Page 27 of Single Mom's Mafia Daddies

I looked up in time to see his expression harden. He kissed my temple and spun on his heel. Renzo barked orders from behind me with the efficiency of a military general. I blocked them out and hurried to stand beside Leo. I couldn’t block out the gunfire peppering the air, or the shouts drifting through the house.

Leo bobbed his head and sang a few words from one of his favorite songs. A small tendril of comfort twisted through me as I looked at the phone playing a curated playlist of child-friendly songs shuffling for him. My heart squeezed. Renzo did this. He’d protected Leo the best he could and shielded him with music and art.

14

RENZO

“Alessio, you and Matteo investigate the threat. Cover fire if necessary but do not interfere with my men.” I slipped easily into death mode…perhaps too easily. Stealth and I had been friends far longer than any other aspect of my life.

I gathered up the remnants of my heart and tucked them away for safekeeping. Leo and Lila were safe in my room. Almost as secure as our panic room, but moving them there would put them in danger during transit. My room was safer, for now. If Leo followed my instructions, he’d never know the danger that lurked outside.

Strapping on the bulletproof vest, I doublechecked my weapons as I ran down the hall and ducked out the side door. Gunfire erupted from behind the wall. I palmed the Kimber 1911 and rested my finger along the trigger guard.

“Assault protocol.” I hissed the order at the three men waiting for me in their black tactical gear and dark masks.

They nodded and disappeared into the night, going left, right, and straight ahead. I tracked left, toward the gunfire, and used Matteo’s latest tech binoculars to peer through thelimestone. Bruce, one of my oldest men, held off two others who rapid fired their ARs into the vehicle Bruce hid behind.

My teeth locked together on a growl. I stepped back then took a running leap and clambered my way up the corner and over the wall, landing lightly on the balls of my feet and opening fire on the two men.

Bruce spotted me, and a flash of white showed his smile before he joined me in shooting up the wooden blockade the men had dragged up from god knows where. Grunts of pain announced our success, along with the flailing bodies falling to either side, the blockage falling back on each of them.

“Double tap.” I jerked my chin from Bruce to the men, and we made our way over in a crouching walk, watching our backs every step.

Bruce made sure neither man would sneak up on us again with a single shot through each temple. I wished I could feel regret for my actions, but I’d used it all up a long time ago. All that mattered now was protecting what I had. Alessio. Matteo. Lila. Leo. And my men. Those were the people who mattered to me.

A shadow separated from the darkness ahead and crept toward the wolf statues. I twitched my finger on the trigger, and a bloom of red spurted from the intruder’s neck.

“Watch the front.” I tapped Bruce’s shoulder twice and we turned to follow the wall around the corner. Asher rounded the other side and took my place behind Bruce. “I’m going back over.”

They nodded they’d heard and ducked into a hidden pocket of shrubbery to keep watch.

A series of gunshots stretched out from the other side of the compound. A burst of fear threatened. How had they gotten that far? Were we surrounded? My men answered the shots with abarrage that sent me into a full-blown sprint up and over the wall, across the yard, and onto the back veranda.

My lungs burned, and I relished the feeling. It said I was alive when others were not. I’d outlived everyone in my unit. I’d outlived my son. I would outlive these conniving bullies who snuck up on us in the middle of the night and threatened all that I loved.

The AR felt smooth in my grip, the stock and barrel an old friend I’d never forget. I laid down cover fire for my men, giving them a chance to spread out and flank our enemies.

Bullets sprayed the ground in front of me. I sneered and followed the flashes of muzzle fire, my aim as true as ever. Bellows of pain met the assault. I marched forward, step by step, until every last motherfucker lay dead or dying.

“Threat neutralized.” A man we called Twiggy because of his lanky build raised the visor on his headgear and whirled his hand in a clockwise motion.

I lowered the gun and swung it around to my back, checking my remaining weapons in case of another surprise. “I’m heading inside. This might have been a ruse to draw us out.”

It’s what I would have done and why I’d ordered Alessio and Matteo to stay inside, along with four other of my best men. They guarded the entrances no one knew about except for myself, Alessio, and Matteo. I left nothing to chance since abandoning my decency upon the realization that every man had a price. I paid my men an exorbitant amount, but not all loyalty remained true in the face of greed. Twiggy joined two other men in a sweep of the yard.

I reloaded the Kimber on my way through the side door after swiping my palm over the keypad. Silence bombarded my ears, the deathly quiet unnerving after the savageness of near death. I slipped up the stairs and along the wall until I reached my room.

The knob turned easily under my hand, and I cursed. Did Lila leave it unlocked on purpose or had someone found her and Leo? My grip on the pistol tightened, every nerve on alert.

Nothing moved inside the room. Shadows upon shadows with nothing to differentiate between good and bad. I edged to the right and waited for my eyes to adjust. As I blinked, Lila came into view. She sat in my chair at the foot of the bed, facing the door with a knife clutched in her hands. A small lump lay in the middle of the bed. My bed. Leo’s round face showed beneath a mound of covers, nothing more than the small oval visible.

“Lila.” I eased her name into the quiet so she wouldn’t startle and stab me or herself.

She jolted, her hands tightening on the knife handle.

I holstered the pistol. “It’s okay. It’s me. Renzo.” I padded over, removing my mask and stopping briefly in the moonlight when it broke free from the clouds and drifted into the room.

A ragged sob wrenched from deep in her chest. “Renzo. Is it over?”