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I would kill a Rossi before anyone hurt Bianca.

“Bianca, goddammit,” Renz broke off in a groan of pain.

“Shut up and save your energy,” she snapped at her brother. She rose like a battered soldier who still had a lot of fight in her. One who was about to make a last stand. She stared down at Gian. “I’ll do what you want.”

Gian rose to his feet. He wasn’t a tall man, five eight at most, but he made up for his height with arrogance and the sickening entitlement he shoved down people’s throats to make sure they knew he earned his place in the family. That he earned the Rossi last name, unlike me, I wanted to get rid of it. That was still the plan.

“But my brother gets medical attention right this fucking minute,” Bianca continued with steel in her voice.

“Of course.” Gian’s gloating tone triggered the swoosh of fury in my ears. Marrying Bianca De Lucci was a coup. No one in the mafia dared pursue her for fear of Cesar, but this was a rare advantage. My mind worked furiously on how to get her out of this crisis and it was hitting every roadblock except one.

“And after I marry you, you will return Renz to my family,” Bianca continued to negotiate. “Unharmed. Otherwise, I will make you sorry you married me.”

“Feisty,” Gian said with a malice that sickened me. “I like that.”

“Sandro.” She addressed me in a monotone voice as if she was reading a manifesto of someone sentenced to death. “If he reneges on his promise and either Renz or I are killed, you will avenge us, yes?”

Gian laughed. “You can’t make that request, my dear.”

“Sandro is an enforcer, is he not?” Her eyes were still on me, her anger morphing into a chilling stare.

“For the Rossi crime family,” Gian said. “He cannot act without my order.”

That’s where you’re wrong, cuz.

I kept my face expressionless. But my whole body thrummed with the urge to act. To yank Bianca out of this nightmare.

“But you put the Rossi crime family at risk if you don’t have Renz or me to bargain with.” She stared at me. “And as the guardian enforcer, Sandro is acting within his rights to eliminate the risks to the family…meaning you.”

A silence fell over the room. I had become an urban legend after I killed the notorious butcher of Toronto at age nineteen. He’d been the biggest threat to our organization. The elders created my title as the “guardian” enforcer—the protector of the family who eliminated anyone who was a danger to us, even a boss or a high-ranking member. They didn’t clarify the extent of my powers. When I went away for a year in a Russian prison and didn’t crack, the legend only grew. I scoffed at it. No one could really make a direct link to me and my kills. But if it would make Gian second-guess hurting Bianca and Renz, I was gonna play it up.

“She’s right.”

“And how did she know about the guardian position?” Gian asked. “This is not common knowledge outside our family.”

“Who cares!” Bianca snapped. “My brother needs medical attention now.”

“Doc is on his way,” Tommy said.

“We can’t stay here,” I said. “This is the first place the De Luccis will look.” I ignored the blast of betrayal coming from Bianca, but Dom and Matteo were out of town. I didn’t trust Dom’s underboss, and Nico was a hothead.

“You’re right,” Gian agreed, then grinned at Bianca. “I’ll have the marriage license expedited.”

Bianca stared at Gian blankly. Lost in the fiasco playing out in front of her, she was bearing all the blame for what happened to her brother. Her skin, once creamy and vibrant, had taken on the grayish pallor of death.

As much as I wanted to reassure her, Bianca needed the enforcer and not her childhood friend.

“We need to move his delivery van,” I told Gian. The property owner of this house was a shell company. Given the De Luccis’ resources, though, they would connect it with the Rossis in no time. A plan was forming in my head. A path I never imagined taking, but it was the only way.

Hours later, Tommy emerged from his huddle with Gian. “The Brooklyn property is crawling with De Lucci soldiers,” he informed me. “Nico is with them.”

I’d already switched off my phone with the number the De Luccis knew. Two hours after Renz and Bianca became our prisoners, I received the first text from Nico. Like I suspected, it wouldn’t take them long to figure out the Rossis’ connection to the house in Brooklyn. Dom texted me next. With my lack of response, they called. The messages became angrier and progressively threatening at my continued silence. And my silence indicated I was involved in their disappearance.

“Keep an eye on what they’re doing. Any news on the other De Luccis?”

“No. But Luca is trying to reach us.”

Fuck.