Page 16 of Single Mom’s Mafia Daddies (The Forbidden Reverse Harem Collection #22)
ALESSIO
I t physically pained me to let Renzo lead the way. I wanted to be the knight in shining armor leading Lila and Leo from danger. I wanted her to look at me the way she looked at Renzo when he grabbed her hand and wrapped her fingers around the back of his belt with a commanding order not to let go.
Renzo moved in that quick crouch/run, his gun steady and his head on a swivel as he scanned the area.
Lila fisted her hand around his belt and kept pace, her other hand wrapped tight around Leo’s.
The boy watched everything in silence, even when a crash boomed downstairs.
Leo jerked a look at Lila and squeezed her hand.
I tightened my grip on the Desert Eagle—a gift from my father just before his death—and peeked over Renzo’s shoulder.
We reached the end of the hallway, and Renzo dropped into a low crouch and angled a look around each corner.
He glanced back and flicked his fingers in a “be ready to move” motion he’d taught Matteo and me to obey.
Shouts, curses, and more crashing from downstairs.
“Find them.” I recognized Vincenzo’s menacing voice.
Luca’s dragged on his brother’s heels. “They’re not getting away. We have the house surrounded. The boy’s as good as dead.”
Lila stiffened in front of me, her grip on Leo’s hand tightening to the point he winced and tugged on her until she relaxed with an apologetic grimace.
Hearing the two psychopaths talk about murdering my son hit me with a truckload of guilt. This was my fault. And it meant I would never be able to hold onto Lila.
Her fierce independence and the way she protected Leo would tear her away from me, especially after tonight.
Even her free-spirited and unconventional nature wouldn’t allow her to settle into my world where guns and violence were more commonplace than love and happily ever after.
She’d never shied away from admitting the truth, and it was time I accepted my truth.
I put Lila in danger.
Matteo placed a hand in the small of my back and pressed his fingertips hard into the muscled ridges. He tapped a four-beat on my spine and my pent-up breath rushed out.
What if…I tried to shake the thought away, to tamp down my selfishness and let Lila go, but it refused to leave.
What if I showed her that she had not one but three men who would do anything to protect her and Leo?
I’d seen how Matteo and Renzo looked at her.
They were halfway in love. Renzo giving Lila permission to hold onto him was as good as a marriage proposal.
He crept forward, turning left toward the secret door at the end of the hallway. I’d had it built into the wall in a shadowed nook behind a wolf statue.
Footsteps pounded up the stairs. “Bedrooms are this way.” Luca again. The top of his head appeared, then ducked back, a cadre of men rushing past and gaining the top of the stairs.
Renzo opened fire, laying waste to the first seven men to appear in his sights.
I picked off a few others, taking care to drag Lila down to the floor and shooting over her head. Matteo scooted to my right side. I immediately shifted to give him room, and we split our aim to give Renzo cover fire to reload.
Lila let go of Renzo’s belt and covered Leo’s ears with her hands. She said something to him, and he clapped his own hands over his eyes and huddled into her chest.
Love so potent it made me want to breathe fire gave me strength and focus. I emptied the mag and dropped back a step behind Matteo to reload. Renzo knelt on one knee, the rifle pressed tight to his shoulder. He’d switched from auto to semi-auto, the slower fire keeping Luca’s men at bay.
“Can you get to the statue?” he growled between shots.
Once we ducked into the nook, Renzo would have an open line of fire on the men.
“Not yet.” Matteo fired off another shot. A man fell backward, his arms akimbo and his body flailing with death riding his face. Pistols barked a warning from the stairs. Wood splintered and sprayed over our heads.
Renzo muttered a dark curse and scooted back an inch to gain more protection from the wall. “We can’t stay here. If they find the back stairs, we’ll be pinned down, stuck in the crossfire.”
“What’s the plan?” Matteo stepped back to reload.
I took his place and leaned across Lila. Bodies lay strewn across the stairs and over the banister.
“Is that you, Alessio?” Luca called out.
His laugh answered when I stayed silent.
“You’re not getting out of here. No more games.
You can end this right now.” The slide of a round going into the chamber rattled in my ears as Matteo finished reloading and joined me.
“You and the boy come out. Turn yourselves over to us, and everyone else walks away.”
“He’s lying,” Matteo spoke directly into Lila’s ear. “We have to get to the panic room.”
