King of Stars (The Next Generation #2)

12. Matteo

Chapter 12

Matteo

P roof of life constantly flickered in red, pulsing bursts on Saverio’s handheld contraption. So many, the thing seemed to glow in the darkness, a bunch of blood spots pulsating against the dark screen constantly. The device itself was used to find life in the darkness. Saverio figured that we were probably going to have go deep into the bowels of Paris to find Stella.

There was no fucking way, given how much the Nemours coveted their dancers, the Nemours or the Russians were going to give Stella up so easily. For the Nemours, it was all about the bottom dollar, and that they refused to lose another dancer to us. Even though mamma had never belonged to them in the first place.

After Saverio, Mia, and Evelina had made the trip to dig deeper into Stella’s past, her placement with the Nemours, and what happened to her after, all fell into place, and fell into what was normal for the Nemours. Take a dancer, make her theirs, and then control her entire world. Somehow, though, Stella’s fate with them was worse, because she could pull in more money than any of their other dancers. Even mamma.

Maybe in terms of today’s money value, it would have been the same, but all in all, the amounts were enormous. And probably shocking to people who couldn’t believe other people would pay a small fortune for a fantasy and believe it to be true. But I had no such delusions—there were a lot of people out there who were delusional, and to add to it, they had a lot of money to burn.

Stella was caught in the fucking fire, just like my mamma had been. Saverio had brought up a valid point on the ride over. Stella’s life would have been mamma’s if papà wouldn’t have stood between mamma and them.

All I could think was that, if papà wouldn’t have left mamma to begin with, mamma wouldn’t also have been around them in the first place. But history was history, and there was no changing it.

I was going to change the course of Stella’s fate. No one was ever going to hurt her again. I’d be the shield that stood between her and the rest of the world, whether she loved me or not. Though, thinking back on that night, I recognized her right away, and I knew she’d fucking found me too, in ways that went much deeper than skin. We knew each other. Knew right away that we were looking at our future. Our love was written in the stars, and we’d finally crashed into each other.

Mamma said that was why Stella had run from me. She was terrified of what she was feeling, because if it was wrong, she couldn’t survive such a disappointment of that magnitude. She’d been through so much already. I had no clue the depths of her despair, but I wanted to know it. To feel it. Then steal it the fuck away from her so I could carry it.

Saverio nudged me and we went in another direction.

Lev and his men had taken care of the top level of Sub Rosa, which was a restaurant and front for the underground club below it. Once we were able to move past the first stop, Saverio worked his magic and let us into the underworld. A dancer who was dressed like Stella (but had nothing on her) was doing her thing on the stage. The crowd was restless, already irritated because they knew better. A few of the men had been down to see her before and were calling out the club for trying to dupe them with a fake. A dancer who didn’t come close to what Stella could do. It was like watching a falling star and then comparing it to fireworks. Worlds apart.

Sub Rosa was a challenge because of the security, but it turned out to be lax. Not at all what it should have been, which told us what we’d expected. The Nemours and their Russian partners had taken Stella and hidden her, knowing this attack was coming. Since we’d been down here before, and Saverio and his family were geniuses, he had come prepared with everything we needed to find her.

The Paris underground was vast, branching off in many directions. I could remember the way Stella had led us, but we didn’t go nearly as far in as we could have. My brothers and I were able to get out without much need for direction. I highly doubted going in further would be easy to navigate, and no one wanted to get stuck down in the tombs.

I thought about the rats, and my blood ran cold.

I thought about them taking her some place far, far away, where it would take me years to find her, and my entire body trembled with rage.

I absolutely fucking refused to think about what Régine’s husband-on-paper wanted to do to Stella— no, just keep moving forward .

Saverio held a hand up when we entered the tomb section, and everyone flattened against the wall in case a hail of oncoming bullets met us. We all turned our headpieces down and could see in the darkness. A bunch of men shivered at the sight of rats sneaking back and forth. The vermin were the size of small dogs, and I doubted a regular household cat could take care of them. Lions would be needed.

