Page 50 of The Mastermind (Mafia Rivals #1)

‘On any other day, someone would pay dearly for upstaging me,’ Orazio started, to a smattering of forced and nervous laughter.

‘But for the wedding of my grandson to Maddelena – yes, his choice of bride shocked me too at first, but’ – he paused, casting a curiously nostalgic look at us – ‘sometimes the heart must have what it wants. So for the sake of love alone, I must step aside, let them have their day. With my blessing.’

A loud cheer went up. And when Cesare turned to me, the fiercest blaze yet lighting his eyes, the last ball of apprehension melted away.

‘That went better than I thought it would,’ he said.

‘You expected him to misbehave?’

‘With Orazio, you never know. At the very least, I was expecting a quip about that great-grandchild he mentioned.’

My eyes widened. I’d clean forgotten about that.

Cesare frowned. ‘You still want my babies, don’t you, bedda ?’

‘More than anything, caru .’

His face transformed from civil to feral in a heartbeat as he stared at me for the longest, nerve-shredding stretch. ‘Take a walk with me, baby?’ he murmured in my ear.

I nodded readily, needing a reprieve from the cloying attention of guests and Cesare’s family alike. To them, I was still very much an unknown quantity. A decades-long enemy had suddenly become an ally. Morbid curiosity vied with open wariness.

It hadn’t strayed into open hostility, for which I suspected I had my new husband to thank.

He took my hand and I caught the dull flash of his ring. Matte black platinum embedded with a ring of black diamonds. It blended into his inked flesh as if it was always meant to be there.

Hand in hand, we stepped outside, past the brightly lit terrace strewn with guests, many of whom had spilled onto the many paths that led to relaxation areas around the garden.

Seats were set out in large and small groupings for the fireworks planned later, and extensive bars manned by sharply dressed waitstaff were dotted around to keep the drinks flowing.

We reached the grand gazebo decked out in fresh flowers and ambient lighting, and I breathed crisp cold air into my lungs.

‘How are you feeling, bedda ?’ he asked, pulling me close.

‘A little overwhelmed.’

‘But happy?’ he pressed. His eyes, as ever, dissected my every expression. And I caught a frantic edge in his gaze. Almost as if he was… nervous?

I slid my arms around him. ‘Yes, very happy, Cesare.’

‘ Bonu .’ He stopped for a moment. Then exhaled. ‘Our path has been far from conventional. You know I desire you, that you’ve worked your way into my soul. You know this life we lead. You know the road isn’t always smooth. But know that I will protect you with my last breath. Sì ?’

My heart attempted to hammer itself out of my ribs as I blinked back tears. ‘Yes.’

He unmeshed our fingers, placed mine where he had three short months ago.

At that intersection of muscles just above his belly button.

Then, eyes latched fiercely onto mine, he drew my fingers up the landscape of his tattooed torso.

To rest on his heart. ‘You were always going to find your way here. Your rightful place. This heart beats for you, amuri miu .’ He left my hand there, where his heart thumped strong and steady and mine, to wrap one hand around my waist and the other over my nape.

He pulled me close until my hand was smooshed between our bodies. Then looking deep into my eyes, he said, ‘I love you, Maddelena. With everything I am, t’amu .’

I knew then why’d I’d waited. Any other time wouldn’t have been as perfect as this. He was right; we’d done things upside down. So confessing my heart long after we’d made our vows felt right.

‘I loved you in secret and in the dark. I loved you in danger and through opposition. All my yesterdays, todays and tomorrows belong to you, Cesare. With everything I am, I love you.’

A long, holy shudder moved through him. I suspected I saw a telltale sheen in his eyes too, but his head was swooping down, claiming my mouth with a deep groan as we kissed as true loves for the first time.

Then, foreheads pressed together, we breathed.

Laughed. Kissed. Loved .

The first pop deceived me. I looked up, expecting fireworks.

My head was still tilted up when the second arrived.

The sky remained dark. Then carnage descended.

Screams ripped through the air, some abruptly silenced in a way that meant only one thing.

We were under attack.

‘Fuck!’ Cesare yanked me into his body and dropped to the deck, wrapping his body around me. Protecting me. Leaving himself wide open to flying bullets.

‘Cesare!’

‘Stay down, Maddelena! Do. Not. Fucking. Move.’ The command was raw. Lethal. Totally belied by the single tremble that went through him, before he grew statue still.

Pops turned into a spray. I yelped when a staccato round landed far too close.

I felt Cesare move, assess. Then press down tighter on me.

‘Boss.’

Fist. As ever close by.

‘What’s the situation?’ Cesare snapped as I heard a gun cock close to my head. Squeezing eyes I didn’t remember shutting open, I saw Fist crouched next to us, his gaze scanning as he passed a gun to Cesare.

‘They entered through the west gate where the catering trucks were parked. Dressed as fucking waiters,’ he reported flatly. Then just as blandly, he shot off three rounds. A shout nearby preceded the heavy thud of a body dropping.

‘We need to move from here, Boss. I’ll take her?—’

‘No. I have her,’ Cesare interrupted.

Springing up, he swept me off my feet and into a full sprint.

‘I’ve got you, baby,’ he repeated.

My head bobbed as I curled into his arms.

More blood-curdling screams tore through the air, soldiers sprinting past us as Cesare raced us inside.

The ballroom, festive just minutes ago, was a scene of chaos. Tables were overturned, the cake I never got to cut a giant mess on the floor.

Cesare tensed as another round of gunfire shattered a window.

‘Bibi and the women?’

‘They’re safe in place. They’re waiting for your missus before they lock down.’

Waiting for your missus?

‘Tell me you don’t mean what I think you mean?’

