Page 37

The office door splintered as we both kicked it open at the same time.

Four men turned in surprise: three guards and Antonio Caselli himself.

Larissa sat tied to a chair, a bruise forming on her left cheek, but her eyes blazed with fury instead of fear.

When she saw me, I swear I felt her shoulders relax and saw her lips turn upward.

“Told you you’d face hell,” she sniggered, turning to Antonio.

Antonio glowered at her, before turning to us.

“Lebedev and Ajello working together,” Antonio drawled, reaching for his gun. “How touching.”

“You took my sister!” Gastone roared, lunging for him, but the guards surrounding us raised their weapons at him, forcing him to stop.

Antonio grinned. “It was your idea.”

“You bastard,” Gastone growled. “You know that’s not what I meant.”

“You’re going to pay, Antonio,” I hissed. Slowly, ever so slowly, while everyone was focused on the guns in our hands, I slid my other behind my back and pulled out the second one. Gastone caught my gaze, and that’s when I nodded.

Just as he ran and used the momentum to slide on the floor and kick out Antonio from his feet, I turned both guns on two guards and killed them at the same time.

Beside me, Gastone and Antonio struggled for Antonio’s fallen gun while I shot down the third.

The fourth, to my surprise, paled and ran out.

Before he could bring back-up, I turned to help Gastone.

Gastone took a bullet to the shoulder but kept fighting.

I couldn’t risk shooting without losing Gastone.

I lunged toward them and grabbed Antonio by his hair, wrapped a hand across his face, pulling him back.

I watched as Gastone slit his throat, before falling back to the ground to catch his breath.

I left him there and only had one singular intention: Larissa.

I reached and kneeled in front of her, and when I saw those gorgeous aquamarine eyes, my world suddenly found its axis.

“Larissa,” I whispered, clutching her cheeks for just a moment, before turning to Gastone.

Despite his injury, he noticed and threw me his knife.

I cut through Larissa's restraints with trembling hands.

“You came for me,” she whispered once free, grabbing my hands. The way she stared at me, as if I were the light of her existence, filled my heart with warmth.

“Always,” I replied, kissing her forehead as I helped her to her feet. Her body swayed against mine, and I pulled her close, breathing in the scent of her hair, reassuring myself that she was real and alive.

The warehouse echoed with the sounds of the fight winding down. Caspian's voice called the all-clear from below. Gastone pressed a hand to his bleeding shoulder, watching us with unreadable eyes.

“We need to get out of here,” he said finally. “Police will be coming soon.”

We made our way down to find most of the Caselli men dead or incapacitated. My brothers stood victorious but wary, eyes darting between me and Larissa, assessing the way she clung to my arm.

Outside, as we regrouped by the vehicles, the temporary alliance began to fray.

“Larissa,” said Gastone to her trembling form beside me. “Come.”

Beside him, Dom opened the door to his car.

“But—” I protested just as Larissa’s eyes blasted wide and she stepped behind me.

“This changes nothing between our families,” Gastone said coldly. “And you”—he looked directly at me—”you stay away from my sister.”

“Gastone,” beside me, Caspian stepped up. “You know my brothers won’t hurt her.”

“I don’t know shit,” Gastone snarled, taking a step toward Caspian. “They’ve known each other for three months. From what I recall, the Lebedevs change colors like seasons.”

“You know that’s not true,” Federico snarled just as Dino and Carlo flanked Gastone for back-up.

Things would get dangerous, I knew that, if I didn’t stop it now.

“Look, Gastone,” I said as I felt Larissa huddle behind me. “I’ll do anything to prove you wrong. Anything.”

“Anything?” Gastone smiled.

“Yes. Anything,” I said, with such intent, such meaning, that I knew I’d give an arm if needed.

“Give her freedom. Ensure her safety. She’s better off with us. The Lebedevs have enemies everywhere.”

There was something in the way he said it, with such care for his sister, that for a moment, I froze. Was I being selfish by bringing in a woman I loved to death into this dark world? Was she safer with Gastone? I was lost, afraid to say something wrong, afraid to know what was right.

In that moment of hesitation, I felt Larissa move. I turned, thinking she had chosen to walk away, feeling a strange, hard lump in my throat that restricted my breath as she walked past me and stopped halfway between her brothers and me.

“Enough,” she said, her voice stronger than I expected as she moved her eyes to each one of us. “No more of this.”

“Larissa, get in the car,” Dino ordered gently. “We're taking you home.”

She shook her head and when she turned to Dino, I swear I saw teeth . “I'm not going anywhere without Gio.”

“This isn't the time for your rebellion,” Gastone snapped. “That man is seventeen years older than you and our enemy.”

“That man,” she replied, her chin lifting defiantly, “is the father of my child.”

The words hung in the air like suspended glass, fragile and sharp. I felt as though I'd been struck by lightning, electricity replacing the blood in my veins.

Larissa was pregnant. With my child.

“What did you just say?” Carlo's voice was dangerously quiet.