A hand shot out, giving directions. Saverio again. He was the head of this mission, and we all followed his lead. He was giving silent orders with his hand. We’d already discussed our groups, and we were going to break off into units of four, the way the underground did, and each follow a trail. Each leader of the group had one of those pulse-finding devices to alert him of life—he was to run it along the walls in case they had her buried somewhere.

The thought made a rush of fire surge through my veins, scalding everything it touched and pushing my feet forward. Even though I felt there was a connection pulling me toward her, the entire group felt the urgency to move. To save her from them.

I’d been praying that it was me who found her, though. Just like papà prayed that when something happened to him, or mamma, they would go together. Besides keeping mamma safe, that was the only thing he’d ever asked for.

This would be one of the things I ever asked for.

I needed her to see my face, see that it was me who came after her and saved her from this nightmare, because she saved me the moment her eyes met mine. Maybe I didn’t have all the ways yet, but over the years, they would surface, and I’d collect them.

It had been hitting me nonstop ever since our eyes connected that mamma had been right all along. She’d told me not to settle for a woman I didn’t love. Love wasn’t going to make me weak. It was going to encourage me to be a better leader for my family, and in this moment, I’d never felt stronger. I could have been made of steel with muscles that could crush a car with one touch.

Saverio raised his hand— stop —and then motioned us forward. He did this in intervals. And the deeper we went in, the harder it was going to be for us to get out. Boris might lead us in to capture us on the way out.

In war, anything goes, if it secures a win.

This all could be in vain, and a trap, if Stella wasn’t even here.

Twenty minutes in, and I was starting to feel like my feet were on fire, except it was the cold scorch of this place burning me to find her. I was keeping my cool on the outside, except for the droplets of sweat running down my face, but on the inside—something hot and dangerous had exploded.

Even Saverio wiped a hand across his forehead as we pressed against a wall, waiting for his order to move again. He was checking one of his devices. At his word, hundreds of men would be set loose down here behind us. Saverio had decided it wasn’t a good idea for that many men to move together, in case the enemy heard something and got tipped off. But reinforcements were not far behind.

A few steps ahead, a turn left would lead us down another narrow vein to somewhere else. Most of the maps Saverio studied had given markers for the spots where there were ways to reach above ground from below. Saverio had a French acquaintance, though, an older gentleman who knew Uncle Tito and loved maps. He knew all about the Paris underground and had advised Saverio on a few things. He said even though most of the exits were marked, not all of them were. And some of the ones that were marked had been sealed shut, but we wouldn’t know that until we tried them. In a lot of ways, being down here felt like playing a game of Russian roulette.

Saverio’s eyes found mine, and he gave me one curt nod, then pointed left, in the direction of the new passageway. I asked in sign language if this was it, if we’d finally found something. He responded that he didn’t know for sure, but his gut was telling him yes. He also told me to take my time—we hadn’t come this far to lose the battle, because it would cost us the entire war.

My heart felt like it might explode out of my chest.

Then in either centuries or a single second, Saverio gave the signal to move. We turned down the passageway, and that was when we heard it.

Screeching.

Arguing.

French and Russian.

Régine and Boris.

Régine sounded distraught, and Boris sounded like he was bored with the argument but unyielding on his stance. It gave me a strange feeling in the pit of my stomach. Moro had said they were arguing over keeping Stella or getting rid of her, and it had become a war between them. It sounded like the battle was still raging.

We were so quiet that we were able to get to the edge of a new path, where their voices were echoing. Unless they had someone in Sub Rosa that would have alerted them, they had no clue we’d infiltrated their place. Saverio had cut off all their communications, though he rerouted them, so their calls just seemed like they were going unanswered.

“The whore dancing now is only going to work for a short time.” Boris’s tone was sharp but not overly excited. “Sooner or later, the patrons will realize, and we will have more trouble on our hands. I made the executive decision, and it is done. We will tell them her people from above found her and she went back up to the sky with them—the end of the fantasy.”

“We will still have to fight the Italians over her death!” she hiss-whispered at him. “And I would love to know who died and left you in charge?!”

“Ivan, and before that, Henri. Shall I go on, Queen Widow?”

“I am in control of this , she belongs to me , and you had no right! Take her out. Now! ”

I gave Saverio a look. A look that he knew meant— I’m going in, fuck the consequences . His eyes had been narrowed, listening to the conversation, and at my look, he nodded and gave the signal for go time!

