AllFreeNovel
Share Us
The voice in my head sounded completely sure. Surer than I’d ever been of anything. Maybe I was kidding myself, but it was oddly comforting as I curled up in a ball and listened to the sound of my fate being decided in the room next door.
CHAPTER11
Antonio
Iwas on my way back to the penthouse when Luca called in the attack. I was ten minutes away, and I made it back in three. Tearing up the stairs toward the penthouse, my men by my side and my gun in my hand, an uncomfortable truth sat heavily on my conscience.
I couldn’t let Chiara get hurt. Nothing else mattered.
I saw my men had already done damage when we issued out of the stairwell on the opposite side of the foyer. After sending the elevator up empty, the De Luca men were poised to fire on it. We got to them first. Having a shoot-out in a high-profile apartment building smack in the middle of downtown wasn’t good for business, but that would be Vincenzo’s problem. His connections in the police department had to be good for something.
When the last man fell, I advanced inside. My men were checking every room, and there was the occasional gunshot as a rival family member was discovered in the labyrinth of rooms. The only place I cared about getting to was the safe room.
I made my way toward it. When I got there, my heart fell to see Vittorio, an older made man of my father’s generation, fallen by the door, his dark blood seeping into the floorboards. Another man, his attacker, had fallen half on, half off the bed. I went to Vittorio’s side, surprised to find him breathing.
“Vittorio,stai bene?”
He shook his head, blood bubbling on his lips. His eyes darted over my shoulder, warning me with his last breath of life and giving me just enough time to twist. The knife flashed, and pain scored across my side. The blade skittered off my ribs. I fell to the side and quickly gained my feet. The De Luca playing dead on the bed was coming at me again, his knife already coated with my blood. I wondered what the hell Giacomo’s plan had been. He was starting a fight he could never win.
The man came for me, and I dropped, grabbing Vittorio’s gun from his limp hand. I turned, pumping lead into my attacker at point blank range as he bore down on me with the knife aimed at my chest.
He fell against me, the knife too close to deflect. It sank into my arm and stayed. I let out a bellow of pain as Luca ran into the room.
“Fuck. You want me to remove it or call the doc? The rest of them are dead. It’s over.” His eyes were on my body, pinned to the wood by the knife, even after he pulled the dead guy off me.
“Get the panic room open. Get her out,” I told him flatly.
“Boss—” Luca started.
“Now. Do it now!” I roared at him.
As he turned away, carefully expressionless, I flopped back, utterly exhausted.
“She doesn’t like small spaces,” I muttered to no one at this point. To myself. The loser in this entire situation.
There was no escaping the truth. I didn’t take Chiara for revenge or follow her to stop Vincenzo from ordering her death. I took her, protected her, and sought her madly because I wanted her for myself. To keep.
I heard the door opening and Luca talking quietly. My head swam, an irritating effect of losing blood. Chiara came into sight as I struggled to sit up to see her. I had to know if she was harmed. I had to know how much I needed to destroy Giacomo De Luca. She walked toward me, her eyes running across the bodies in the room and fixed on me. Her mouth twisted into a cry of shock, and she slapped a hand across it to hide behind. She took a step toward me and slipped, landing hard on her knees.
“Luca, help her,” I urged, my tongue thick and unbiddable in my mouth.
What had she slipped on? I twisted my head and saw a sea of crimson beneath her, a tide washing from me to her. It was far more blood than I’d expected. A fuck load. Chiara was crying, long, crystal-like tears dripping down her rounded cheeks.
She crawled toward me, her hands red and shiny, like a kid fingerpainting. Her eyes were fixed on mine, and she let me see everything for the first time since the night we’d met. Her worry, her fear, and confusion. I drank it in like an emotionally starved vampire.
“Antonio,” she said, even as Luca pulled her away.
The room darkened around the edges as night crowded in, but even while my eyes shut, I knew I wouldn’t forget the worry on Chiara De Luca’s face.
Worry for me.
For the first time, in a very long time, in my own fucked up way, I felt like I was winning.
CHAPTER12
Antonio
Isurfaced slowly, swimming back to consciousness, to see Luca standing with my younger brother, Rocco, at the end of a bed.
