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ALESSANDRO

B loodlust and rage start to clear.

Minutes or hours pass as I bludgeon and slash my way through every thug that came here tonight.

I demand answers. I kill those who can’t give me any.

Time slips past.

Then there’s none left.

I still hear her scream, the door cracking back, the silhouettes rushing in.

Her warning to duck saved my ass. A split second later and I would have been ground beef. Fortunately, most of the shooters were sloppy, unloading their guns into the door, not following whichever way I could have dived. Inexperienced muscle.

Inexperienced or not, they messed up coming here tonight. Seeing that bastard’s hand wrapped around my lover’s face drove me insane.

Which is also why I wiped them out, even though they had us beat four to one.

As soon as the bullets stopped, I was through the door bashing it across the hallway, knocking one of the guards to the ground. The butt of my pistol bashed his head in and I was gone, dashing down the carpeted hallway.

Shadows danced along the periphery of my vision but I didn’t see them. My people dodged out of my way.

My enemies were fleeting obstacles in the way of my hunt to save my love.

I slashed and shot until my gun was empty.

Then I took whatever I could find, bun, knife, then a billy club. My brothers cleared the dining hall, the upstairs, driving them back into the entryway.

“Aless! Stop!” Adriano’s deep shout barely registered.

I chased the van carrying her away until my feet bled. Ero pulled up beside me a mile from the house in his Mercedes. Forcing me to return.

By the time I got back, most of the survivors were lined up, waiting for me to interrogate.

“Minimal losses.” The words drag me back to the present. Adriano’s eyes are sunken. He hasn’t been sleeping.

“Good. Who did we lose?”

“Gabe, Danny. A few of the house staff were shot. Tanya was killed.”

“Fuck.” My fist hammers the desk. But it’s a small loss in the face of the hoards of intruders we wiped out. Bodies form a wall out front, just below my window on the driveway. Never has there been a battle like this on our territory, verifiably out in the open.

“I will deliver the news to their families myself. Is the cleanup crew here yet?”

“Ten minutes out.” Ciro chirps, still on the phone.

“Any sign of the cops?”

“No.” Adriano answers.

“Doctor Hinoto?” I grip the edge of the desk, desperate to be gone, hunting for the only thing that really matters to me right now. They have her.

“He’s tending to the wounded now. We got this, Alessandro.”

“This is too far. An invasion? A fucking all-out assault?” I’m up, pacing, my fist splintering the door frame as I drive my knuckles home. “How did they get in without raising an alarm?”

“They had layouts of the house, clearly. Disarmed the security system, plus the numbers. They overwhelmed the guards before they could do a damn thing.”

“Ciro, I want you to check in with everyone. Take statements. I want every detail. Someone has to know something. Where’s Ero?”

Adriano tongues the inside of his cheek, avoiding my gaze.

“Where the fuck is he?”

“He took off after he dropped you off. He tailed one of the vans for a bit.”

“So he may know where they went?!” I’m raging, a lion in a cage. “Call him!”

“He’s on his way back, now. We just have to wait to see what he found, alright?”

“I can't wait. I need to get to her. I need to know she's okay.”

“Alessandro, this is what I was worried about. And I didn't want to have to do this, but I’m pulling rank. I’ll fucking lock you up if I have to. You cannot go after her. You need to let it go. She betrayed us. We need to be strong and decisive. We need to be unified.”

“I am unified! With her! And she had reasons for what she did.”

“Everyone has reasons, those mooks all had reasons to attack us tonight. Is she worth sacrificing your life over?”

“Yes. I’m better with her. I’m stronger when she’s with me!”

“And right now she’s being used against you. To put you in danger.”

“How is that her fault?” I spin, slamming my palm down, hammering him with a stare. We stay that way for a moment, locked in a contest of wills. But I cave first. “I…I need her, Adriano.”

To say those words to anyone else would be unthinkable, total weakness. He’s the only one who can ever see me this way, my consigliere , my closest confidante.

“Are you sure she won’t betray you again?”

“She’s one of us. She’s Giorgio’s sister. I have to trust in that.”

Adriano is about to protest when Ciro stomps down the hall, making more noise than necessary. He freezes when he steps through the door, looking between the two of us bent over opposite sides of the table, clearly in the middle of a fight.

Ero follows him in, quiet. Serious.

