Page 82 of The Kingpin’s Bride

“Alive,” I said. “For now.”

Then I turned to the passenger side.

The door was jammed from the impact. I wrenched it open.

Morena was curled around her sister in the footwell, body shielding her as much as the small space allowed. Blood ran down her cheek from a cut that was fresh. Her eyes found mine over the top of Camilla’s head .I crouched in the open door, careful not to crowd them.

“Morena.” Her name came out rough. She stared at me like she was deciding whether I was real. Then her arms tightened around the child and she gave a single, sharp nod. I reached in slowly. “I’m taking you both home. Now.”

She let me help her out of the wrecked car. The second her feet hit the ground her injured ankle nearly folded. I caught her around the waist with one arm and kept the other free. Camilla stayed locked against her, small fingers twisted in my wife’s top .

Santino appeared at my shoulder, weapon up, eyes scanning the trees.

“Dario’s secure,” he said. “Two teams sweeping the house. No other hostiles.”

I nodded once, never looking away from Morena. She was breathing hard. Blood tracked down her face. She looked like she had walked through hell to get here. And she had done it without me.

I shrugged out of my jacket and settled it around my wife as carefully as I could. Morena’s free hand came up and clutched the front of the jacket like she needed the weight of it.

“I’ve got you,” I said quietly. “Both of you.”

Her eyes closed for a second. When they opened again there was something exhausted and complicated in them. Not forgiveness. Not surrender. Something closer to recognition.

“And I have something of yours, little lady.” I produced the pink unicorn jacket. “Is this yours?”

She nodded shyly. I wrapped it around her. Camilla flinched at the movement, then seemed to decide I was not an immediate threat.

Santino’s voice stayed low. “Medical is two minutes out. We should move.”

I guided Morena toward the nearest SUV. She limped badly but refused to let me take Camilla from her arms. I did not push it. One of the men opened the rear door. I helped her inside and climbed in after them, keeping my body between them and the open night.

Dario was being loaded into a different vehicle, conscious, breathing. He would answer every question I had before the sun finished rising. That was a later problem.

Right now the only thing that mattered was the woman beside me and the little girl in her arms.

The door shut. The SUV started moving. I reached into my pocket and closed my hand around the ring. The only sound was Camilla’s breathing and the low rumble of the engine as we left the trees behind. Camilla shifted in Morena’s arms.

The silence that followed was heavier than the one that had filled the car before.

Morena pressed her mouth to the top of her sister’s head and closed her eyes.

I watched them both and felt the last of any hesitation I might have had about what came next drain out of me.

“Bring him.”

Two of my men dragged Dario Rizzo over. He was bleeding from the shoulder and the knee, breathing hard, trying to look like he still had leverage. They dropped him on his knees in the dirt ten feet from the vehicle. The headlights caught the sweat and blood on his face and turned it cheap and yellow.

Morena was already in the penthouse with her sister. They had been through enough. This part was mine.

Dario lifted his head and found me. An ugly little smile pulled at his mouth.

“You going to make a speech?” he rasped. “About how she’s yours now? About the kid?”

I stepped closer. The ground was soft from last night’s rain. My boot sank half an inch. I let him see I was in no hurry. He kept talking. Men like him always did when the end was close and they still thought words were a weapon.

“I had them both for years. Your pretty wife danced with my collar on her throat long before she wore yours. I put it on her. I taught her what it meant. Every night she came home with my money in her fist and my marks under the lace. You paid thirty-five million for used goods, Ventura.”

I said nothing. The gun was already in my hand. It felt ordinary. That was the part that should have scared me. He smirked. Blood in his teeth.