Boris’s eyes widened for a second before they settled into something more pleasant. Régine went to take a step forward. To fight us? But she was halted by Boris’s arm snaking around her waist. He’d hit or pulled something on the wall, and an old trap door came flying down, sending the vermin squeaking and running in all different directions. Dust, made up of who the fuck knew, blew in the air, and when it cleared, we were the only ones left standing in the room.

Some of the men charged toward the closed door, but it was made of hard stone that had probably been hardening with each passing year, and unmovable. Saverio ordered the straining men to save their energy. It wasn’t budging, and we still had work to do. All points that had been marked on the map to have escape routes were being watched, but I had a feeling the one in this area was not one of them. Even though we’d surprised Régine and Boris, they had a fail-safe plan in play.

Of course they fucking did.

I moved the night vision goggles from my eyes, scrubbing a hand down my face. “Fuck!” I roared, and it seemed like the sound of my voice echoed for miles. I turned to Saverio. “The chateau.”

He gave a slow shake of the head. “All cleared. There are things there that you might want to see, after, but Stella’s not there. No surprise, though. There’s a room they kept her in, on the bottom level, but with an easy search of the place, she would’ve been found.”

“Tell me every fucking nook and cranny of the place was searched,” I snapped in Italian.

“It was,” Saverio said without hesitation, his tone mild in comparison to mine. “We’ve discussed this before. I’ll remind you again, since I know your head isn’t on straight right now. Understandably. Even though Evelina hasn’t left our safe house in Paris, she’s boots on the ground at the chateau through her man’s ear. He’s wearing an earpiece she’s connected to. She’s studied the layout of the chateau so thoroughly, she could find her way around blindfolded.”

I looked down, my hands opening and closing without me even thinking about what I was doing. So much panic inside of me. But instead of it turning me into mush, it was hardening me, becoming anger instead of crippling fear.

“Fuck!” I roared again, turning around and smashing my fist into the wall. I’d been expecting no give, a solid stone to break my hand. Instead, the stone gave some. It was pushed back. The other stones, which looked to be a bunch of squares, jutted out like crooked teeth.

Saverio was quicker than me. “Start digging!” he ordered in Italian.

The men all looked at each other in confusion, but I knew exactly what had happened. I started to claw my way through the stone, just realizing that the grout was new and not even hardened yet. Some of the stone looked wet because of whatever water source was leaking down here, so it was deceiving how old or new the area was.

As I started to claw and fling pieces of stone, the men around me started to help. By the time we reached a cardboard box that seemed to be used for storing some type of food, we were covered in the same color as the stone, and some of us were soaking wet from the exertion it took to find it.

I snatched the barely human-sized box, not even moving back when a barrage of rats shot out, not even taking a deep breath before I tore it open.

An inhuman noise came from my chest. The sick motherfuckers had stuffed her into a box that she hardly fit in, knees to chin. Her hair…I wasn’t even sure I was looking at the right person until I moved her chin up some. She looked like a sleeping beauty that had been mangled in a car accident. Her entire face was swollen and crusted over in frozen blood.

She didn’t make a noise as I gently picked her up, cradled her in my arms, and fell to the ground. She was so much smaller than I remembered, but my heart was shrinking in her presence. She was the queen of it, and I’d obey her every command.

“Please,” I whispered, one word I’d never spoken before. “Please. Please wake up.”

I hadn’t even noticed Saverio next to me, taking her pulse with his contraption. “She has a pulse,” he said, “but it’s weak. That’s why my device didn’t register it. Being so close, it’s picking up now, but we need to get her help, Teo.”

I looked in his eyes. “The quickest way out.”

He sighed. “We’re going to have to walk it, just like we did before.”

“I’ll fucking run it.”

“We can’t jostle her too much. I can’t tell what’s broken.”

“Everything,” I barely got out.

He nodded and squeezed my shoulder. He dug in the straps that were over his arms and pulled out another device. He went to use it, but I could tell by the look on his face that something was wrong. His eyes rose to meet mine for a brief second before they flashed back to the small black thing in his hand. A second later, he flung it across the room, and it hit the wall.