And avoiding my gaze.

So is Ciro.

Which means they have news. And it’s not good.

“Ciro, you first. What’s going on?”

“The house is in order. Everybody is evacuated for the night to safe houses. Elders are accounted for.”

“And?” Something has him squirming under my gaze.

“That’s it.”

“Bullshit. Tell me.”

“Not yet.” He flicks his eyes to Adriano and I immediately get angry.

“Don't look at him. I asked you a question. Is it about Isabella? Angelica?”

“Gigi and Angie are fine.”

“Ciro, I swear to God, I’ll throttle you.”

“I said they’re safe, alright?”

“Look, let’s get the full story, hear Ero’s report before—” Adriano reaches for my arm and I jerk it away, starting around the table toward Ciro.

Adri catches me, holds me back. “Hey. You trust me right? Cool your jets.”

“Of course I trust you. But I don't have to like it. I don't have to like you either right now.” I point at Ciro with all the hatred I can muster in one finger.

“Ero?”

“I tracked a van. Lost them.” He shrugs, like that’s good enough.

“Then where the fuck have you been?!” He looks at Ciro, tucking his hands in his pockets. “Him first.”

“Is everyone scheming against me tonight?”

Ciro sighs, looking green in the face. “Look, uh, Angelica told me something. Made me promise not to say, but then I told her Isabella was taken, and?—”

Adriano loses his temper this time, realizing something’s not right. “Quit beating around the bush and spit it out, Zero!” He only calls him that when he’s mad.

“Isabella’s pregnant.”

A dead silence settles in the room like a gut punch.

I can’t breathe. Roaring, rushing blood floods through my ears, red tinting my vision.

And without warning my fist is driving right into Ciro’s face, all the pent-up energy and angst rocketing out through my fist.

He's immediately laughing, pulling himself up while Adriano holds me back from continuing my tirade.

“Geez, way to stab the messenger.”

“It’s ‘shoot the messenger,’” Ero mumbles.

Adriano looks more like I just hit him in the face. For the first time in years, he looks surprised. Taken off guard, looking at me like I’m a ticking bomb.

“So…is this good news or bad news?” Ciro mutters, looking around the room. “I mean, it is yours, right?”

I don’t have a chance to answer. Adriano starts cussing, stomping around the room.

“I fucking knew it! You have to be shitting me. Of course you did. I leave you up in the mountains for a week, what did I expect?” His tirade rattles on, his top totally blown.

Ciro, Ero, and I watch him unspool, kicking over a chair. Eventually he flops down, sighing.

“You done?” I ask.

“Yeah, I’m done.”

“Good. Cause I need you here running the show while I'm gone.” I’m already walking, heading straight for the armory.

It takes the three of them a few seconds to rush after me, catching me as I stuff every gun I can lay hands on into a duffel bag. Ammo. Grenades.

I strap on a vest as they circle around the table.

“Alessandro—” Adriano starts.

“My mind’s made up.”

“Yeah, I got that.”

“But what the fuck do you think you’re doing?” Ciro chimes in.

“What does it look like? I'm going to save her.”

“By yourself. Right,” Ero retorts.

“Never took you for the type to go running off to get killed over some broad,” Ciro chuckles, leaning over the table, egging me on.

“She’s not some broad. She’s?—”

“We know. Adri told us how you were with her. We’ve seen you since you got back. You’re different.”

“Isabella is …”

“We know. She’s the one. And she’s carrying your kid.”

It hits me, really hits me as I stare down at my hands on the table.

Me. A father.

“I have to go.”

“Not alone you don’t.”

“You’re all pains in my ass.”

Three sets of eyes lock onto me, waiting. That deadly calm is settling in, the facts and surprises falling into the background. The three of them know what it means when I get like this.

“I will not order you to come. As your boss, I shouldn’t, not with everything going on. I can’t do that.”

“Then don’t order us to do shit, so we won’t have to disobey you.” Adriano crosses his arms.

“Then I’ll ask. As my blood, as my brothers. Help me save her.”

“There he is.” Ciro grins.

“And I know where she is,” Ero offers, cold as ever.

“I knew I could count on you to find her.” I meet each of their eyes. “Are you with me?”

There's a moment of silence.

“We’re with you till the end of time, brother,” Adriano growls.

“To the blood.”

“To the blood!”

We ride out to slaughter.