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I’m not leaving without Emma. Not a chance in hell.
We park the SUVs some blocks away from Altiere’s mansion, spacing them out so his security won’t catch a glimpse. Lorenzo stays with me as we spread out, surrounding his property as we start to move in. He might suspect that we’re going to do something like this, but he won’t be entirely ready. And we’re coming in with firepower that will tear what he has to shreds.
I don’t intend to be subtle about it. I intend to send a message.
The guards at the front gate are the first to go. Lorenzo and I take point with several of my security behind us, and I don’t even wait for them to speak. I fire twice, once at each of the two guards, and they drop before they can even aim.
Lorenzo whistles as I press the button to unlock the gates. “You’re not fucking around.”
“No, I’m not.” I check to make sure my guns are reloaded, and then we push forward.
I can already hear the sounds of the attack as we head towards the front of the house. My forces are moving in at the sides and back, splitting Altiere’s up. I have no doubt he has heavy security, but not enough to protect all parts of the house at all times. I hear the rattle of gunfire and the sound of breaking glass, and then we’re close enough to the front to see his guards, and our own gunfire drowns out the rest.
It’s been a long time since I’ve done this. Since there’s been so much blood, so much death around me. It’s not something I savor or desire, not like some men in my position, and I think that’s a good thing. I feel a tightness in my chest with each body that drops. These men are guards for hire—they haven’t worked for Altiere for decades. They likely had very little loyalty to him, beyond what he paid. But I didn’t have time to determine who was loyal and who would kill for him.
I couldn’t risk it, with Emma’s life and the life of our child on the line.
Lorenzo and I cut through the guards, ducking as one of them gets off a rattle of gunfire that takes out two of my men. The sight of my own security dropping sends a flare of anger through me, hot and biting, and I pivot, putting a bullet directly through the forehead of the man who took down mine. He goes down like a sack of bricks, and I step over his body, in through the front door of Altiere’s mansion.
I flatten myself against the wall as we step in, Lorenzo with me, our security pushing forward. Fontana’s men and the force from Vegas are already inside, cutting through Altiere’s security, but I’m not concerned with that. Their job is to handle the bulk of Altiere’s force.
I need to get to Emma.
“Cover me!” I call out to my men, as I head towards the stairs. I see the nod of assent out of my periphery, and Lorenzo sticks by my side as we take them two at a time, heads on a swivel for anyone coming at us. Two guards are in the hall, and I fire at them as Lorenzo takes out two more headed at us from the left. My ears are ringing from the gunshots, and my nose burns from the acrid scent of gunpowder, but I don’t slow down. I need to find out which room Emma is in.
And then I hear her high, thin shriek, and I bolt for the door that it came from.
Lorenzo’s footsteps are right behind me. I don’t bother trying to open it. I kick the door as hard as I can, splintering the wood near the knob as it swings open—and the sight in front of me makes my blood run cold.
Altiere is standing at the side of a bed, Emma held against his chest. His arm is wrapped across her neck, holding her tight, and in his other hand is a knife aimed directly at her stomach. The point is pressing into the fabric of her t-shirt, just below her navel.
“Let her go.” My voice is dark and dangerous in a way that I’ve never heard before. But what I feel isn’t something I’ve ever felt before, either. That hot rage has solidified into something cold and hard, something that would do whatever it took to get Altiere’s hands off of the woman I love.
It doesn’t matter what it takes.
I’m going to fucking destroy him.
“Put your guns down.” Altiere’s voice is cool, almost mocking. “You did well, making it this far. But we’re done with this game now. Put the guns down, or I will slice her stomach open and make you watch while I spill everything inside of her onto this floor.”
I don’t hesitate. I don’t flinch. I know I’m faster than he is, because I know I’mbetter. He came from nothing, and that might give him bravado, but I’ve lived my whole life in this world.
Just because I’ve wanted out doesn’t mean it’s not in my blood.
Before he can so much as twitch, I aim for his elbow and shoot.
Emma screams at the gunshot. I see her flinch away from the knife, but she didn’t need to. Altiere lets out a scream of pain, the fingers holding the knife going limp and nerveless as he staggers backward.
Lorenzo moves before I can even think to say a word. He darts around my other side, lunging for Emma and grabbing her arm to pull her out of the way as I advance on Altiere. I see him gathering her trembling body against his chest and hear him soothing her as he backs up, turning her away so that she doesn’t have to see. I’m grateful, in that moment, that he’s here. That Emma has someone to comfort her, even if it’s someone she doesn’t know, while I finish this.
Altiere is scrambling backward towards the window, clutching at his arm. Blood is dripping from his shattered elbow, but I barely look at it. Instead, I aim for his kneecap.
The shot drops him to his good knee. The next bullet hits that one, sending him onto his side. Tears are streaming down his cheeks, his face bone-white, the words he’s trying to get out falling from his lips as nothing but mumbled gibberish through the pain.
“Dante!” Emma cries out behind me, but I’m not finished.
“Don Fontana would like me to send his regards.” Another bullet, this one in the shoulder. Altiere lets out a moan, his body jackknifing as he bleeds onto the floor, his eyes wide with agony. “But even if he’d told me to leave you well enough alone, I’d still be here anyway.”
I crouch down, pressing the barrel to Altiere’s forehead. “Go ahead. Ask me to spare you.”
