against the vibrating metal.

Her breathing is the last thing I hear, soft, uneven and terrified.

And mine is the last vow I make before the dark finally takes me.

Mine until I fucking die.

4

NIGHTOWL

SUBJECT SECURED. EN ROUTE. ETA 05:47.

I can’t help the small, grim smile that twists my mouth.

Somewhere across the sea, an angel in a habit has just been snatched from the safety of her convent by a raging predator who loves to create carnage first and ask questions later.

I kill the lights in my little hidey-hole.

The glow of a dozen monitors washes over me as the room falls into a digital twilight of pulsing screens.

I watch the helicopter’s flight path snake its way north over the Tyrrhenian Sea.

‘Happy fucking miracle, Salvatore,’ I murmur, leaning back in my chair. ‘Let’s see what you do with her now.’

The chaos has already begun.

Within the hour, the convent will be crawling with Carabinieri, Vatican security, Interpol and Aegis – the one other intelligence flag no one would dare question – trying to make sense of what just happened and being stonewalled to kingdom come.

Cesare will bark orders through gritted teeth when he discovers his brother went AWOL for several hours.

Rafa, clever and eye-wateringly unhinged, will already be tracing phantom enemies through his private channels, attempting to piece together wet breadcrumbs.