“Time to go,” Pietro said, lifting Ciana into his arms like she was a small toddler and not a grown woman.

She rested her head on his shoulder and closed her eyes, already asleep before we reached the door we’d come in through. The limo was waiting for us, with the SUV right behind it.

Cali and I quickly got into the back, and Pietro carefully placed Ciana beside me, laying her head in my lap.

“Should we take her to the hospital?” her second guard asked as he came over to look in at her.

“Don’t need a hospital,” she slurred sleepily. “Just my bed. I’m just tired. Geesh.”

“You basically passed out on the dance floor.” There was tiredness, and then there was whatever was going on with Ciana. I didn’t buy that it was just because she was heartbroken over some idiot guy. “You need to see a doctor, C.”

“Just need a bed,” she argued. “Trust me, I’m a medical professional.”

I looked to Cali for guidance, but she just shrugged. “She would know if something was wrong with her.”

“Fine,” I muttered, then turned to Pietro. “Let’s drop Cali off at home and then get back to the compound.” He nodded, and I glared down at my cousin. “But I’m telling Zia about this, and if she insists you need to see a doctor, you are going.”

“Whatever you say, Mom,” Ciana snarked without opening her eyes. Pietro shut the door, and she snuggled against me, getting comfortable. I’d barely blinked, and she was sound asleep. I was glad the driver wasn’t wasting time getting us out into traffic, because I needed to talk to Zia about what was going on with her youngest daughter. Something just didn’t feel right.

“Who the fuck is this…?” Cali muttered to herself as she looked down at her phone several minutes into the drive to her apartment.

Curious, I glanced over at her, and she turned her phone to show me the screen.

Unknown: You can’t hide from me now, bitch.

I had only enough time to read the message before, suddenly, we were being rammed from the left. Cali screamed, and I wrapped my arms around my cousin, scared she would fall to the floor and get hurt. The limo lurched then fishtailed, causing the world to spin around me. I was glad I’d put on my seat belt. Otherwise, I would have been thrown against the door and taken Ciana with me.

Outside the limo, horns honked angrily around us, tires squealing in protest. I heard shouts and more crunching metal as other vehicles collided with one another while our driver kept going.

The partition between us and the front of the limo was lowered. “Stay down. They might have armor-piercing bullets. They took out the SUV!” Pietro yelled. His voice was steady, but from the glimpse I caught of his face, he was full of rage.

It was with his command that I realized I’d somehow missed the deadliest sound mixed into the symphony of everything else. Gunfire.