He stood in a rush and paced. “They cut us off—I’m not getting a fucking signal.”

“That means we’re back here without help,” I whispered, not wanting Stella to hear and be afraid.

He nodded. “We’ll move, but it’s going to be slower. The men won’t know to move forward and join us this far in without my word.”

“No extra protection.”

“Just who we have,” he said.

“Fucking good enough.” I forced my knees to rise from the floor, and I stood as gently as I could. She lay limp in them, and I refused to fucking think about why.

Please. Please. Please. Open your eyes, Stella. Look at me.

Saverio ordered the men to create a shield around me. Until we could make it to an area that had an escape hatch, or to Sub Rosa, which wasn’t ideal with the way the crowd was fighting, we were going to have to make it back alone.

“Move!” Saverio ordered, leading the pack of us.

As we started to move as a body, it sounded like old wheels started to turn, the rickety click clack that had been so loud before. Saverio ran to the wall, but it was too late. Another door came crashing down, and another cloud of dust swallowed us all. Men were choking, and I did my best to cover Stella’s nose and mouth, but I didn’t want her to have to struggle for air. Her breaths were barely coming as it was.

Once the dust settled, Saverio took out a flashlight and spun it around the room. A bunch of men who looked like they had gotten into a sack of wheat flour stared back.

“We are trapped,” one of them said.

Saverio hit him in the eyes with the flashlight, and he winced. I could tell he wanted to snap, no shit! , but he held his tongue and looked at me. “What I have with me is basic, but until someone comes looking for us, it’ll do.”

He ordered one of the men to hold the flashlight while he set his backpack down and started to dig through it. He took out a few supplies, including a needle and thread for sutures, along with antiseptics.

“This place is fucking filthy, but it’ll have to do for right now. I’ll try to do this without compromising what should be clean.” He poured alcohol on his hands, then called another man over and did the same to his. He removed a version of a mini folding table, rinsed it with alcohol, and then set up a makeshift area for stitches.

My stomach swam. I wasn’t intolerant of blood, or any bodily fluids, but seeing the way it constantly ran from Stella’s head was making me woozy.

“Close your eyes, Matteo,” Saverio ordered, and he rarely ordered me to do anything. “I couldn’t watch someone do this to Mia either, though I’d be thankful I didn’t have to do it myself. Stella’s bleeding severely from her head, though that’s not always uncommon since the head is so vascular, like fingers, but it needs to stop. The cold air helped it clot some, but it’s not enough to stop it altogether.”

I listened and closed my eyes while I held on tight to her. I was expecting her to squirm in my arms, ask me who I was and demand that I let her go, but she was so still, my heart didn’t feel right in my chest. It felt weak, like all the blood was draining from my body, and another inhuman noise escaped from my mouth.

“Hold on, Teo,” Saverio said, and I could tell from the brightness, even though my eyes were shut, that the flashlight was pointed at us. As Saverio stitched her up, the man whose hands were clean was helping.

She didn’t make a sound when Saverio cleaned the wound. A needle was going in and out of her head, and she still didn’t move.

“Rio,” I barely got out.

“Her pulse is not strong, but it hasn’t gone any lower either,” he said. “She’s going to be okay. I can feel it in my bones. Let’s just get this bleeding under control, and then we’re going to talk about a plan.”

Saverio wasn’t blowing smoke up my ass, but I could tell his plan never included a slamming stone door. The temperature was dropping, and I could hear some of the men’s teeth chattering. It was like a fucking meat locker. And it seemed to be sending the rats in a panic, or maybe it was the scent of blood. The ones who’d escaped from the wall were fighting with the men as they tried to keep them away from us. I’d hear a grunt and then a squeal.

Saverio sighed. “That should stop the bleeding, at least.”

I opened my eyes and looked down. She had at least fifty stitches, starting from the crown of her head and making a jagged, crescent-like wound from her forehead to her temple. Her nose was swollen. Her eyes were black and blue. Her entire body, it seemed, was covered in blood.

