“Fine.” He shook his head, staring at me. “You should be careful choosing this path, Arianna.” When I didn’t respond, just held his gaze, he elaborated. “Because once you get a taste of corruption, you’ll never stop.”
He brushed past me and stormed back into the station. I twisted in the chair to watch him go and exhaled, glancing over at Big-T. For the first time since I met him, the brute had a smile on his face.
“How’d I do?”
“You’re a natural,Signora.”
Sani’s phantom voice whispering ‘good girl’ in my ear sent a ripple of pleasure down my spine, and I smiled. Perhaps, Sani had always been right about me. He’d seen the rebel in me before I even recognised her.
Most Valuable Piece
“How long do you think it will be until he’s released?” I asked Max as we waited in the car for the automatic security gate to lift and let us into Sani’s underground garage. No, our garage. I had to stop treating this like a vacation. I was all in. I wanted this life with my mafia husband.
“As long as Morelli didn’t have any trouble convincing Ferri that they don’t have enough to charge him with the new evidence that’s come through, he should be released within the next hour.”
An hour. Oh, my God, I’ll get to kiss, hug, and squeeze him in just an hour. Sani’s love language was physical touch, and he wasn’t ready for how much I was going to smother him with it. Big-T parked the car in an empty space, and we all stepped out, heading through the brightly lit garage towards the lift.
“Aria!”
I spun around and spotted Allegra waving at me through the bars of the security gate.
“I saw you on the news!” she shouted, waving a bottle of champagne above her head. “Let me in so we can celebrate you being the baddest bitch!”
I laughed quietly and glanced at Max. He shrugged as if to say this is your home, and she’s your friend, so why are you asking me? I left Max and Cami waiting by the lift and jogged over to her, with Big-T’s long strides keeping up behind me.
Belio typed in the security code to override the system on the panel while I approached the gate and Ally stepped back. As the gate began to lift with a slow groan, my eyebrows tensed, and my lips tightened when I noticed Allegra wasn’t smiling anymore.
Her hand trembled around the neck of the champagne bottle, and her brown eyes were unnaturally wide.
“Ally?” My smile faded. “What’s wrong?”
Her nostrils flared, and her throat moved as she swallowed. For a moment, she didn’t speak. And then she whispered, “Run.”
The world stopped spinning for a single beat. My stomach dropped.The word had barely left her lips before everything erupted in chaos.
“Belio!” I screamed as Callum stepped into view, pressing a gun to Allegra’s temple and pulling her into him as a black transit van turned off the road and sped down the ramp, headed straight for the gate. Belio’s arms wrapped around my waist just in time to pull me out of the way as the van hurtled into the garage, the roof catching the bottom of the metal gate.
I found myself face down on the concrete floor under Belio’s body as he opened fire on the several men who jumped out of the van, all dressed in black with guns in hand. I was frozen with shock, eyes wide as I watched the scene in slow motion. For a moment, the world moved in silence. Bodies lunged. Triggers pulled. But no sound came. My brain struggled to make sense of what my eyes were seeing.
It was only the sound of bullets ricocheting off Sani’s expensive cars or whizzing past my head that tore a scream from my throat. Their guns had silencers, and that somehow made everything feel more terrifying, knowing no one outside would hear the gunfight.
Max was crouched behind a Lamborghini, holding a gun in each hand and aiming over the bonnet, shooting with incredible accuracy. There was no sign of Camilla. Knowing how protective Max was of his wife, I hoped he had pushed her into the lift just in time.
I turned my head to the right to see Callum slowly walking into the garage, with his arm wrapped around Allegra’s neck and his gun still pressed against her head. Tears were streaming down her face.
“Roll under the car!” Belio ordered, lifting his weight off me just enough for me to move, but I couldn’t take my eyes off Allegra. She whimpered again when Callum dug his gun harder into her temple.
“You can take her place, Aria. They don’t all have to die.”
The lift door opened, and four of Sani’s soldiers rushed out, guns aimed. One was hit immediately, while the others took cover.
Belio swung his gun towards Callum, but I shouted no. He didn’t have a clear shot. Callum was using Allegra’s body as a shield, and I couldn’t risk him shooting her instead.
“Aria,” Ally cried, and my chest tightened as fresh tears welled in my eyes. I’d never seen anyone so terrified, and it was all my fault. I never should have dragged her into my mess.
“He wants me,” I choked, and I started to rise from the floor. Belio pushed me back down, keeping one hand on my back while bullets continued to fly in our direction.
“No,Signora. Stay down.”
