Page 44 of Single Mom's Mafia Daddies

“How’s the new family?” Luca taunted me in a sing-song voice. “That is one prime woman you decided to abandon.” He laughed and fired a shot at the same time. “Turn yourself over to us, and we might consider letting the boy live.”

“And the woman?” They knew about Lila. I had no intention of giving in to Luca Verducci, but I might get him to tell me something I didn’t already know.

“Don’t worry,” Luca taunted. “We’ll take good care of her.”

“You’re not going to live long enough to do anything.” I blasted the wall behind Luca with a spray of gunfire.

His unhinged laugh rattled out. “That’s where you’re wrong. I can’t be killed.”

“We have to go.” Renzo reappeared in the doorway. “There are more coming. More than we can handle.”

A bullet ripped through the air beside my ear and slammed into the wall. Wood splintered and sprayed into my face. I threw up both arms to shield myself.

“Let’s go.” Renzo grabbed my shoulder and threw me into the hallway.

Running steps pounded our way. “Bastard thought he could hold us until they came. Cocky son of a bitch.” He dragged me to my feet and pushed me ahead of him. “If he had more sense, we wouldn’t be alive.”

I disagreed. Luca was known for his intelligence, and his ability to play the long game despite his supposed impatience. “Psychological warfare,” I muttered while stumbling toward the door.

Renzo hauled me back. “Not that way. He’ll have people waiting for us. We have to do what he doesn’t expect. I’ll psychological warfare his ass right into a grave.” He nudged me toward another door. “This way.” With a crack of his fist, he shattered the glass and unlocked the door from the inside. Glass shredded his shirt and the skin underneath, but he gave it no more attention than a bug bite. “Go, Alessio.”

I did as he ordered, giving myself over to his experience. We tucked in close to the wall and ran. The corridor widened so we were able to go side by side. I’d run alongside Renzo often enough to match his stride, each of us watching the other’s blind spots. Renzo threw himself at the next door, blowing it off its hinges and unleashing us into the cathedral.

Dust and cobwebs covered the wooden pews. Broken stained-glass windows littered the ground, the colored glasssending sprays of color across Renzo’s body when he ran over them.

Luca’s men followed us, their steps too loud in the sacred space.

Renzo turned and fired over his shoulder while continuing to run. “Get to the car. Don’t wait for me.”

I grabbed the strap of his bulletproof vest and hauled him to my face. “Stop trying to martyr yourself. We’re both getting out of here. Lila would never forgive me if I got you killed.”

Saying her name seemed to give him a new burst of energy. Or perhaps it gave us both a deeper reason to live.

Renzo paused as we reached the double doors leading from the cathedral into the city, holding up his hand for me to wait. “If I was Luca, I’d have men stationed at every exit. Maybe even snipers on the roofs.” He spun his finger around in a circle. “There’s nothing out there to duck behind until we reach the car.”

“Run fast. Don’t go in a straight line. Split up so they have to divide their attention,” I repeated his orders from a previous raid back to him.

He slapped my back hard enough to rock me forward. “Let’s go.”

We burst out through the doors as the men behind us entered the cathedral. Renzo darted right, and I went left. Guns fired, the ricochet of bullets sending stone fragments showering over me. I changed course, then changed again, never going the same way or repeating a pattern. I’d parked a block away, behind an old steel warehouse. If I could get there, we’d be safe. Nothing short of that rocket launcher they’d flaunted earlier would destroy my car.

I put on a burst of speed when the car came into view. Renzo appeared on the far side of the warehouse. His lips peeledback from his teeth in a victorious smile, and he dove into the passenger seat.

The driver’s side door opened, and I threw myself into the car, slamming the door behind me. They’d find us soon, but I took a single second to grip the wheel and stare at the cathedral spire in the rearview mirror.

“They’ve crossed a line, Renzo. They’re not walking away from this.”

23

LILA

No matter how long I tried, I couldn’t sleep. This insomnia was kicking my ass again. Groaning, I rolled from the bed and pulled on a pair of thin socks to keep my feet warm as I padded quickly from my room and down the hallway. I needed to see Leo.

The attack on the house left me shaken but even hearing that madman call out for my son hadn’t prepared me for the news Matteo brought to me earlier. A bounty on Leo’s head meant nowhere was safe. Add that knowledge to Renzo’s warning that this house was compromised and my anxiety spiked through the roof.

I made my way down the hall in complete silence, pausing when I reached Leo’s door. I hesitated to wake him, and the excitement of the last few days left him easily awoken.

“And then what happened?” Leo’s shocked whisper stretched thin between us.