Janina moved to the window when she heard the sound of wheels turning on the gravel driveway. Peering between the slats of the blinds over the nursery window, she saw two black SUVs hurtling down the driveway from the garages near the bodyguards’ housing at the back of the estate.
As they passed the house, she could clearly see Kieran was behind the wheel of the lead car, his expression grim and focused entirely on reaching Leon and Carla as quickly as possible.
Janina could see the outline of the three men patrolling the back of the house. The men Kieran had placed there before he left. As there would be three more at the front of the house. Two patrolling, and one inside the booth on this side of the ten-foot-high double iron gates at the end of the driveway.
All there as further protection for Janina and Marco.
She stepped back from the window to drop into the rocking chair in the corner of Marco’s nursery, before her shaking knees buckled, no longer supporting her, and she fell to her knees on the carpeted floor.
Only the teddy-bear night-light on the dresser beside Marco’s crib, sending out a warm and reassuring glow, prevented the room from being completely dark.
Janina didn’t feel in the least reassured as she stood restlessly to begin silently pacing the nursery.
She wished either her father or Marisha were still here. Anyone else, really.
As it was, and despite the guards patrolling outside, she felt very much alone in the house with only the equally vulnerable Marco for company.
Kieran had driven the SUV about halfway into New York along the country roads he knew would be Liam’s route back to the estate, when he saw the other two Brunelli black SUVs traveling at speed from the opposite direction.
“That you, bro?” Liam prompted gruffly into his earpiece.
“Did anyone follow you?” he demanded economically.
“No.”
“Sure?”
“Positive,” Liam assured as the SUVs passed each other.
Kieran slowed down only slightly before making a one-eighty turn of the wheel. The tires screeched in protest before he righted the vehicle again, coming up behind the two other SUVs. “Pull over,” he instructed his brother.
“I’m not sure that’s a good idea—”
“Pull the fuck over, Liam,” he rasped harshly. “I need to see for myself that Leon and Carla are unharmed.”
These back roads were pretty well deserted at this time of night, only the occasional car passing either way, making it easy for Liam to park his vehicle on the side of the road within seconds. As they had been trained to do, the first vehicle remained protectively in front and slightly to the left. Kieran brought his own SUV to a stop behind Liam’s, with the fourth vehicle pulling out farther onto the road, again as secondary protection for Liam’s vehicle and his precious cargo. All four drivers kept the engines running.
Kieran threw open his door before stepping down and hurrying to the vehicle to fling open the back passenger door. Leon and Carla turned to him questioningly as they sat on the leather seat.
Kieran’s stomach turned over when he saw how pale Leon’s face was, the older man’s eyes glittering, his expression one of grim determination. Carla sat as close to him as their seat belts would allow, their hands clasped tightly together.
“No one was hurt,” Leon assured him abruptly.
The words this time were left hanging in the air unsaid.
“I want to get Carla home ASAP,” Leon added. “She’s had a shock and needs to rest. Stop beating yourself up, Kieran,” he added heavily when Kieran continued to scowl. “This shit happens.”
Carla reached out to squeeze Kieran’s forearm. “And I knew exactly what I was agreeing to when I accepted Leon’s marriage proposal.” She gave a shaky smile. “No one was hurt.” She repeated her husband’s words.
“No one saw the shooter?”
Liam shook his head as he turned in the driver’s seat. “The angle of the shots indicated they came from the roof of one of the nearby buildings. I left Sean and Patrick behind so they could go and check them out. But I don’t think they’ll find anything,” he added with a frown. “Whoever did this knows what they’re doing.”
“Their bullets didn’t hit their target,” Leon reminded.
Liam grimaced. “We don’t know what their target is.”
Kieran turned sharply toward his brother. “What do you think their target is?”
Liam shrugged. “The only person we know to be under immediate threat right now is Janina.”
Kieran felt as if the bottom had dropped out of his stomach, his mouth going dry, his pulse racing, his heart pounding. “What the hell are you saying?”
“Let’s just get back to the estate as quickly as possible, okay?” his brother dismissed.
“Please, Kieran.” Carla’s face was now as pale as her husband’s. “I need to get back to Marco. I need to hold him, to know—” Her voice broke emotionally. “Leon, please,” she appealed to her husband.
“Get away from the door,” Leon tersely instructed Kieran.
“Take them to the safety of the bunker—”
“Fuck that,” Leon rasped. “Drive straight to the house, Liam. Now.”
Kieran felt completely hollowed out as he stepped back and allowed the door to slam shut as his brother put the SUV into Drive and pressed his foot down hard on the accelerator.
Leon had asked one thing of him tonight. Just one. To guard his son and Janina.
Kieran having left the estate, even to check on Leon’s and Carla’s safety, had violated that instruction and trust.
If anything had happened to Janina or Marco in his absence, Kieran was never going to forgive himself.
If anything happened to Leon’s son, he wouldn’t need to worry about forgiveness because the older man would kill him with his own bare hands.
Kieran ran quickly back to his idling SUV and got in behind the wheel. As he drove, he tried to contact his men back at the house on the radio. None of them answered.
He caught up with the other three vehicles within minutes, overtaking them seconds later, needing desperately to get back to the estate as quickly as possible.
Which was why he was the first to arrive back and see that the normally locked estate gates were wide open.
Why he was also the first person to see that the man he had left guarding those gates wasn’t at his post.
Janina’s pacing had eventually calmed, along with her nerves. Kieran would be back soon, and all the other bodyguards, also Leon and Carla.
Being head of the Italian Mafia probably meant this sort of thing happened to Leon all the time, she’d reasoned.
Her father had seemed to accept it as being a part of the criminal underworld, which Leon also belonged to.
There really was no reason to suppose this had anything to do with her or the supposed threat to her life Nikolai Volkov had reported was being talked about in the underworld of Moscow.
She—
A popping noise—one, two, three—from somewhere outside had Janina hurrying over to the window to once again pull down the slats of the blind to peer outside.
She continued to watch for several long minutes, but couldn’t see anything unusual.
Or, she realized with a frown, any of the three men who had previously been patrolling up and down close to the back of the house.
The complete silence that followed those strange popping noises sounded eerie.
Which was the moment Janina realized there was no phone in the nursery, and she hadn’t brought her cell phone in here with her either.
How could she have been so stupid?
If she had her cell phone, she could have called Kieran. He wouldn’t get back in time to prevent whatever was going on outside, but he would at least have prior warning that something wasn’t right at the Brunelli estate.
Janina’s fists clenched as she turned to stare at the closed nursery door. She intensely disliked feeling as if someone was lurking outside that door, just waiting for her to open it so they could kill her.
She felt claustrophobic, needed to open that door so she could go and collect her cell phone from the sitting room. But those strange popping noises and Kieran’s instruction for her to stay put stopped her from moving.
Damned if she did, but totally helpless if she didn’t.
And Janina hated feeling helpless.
What should she do?
That decision was made for her as all the lights inside and outside the house were turned off.