“Get ready.” Renzo shifted enough to show his profile. His mouth twisted into a grimace. “Go when I say. We’re going to push forward, all the way to the statue. I’ll hold them while you get inside.”
“Renzo, no.” Lila still covered Leo’s ears, but she leaned her shoulder into Renzo’s spine. “You’ll get yourself killed.”
He gave that infuriating one shoulder shrug. “I’m not important.”
“We want the heir, Alessio.” Vincenzo joined his brother on the stairs. “Turn the Cavallo syndicate over to us. That’s all we ask.”
“Like hell.” Matteo tapped Renzo’s shoulder once, our signal we were ready.
If I had a better idea, I’d offer it, but Renzo’s mad rush straight at the Verducci men was the last thing they’d expect. It might buy us enough time to reach safety.
“Stay low. Stay safe,” I whispered our motto loud enough for Renzo to hear.
His lips quirked in what passed for a smile.
He’d saved my life multiple times. Matteo too.
I owed them everything, and all I gave them was more trouble and more opportunities to die in my place.
If anyone deserved to love Lila and be loved by her in return, it was the two men raising their weapons as they prepared to go to war alongside me.
We moved as a single entity, years working together giving us insight and instinct that guided every step. Renzo stood to his full height, his big ass body providing a shield for Lila to hide behind and a huge target for Vincenzo’s men. He rushed forward in a series of pounding strides.
“Hey, Luca!” Bullets peppered the top of the staircase from Renzo’s rifle. “Tell your father I said hello when you see him in hell.”
Luca’s feral scream ripped through the air and sent spider legs scurrying across my skin. “You fucking cunt. I’ll kill you for that.”
“Yeah?” Renzo unleashed hell with the rifle. “Better men than you have tried.” He ran while shooting, his pounding steps sending several of Luca’s men scurrying backward.
I pushed Lila along the wall with one hand, guiding her and Leo to the statue and shoving her down behind the wolf’s haunches. Her sobbing breaths wrenched my heart, but I had no time to comfort her.
Renzo’s steps slowed, the gunfire increasing.
I placed my hand on the panel. “Alessio Cavallo.” The scanner traced my palm, the blue light winked red, and a hiss of air puffed into my face. “Access denied.”
“What the fuck.” I grabbed Matteo’s collar. “It’s rejecting me.”
His mouth gaped open. “That’s not possible. They would’ve had to hack my system.”
I pointed at the red screen, the giant DENIED letters flashing eerily in the small space.
“I’m going to carve out your heart and feed it to you.” Luca continued to rage and curse at Renzo.
Silence met the promise, and a burst of worry twisted my bones. I shoved Matteo toward the screen. “Fix it.”
Matteo holstered his pistol and dragged the tablet out from beneath his shirt. His fingers flew over the screen in time with his curses.
I stepped around him, tried to smile at Lila as I passed her, and ruffled Leo’s hair. Renzo’s rifle barked out a short spurt then went silent. I dropped low and peeked around the edge of the statue’s base.
Renzo hunkered in a narrow space at the top of the stairs. He held a pistol in each hand, aiming and firing one at a time. Left. Right. Left. Once he ran out of bullets, there was nothing stopping Luca and Vincenzo from rushing the stairs and overwhelming him before he could reload.
Steps sounded from the other end of the hallway. Shit.
“Renzo,” I hissed, trying to warn him of the approaching danger.
The pistol grip warmed in my palm, and I knew what I needed to do.
I’d have to cover him from this side until he made it back to us.
Even after Matteo unlocked the room. I had to stay here.
I couldn’t leave him to fight this battle alone, not with enemies coming at us from all sides. “Matteo, get her inside. Protect them.”
Matteo’s head twitched upward. He took one look at me and cursed.
“What in the bat-shit, fucking hell do you think you’re doing?
You’re going in there if I have to shoot you myself.
” As though to prove his point, the console flashed and the door opened.
“Go.” He used the tablet to point into the gloom. “I’ll watch Renzo’s back.”
“Now isn’t the time to argue.” I locked my stance. “Get inside, Matteo. That’s an order.”
“Fuck you and your orders.” He chucked the tablet into the room and palmed his pistol. “You’re the heir. They want you, and I’ll be damned if I give those men anything more than a bullet through the throat.”