Romero’s hand around mine tightened, but the hand with his gun was steady. He hadn’t moved it at all. It was still pointed straight at Fabi’s head. If he killed my brother…I couldn’t even finish the thought.

“I didn’t know what else to do,” I said. I decided not to mention that Benito had still been very much alive when Romero plunged his knife into his heart. That would have complicated things even further.

“What about you and him?” Fabi nodded toward Romero. “I’m not stupid. There’s something going on between you.”

There was no denying it, and I had a feeling that Fabi would get angry if I tried to lie to him. Matteo had inched closer to Fabi while we’d been talking. I wasn’t sure what he planned to do but knowing Matteo it wouldn’t end well.

“We’ve been together for a while. You know I never wanted to marry Benito but Father didn’t give me a choice.”

“So you want to leave Chicago and the Outfit for New York like Gianna and Aria,” Fabi said.

“I have to,” I said.

“You could come with us,” Aria suggested. Realizing her mistake, she peered up at Luca, who would have to accept Fabi into the Famiglia.

“You could become part of the Famiglia,” he said immediately.

Fabi shook his head. “Father needs me. I’m part of the Outfit. I made an oath.”

“If you’re not fully inducted yet, it’s not as binding,” Matteo said, which was not quite a lie, but really, he’d be treated like a traitor if he ran off anyway and the punishment would be the same.

Fabi glared. “I won’t betray the Outfit.”

“Then you’ll have to stop us from leaving,” Luca said simply. “And we won’t let you. There will be blood, and you will die.”

I stiffened and was about to say something but Romero gave a small shake of his head.

“I’m a good shot,” Fabi said indignantly.

“I believe you. But are you better than all three of us? Do you really want your sister Lily to be punished? If you force her to stay, you sign her death warrant.”

Conflict showed on Fabi’s face. “If I let you leave, and someone finds out, they will kill me too. I could die an honest death if I tried to stop you.”

Luca nodded. “You could, and they would sing your praise, but you’d be dead all the same. Do you want to die today?”

Fabi didn’t say anything but he’d lowered his gun a few inches.

“Nobody has to find out that you let us leave. You could have tried to stop us but we were too many,” Romero said suddenly.

“They will think I was scared and ran away, and that’s why you escaped.”

Luca gave Romero a small nod. “Not if you got wounded. We could shoot you in the arm. This was meant as an easy first job, nobody expects you to be capable of stopping the best fighters of New York. They won’t hold it against you if you got shot.”

“You want to shoot my brother?” Aria asked incredulously.

“What if you injure him seriously?” I added.

“I could hit the zit on his chin if I wanted to, I think I can manage to hit an unproblematic spot on his arm,” Matteo said with his shark-grin. “And we’re taking a risk by not just killing him, so an arm wound is really nothing.”

“So what do you say, Fabiano?” Luca asked quickly before Matteo could say more. None of the men had lowered their guns yet.

Fabi nodded slowly and aimed his weapon at the ground. “Okay. But I will have to call for help. I can’t wait more than a few minutes or they’ll get suspicious.”

“A few minutes should be enough for us to drive away,” Luca said. “They will follow us once they figure out what’s going on but five minutes will bring enough distance between us and them. Dante isn’t someone who likes fighting in the open, so I doubt he’ll send his men on a wild car chase. He’ll attack us later, once he’s figured out the best way to hurt us.”

My stomach tightened. All because of me. How selfish could a person be to let others risk so much for her?

Romero gave me an encouraging smile, but for once it didn’t manage to cheer me up. “War with the Outfit was inevitable. Things have gotten worse by the day.”

Luca looked over to us. “That’s true. If it weren’t for Aria and Gianna, Matteo and I wouldn’t even have come to Chicago for the wedding.”

That might have been the case, but Benito’s death would put fuel into the fire. Things would get very ugly now.

“Let’s do this now,” Matteo urged. “We’re wasting time.”

“I think we should move our shooting to the garage. Maybe that will buy us additional time. People won’t hear your scream as easily,” Romero suggested.

Together we headed for the door and down a flight of stairs into the underground garage. It wasn’t as big as the one I’d seen in New York. Despite our decision to work together, none of the men had put their guns back into their holder yet. When we stopped close to our two rental cars, I slipped out of Romero’s grasp and walked up to Fabi. I didn’t miss the way, Romero tensed and raised his gun, but I trusted Fabi. Maybe he was on his way to becoming a soldier of the Outfit, but he was also my little brother. That wouldn’t change. I hugged him and after a moment he wrapped his arms around me. In the last year, he’d avoided public displays of affection because he’d tried to act cool, but it felt good to have him close, especially since I didn’t know when I’d get another chance to see him.