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The line goes dead, and he hangs up. I hold the phone to my ear, the words playing off in my head over and over again.

What could it all possibly mean? I wrack my brain, playing the words over and over again. For a split second, my mind goes blank. But then?—

He’s talking about Beatrice. I know that much, but what could it be that she cherished last? She loved so many things: her family, a good glass of wine, the mountains in Aspen, and…

“I know where she is,” I say under my breath.

I built her a cabin about five years ago. She loved to go there every fall to sit among the pine trees and breathe in the freshness of nature. The last time we went was only a few months before she passed.

My pulse slams against my ribs, and I’m already dialing Dario back.

He picks up instantly. “Talk.”

“He has her at my family cabin. It’s about an hour out of the city.” My voice is razor-sharp. “I will send you the address, and you can meet us there.”

“We need to move now if it’s an hour out—we don’t have long until daybreak,” Dario says, his tone sharp. “I’ve got a team ready and assembled. We keep the squads small—he’ll be expecting firepower. We outmaneuver them. Be smart, be fast. We get her out first. Then, we take the shot and put this fucker down.”

And that honor will be all mine.

I hear some shuffling in the background before she comes back on the line. Her voice is thick with emotion—like she’s been crying.

“Matteo,” Ginny says, breathless. “There’s something you need to know.”

My grip tightens around the phone. “Know what?”

Something in her voice—sharp, trembling—makes the air shift.

“Maria might be pregnant.”

The world tilts.

For one long, brutal second, I forget how to breathe.

Everything fades—the car, the road, the sky bleeding into dusk.

Maria. Pregnant.

A baby.

My blood. Our future.

I clutch the phone so hard it creaks in my hand. “What did you just say?”

Ginny exhales shakily. “She wasn’t feeling well, Matteo. I told her to take a test, and she said she’d let me know once she found out… but she never got back to m?—”

I can’t hear the rest. My heart is pounding too loudly. My vision blurs. I don’t even realize my hand is shaking until Valerio looks back and grabs my wrist. Steadying me.

“Boss,” he says, voice tense, urgent. “You okay?”

I inhale sharply, locking my focus back into place.

“Yeah,” I swallow hard. “I’m fine. Head to the cabin. I will call in the reinforcements and make sure they meet us three miles out. We are shooting to kill, but leave Giacomo for me. It will be my bullet that ends him.”

Valerio presses on the gas and floors it down the road straight into battle.

You wanted war, Giacomo? Prepare to die in it.

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