Larissa turned to face me, her eyes searching mine. “I'm pregnant, Gio. That's why I told you to stay away. I was scared—of my brothers, of the future, of how they’d hurt you and how you’d react. But when I saw you tonight, I knew I couldn't keep lying.”

My throat tightened with emotion. “How long have you known?”

“Ten weeks now,” she admitted. “I found out just before our fight from the day we got back from the mall.”

The pieces fell into place—her sudden distance, the harsh words meant to push me away. She'd been protecting our child, uncertain of her brother’s reaction. And on one level, mine.

I stepped forward, ignoring the warning looks from her brothers and mine. Taking her hands in mine, I searched for the right words, ones that could tell her how I felt, though it seemed impossible. How could I? When there were no words to describe the volcano of love I couldn’t contain.

“I've spent two weeks thinking I couldn’t live without you,” I told her softly. “I was wrong.”

Her aquamarine eyes widened. “What are you saying?”

“I'm saying I was wrong because if you aren’t in my life, Larissa, I’d choose death.

It’s beyond living, the way I feel about you.

Beyond death, beyond time, beyond history, beyond anything.

What I feel for you is everything, all-consuming.

I love you, Larissa Ajello. I have from the first moment, though I was too stubborn to admit it.

And I already love this child—our child. ”

A tear slipped down her cheek. “I love you too. So much it terrifies me. I thought I could let you believe I wanted nothing to do with you, but I couldn’t. Tonight, I snuck out to seek you out.”

“You did what?” Gastone bellowed from where he stood, took away this wonderful moment, but something in Larissa’s eyes told me that moments like these were plenty to come.

She’d decided that I was the one for her, and I knew she was the one for me.

She carried my child—our child—and she was now my family.

I would never allow anyone to take her from me again. I would protect her because she was mine. I turned to Gastone, ready to tell him so, to warn him not to mess with the future Mrs. Lebedev when, to my surprise, I heard Larissa speak first.

“No one will love this baby fiercer than Gio,” she said, turning to face her brothers, her hand still clutched in mine. “No one will protect us better. This isn't just about our families anymore. I carry a baby in my womb. A child who deserves his or her father.”

Gastone stared at us, the conflict evident on his face. Behind him, Caspian and my brothers stood silently. I knew they would back my decision, whatever it might be.

Gastone stepped forward, and I watched as his hand reached behind him. “I wouldn’t do that if I were you,” I growled. Beside me, Larissa shook her head and bellowed—

“Gastone!No!”

He paused and his eyes travelled between us, before they finally rested and remained on Larissa. “There are other ways to handle this, you know? This situation you’re in with this…baby.”

What he insinuated has me clenching my fists and I feel Larissa tremble beside me.

Behind me, Caspian hissed “How dare you?”

“Gastone,” Dino was the first to speak. “What you suggest, it’s…it’s Larissa. We can’t.”

“We can and we will,” Gastone turned and glowered at his brothers before turning back to face Larissa. “Come with me. You want to keep the child? Fine. Keep it. We’ll raise it. But you can’t stay with him.”

Larissa’s grip on my hand tightened. “I've never been more certain of anything in my life when I say I love Gio. My child deserves his father’s love, and I deserve to build the family I want. Please, Gastone. It’s him or… no one.”

“You’re young,” he shook his head. “You don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“I know enough to say I’ll die if I can’t be with Gio. You hear me, Gastone?” Larissa now screamed as tears started pouring down her face. I turned to her, to see her heart laid out so raw for this world, and couldn’t bear to see her in pain. I reached out and gently wiped her tears away.

“No, sweetheart, no. Don’t say that,” I pleaded, as a lump formed in my throat. I caressed her cheek and she leaned into it, closing her eyes.

“Gastone,” I heard Dino. “We should leave.”

Larissa and I both looked over at Dino in surprise and noticed how Dino and Carlo were no standing on either side of Gastone.

“But”- Gastone tried speaking, but Carlo shook his head.

“We always follow you, brother. But this time, you ask too much of your sister. Dino and I both feel,” and then, Carlo looked at us and smiled, “that we have no other choice but to accept this.”

Gastone sighed deeply and a frown formed across his forehead. “I will never accept this, you all hear me? But clearly, I’m outnumbered today. But you will come to regret this choice. All of you,” he hissed at Larissa, at my brothers, at me and his.

And then he turned and walked to his car, slamming the door shut behind him. Dino and Carlo stepped forward, as though they wanted to pull their little sister into a hug, but with Gastone so furious, now obviously wasn’t the time.

“We wish you well, sister,” Dino said at last and Carlo nodded. Then, the two men were gone just as fast.

I felt a weight lift from my chest, replaced by a new one—the responsibility of a future I'd never imagined for myself. A woman I loved. A child on the way. A bridge between two warring families.

“Don’t worry,” I said, pulling Larissa close to my side. “You and I are a family now, and we’ll figure this all out.”