My body started to tremble with rage when I thought of how that had happened. She had boot marks on her flimsy clothes. She started to tremble in my arms. Saverio reached inside his backpack and grabbed a blanket. I took it from him and, awkwardly, tried to cover her. He helped me without a word, and we tucked it in tight so the cold air would have a harder time sneaking in. I’d warm her with my body heat too.

One of the men told Saverio something was on the wall. He’d felt it when he was pushing against it to see if more of it would crumble. Saverio pointed the flashlight in his direction. A torch. Saverio got closer to it and sniffed around it. “I don’t trust it,” he said almost to himself. “If we light it, it might blow up. I’m not sure if they laced the torch with something.”

“The other teams knew we were coming in this far,” I said.

Saverio nodded. “But before I could tell them our exact coordinates, Boris and friends must have severed our line.”

“Which means it might be hours before they get to us.”

He nodded, a solemn look on his face.

I wasn’t sure if Stella had hours. Or if the temperature would drop so low that we all might die. I wasn’t sure about oxygen either. I was finding it hard to take an easy breath. That could have been from the amount of dust, or my general state too. Everything inside of me wanted to get Stella out of here, but we were trapped. Saverio had even ordered the men to dig to the other side of the wall, but it was nothing but hard stone once they reached it. No pushing that stone barrier out of the way. A few men tried lifting the door, but that was a waste of time and energy.

An hour had gone by, and all we could do was wait. The men huddled around me, closer together for warmth, and fought the rats. They were insistent, almost rabid, and I’d never seen one of our men cry until one took a bite out of his pants and had refused to let go. Another man was about to shoot it, but Saverio ordered him to stand down. Another man grabbed his taser, and that was the only reason the ratto had let go. A thin line of smoke purled from its body, and its mouth was open in a snarl.

“It got me,” the man almost rasped out, holding his leg. “I will die from some horrible disease. My mamma will not even recognize me in death.” He screamed out when Saverio poured alcohol over the wound.

Saverio snapped at him in Italian not to be so dramatic, though I could see the look in Saverio’s eyes. He might contract something from the rat. If the rat had something, hopefully the alcohol would clean it out before it got in his bloodstream.

Two hours, and we were all huddling closer together. Our warm breath clashed with the frigid air and made smoke in the meager light of the flashlight. Saverio checked Stella’s pulse every so often, and a few times, the look in his eyes made my heart fight through the dull beats—panic. I could tell he didn’t like what the machine was telling him, even though he never spoke his thoughts aloud.

A few times I stood, making sure to keep her steady, as I paced the length of the room. My body was moving slower, and we all had to keep moving to keep our temperatures up. She didn’t stir in my arms or make a sound.

“Fuck!” I yelled, and again, the sound of my voice seemed to ricochet off the stones and reverberate.

For a second, the pounding from the other side seemed like it had come from my voice too, but when Saverio jumped up and got to the door, he yelled, “ Dentro! ”

Mac, Saverio’s old man, was on the other side of the door. It took about an hour, but the trap door opened just enough for us to roll underneath it. As much as I fucking hated it, I set Stella down gently, and it was my father who took her in his arms and cradled her to his chest until I made it to the other side. He handed her back so gently, it almost felt like she had been floating on air.

As we raced toward the closest escape hatch, an explosion made the floor tremble beneath my feet. I assumed it was in the underground club.

Stella moaned in my arms, and it was so unexpected, all I did was stare at her for a second. My father pushed against my back, and I started to move again.

“Lev and his men,” my father said, using sign language.

That might have been, but for the first time in hours, she’d finally made a sound. This time the noise that came from my throat was half inhuman and half mortal man. It was a sound between a wounded animal and a man who couldn’t contain the beating of his heart.

Mac went up the stairs first. I was right behind him, followed by my father. The air outside was frigid, but so clean and fresh I almost gulped it down. And as a crisp wind blew, Stella shivered in my arms. The blanket had fallen down, and her chest was exposed. I pulled her tighter against me, and she moaned again. When I looked down, her eyes were barely open.

“Stella,” I barely got out.

She tried to speak, but no words came out. Her lips were swollen and busted. Then, with a sound like sandpaper grating against something soft, she whispered, “What took you so long?”

Then she was out again, a trickle of blood running from the side of her mouth.