“I promise.” My voice breaks on the words, my heart shattering to pieces. “We’ll take care of them. We’ll make sure they’re okay. Elena and your kids will never want for anything, I swear it on my life.”
“Good.” His grip on my hand is weakening, his fingers going cold. “That’s good. That’s…that’s all I needed to hear.”
“Marco, please. Please don’t leave us. Dante needs you. Elena needs you. Your kids need their father.”
“Tell Dante…” Another cough, weaker this time, with more blood spilling from his lips. “Tell him it was an honor. Every fight we survived together. Every mission. Every stupid risk we took when we were young and thought we were invincible. Even the bad parts. Especially the bad parts. Tell him…he was the brother I chose. The brother I never had.”
“I’ll tell him. I’ll tell him everything.”
His eyes are drifting now, losing focus, the pain fading from his expression as something else takes over. It’s like peace and relief.
“Marco. Marco, please!”
His chest rises one more time then falls. And doesn’t rise again.
I watch the light leave his eyes. Watch the last breath escape his lips in a soft sigh. Watch the man who saved my life, who threw himself on a grenade for me and my son, slip away into Oblivion.
He’s gone.
33
DANTE
The cathedral has become hell on earth and, and to survive I have to fight my way through like a demon.
Isabella’s men are everywhere, pouring through the ruined doors in their numbers, their weapons cutting down what’s left of my men. They’re fresh and well-armed, pushing my already weakened team to the breaking point with every passing second.
I’ve picked up a gun from one of the fallen men, an automatic rifle I don’t recognize, and I’m using it to cut through the chaos. Two of Isabella’s soldiers come at me from the left and I drop them both with two angry shots. A third tries to grab me and I spin, squeeze the trigger, and watch him crumple.
But for every one I kill, more keep coming.
My men are dying around me. Good and loyal men. Men who volunteered for this mission knowing they might not come home, and now they’re paying that price in blood and sweat.
I see Santos go down with three rounds in his back. He was with me for eight years. Had a daughter who just started school.
I see Dimitri take a shot to the throat and drop without a sound. He never talked much, but he was steady and reliable. The kind of man you wanted watching your back.
I see Roy trying to drag a wounded soldier to cover and getting cut down from behind. Both are dead before they hit the ground.
The cost is devastating. Bodies of friends and enemies alike covering the cathedral floor, blood mixing with the snow that’s still drifting through the shattered windows, landing on corpses and melting into pools of red. Fire has started somewhere near the entrance, smoke adding to the chaos, making it hard to see and breathe.
This is what war looks like. This is what I’ve spent my last seventy-two hours preparing for, and it’s still not enough.
I’m reloading behind a pillar when I see Father Benedetto. He’s moving through the carnage in his black robes, trying to help the wounded. He’s not armed, not even with a knife. Just doing what priests do—offering comfort and prayers. Trying to bring some small piece of God into this godless place.
What the hell is he doing here?
He must have come when he heard the gunfire, thinking he could negotiate peace or help the injured. Stupid. Brave, but not the kind needed in a place like this.
I watch him kneel beside one of my fallen men, making the sign of the cross, murmuring words I can’t hear over the gunfire. The dying soldier reaches up and touches his face, and Father Benedetto takes his hand, holding it tight as the life drains away.
Then the stray bullet hits him.
The round catching him in the side, spinning him around, and dropping him to the stone floor. His robes spread out around him like dark wings, blood appearing. It all happens like a scene in a movie, and I can’t stop it.
“No!”
I’m running before I realize I’ve moved, sliding to my knees beside him, my gun forgotten. There’s blood spreading across his chest, too much blood, and his eyes are already going lifeless.