Livid eyes bore down on me. I knew the emotion wasn’t directed at me, but it still made me shiver.

‘It means exactly that,’ he rasped. ‘You can take any unhappiness you feel about that out on me later.’

I’d lost sight of where he was taking me, but when I saw the reinforced double doors, my blood went cold.

He’d just declared he would protect me with his last breath. What if fate had decided he should make good on that promise tonight?

I clung onto his lapels when the doors opened and he walked through it. And I saw that, indeed, the room held all women, children and the elderly.

He was leaving me here, going back out into a firefight. As the underboss, it was his duty. His destiny.

But I gripped him tighter. ‘Cesare, do not make me a fucking widow before we’ve even had our wedding night.’

The blaze that I saw now, which had been there since high school, at times merely simmering, oftentimes mislabelled but always, always there, flared higher than ever.

Consuming me. Protecting me. ‘I make a second promise, then,’ he replied, his voice hoarse.

‘You will not lose me tonight, Maddelena Salvatore. I’m the fucking greedy bastardo who will put fat babies in that belly and demand you love me and my children for decades before I draw my last breath.

’ He yanked me close and planted a short, hard kiss on my quivering mouth. ‘Agreed?’

‘Agreed,’ I whispered shakily.

With one last searing look, Cesare tore off his wedding jacket, placed it gently over my shoulders.

Then, gun in hand, he stalked out of the bunker.

Leaving me to count every excruciating second.

Cesare

The good thing about the other shoe finally dropping – if there was one to be found while embroiled in a gunfight at your own wedding – was that the immovable stone in my gut was gone.

It left me clear-headed, sharp-eyed and thirsting for vengeance on those who’d dared to harm my family. My wife.

I sprinted up from the underground bunker into the hallway and froze for a moment at the carnage. The dancefloor and walls were spattered with blood and broken furniture.

A sickening number of our soldiers were down but more ‘waiters’ had met their end. Guests who hadn’t made it out cowered behind tables and doors.

A shellshocked junior congressman was cradling his sidepiece – crap, from the look of it, the woman was either dead or near death.

He would need careful handling and a fat bribe to keep this under wraps.

But the good thing was, he would be even deeper in our pockets.

I clicked my fingers at a passing lieutenant and pointed at the congressman.

He nodded and changed course, dragging the man and his girlfriend to safety.

I followed the sound of the heaviest gunfire, arriving in the darkened hallway leading to the west exit to find Dante, Rafa and several of our soldiers crouched behind a wall of bulletproof shields.

Yup, someone had broken out Orazio’s prized armoury.

Rafa glanced over his shoulder, and I saw his evil smirk.

I approached him in a crouch just as he jumped up and fired off a shot, catching one between the eyes.

‘What the fuck are we pissing around in the hallway for?’ I snarled.

Rafa pointed to my left. Renzo, hidden in the doorway to the pantry, was holding a gadget in his hand.

At my frown, he murmured, ‘Drone. Outside. There’s a truck coming with more of the fuckers.’

‘Show me.’

He angled the screen and I saw more men dressed as waiters jumping out of the small truck. I counted twenty, half sporting handguns, the other heavier artillery. My jaw clenched. ‘Orazio? Pops?’

‘In the nest with thirty of our men. They’re picking off any strays coming in from the east and south.’ The nest was the heavily fortified highest level of the residence with panoramic views. A great vantage point.

Satisfied they were safe, I holstered my Beretta and reached for the machinegun propped next to the wall. ‘We’re not fucking waiting for them to come in.’

Dante’s head whipped towards me. ‘You sure? They’re easy to pick off if we let them come in.’

But Rafa was reaching for another automatic, as did Fist. Around the grounds, the gunfire was dying down. I fucking hoped it meant our men were winning.

Rafa caught my arm as I stepped out of the hallway. ‘ Frate , wait.’

I turned to him, jaw tighter than concrete. ‘He sent them into our home , on this day, Rafa,’ I seethed.

His eyes burned into mine. Whatever he was searching for he found, and he nodded. ‘Let’s go.’

I glanced back at Renzo. ‘Shout if you see more coming.’ To my men, I said, ‘Keep a couple alive for questioning.’ I was pretty damn sure this was Bonafacio’s doing, but I wanted verification all the same.

Any last shred of mercy I may have harboured was gone, so I wanted that cherry on top of his grave.

A red haze washed over my eyes, shrinking the ball of fear to a pebble deep in my gut.

The first wave of enemies was gunned down within seconds, my finger never leaving the trigger. The second was more cagey. I took the decision out of their hands by prowling forward, meeting every tentative approach with a bullet. Fist kept a steady head count until three remained.

The first I shot in the legs while Dante disarmed him.

The second Rafa caught in the throat with a shuriken he’d produced from fuck knows where, killing him instantly. ‘Oops, my bad.’

The third was scurrying back to the truck when I pulled out my Beretta and shot him in the spine, disabling him.

One hour later, the compound was free of guests, and the two soldiers had squealed that indeed, they’d been sent here by Bonafacio Mancinelli.

Another hour later, the chopper holding Orazio’s high-level FBI inside man landed. I handed over the pen drive of El Topo’s confession and one mil in bitcoin, and a warrant for Bonafacio’s arrest was issued immediately.

It was the legit cover for our illegal manhunt to end Mancinelli once and for all. But if the FBI did our job for us beforehand, that was fine too.

Bloodied and arms folded, I watched the chopper take off.

‘Helluva fucking night,’ Renzo rasped.

‘But an excuse to have another party, eh?’ Orazio said from my left.

I said nothing.

He could have as many parties as he wanted.

I had married the love of my life tonight, no matter how it ended. That was all I needed.

As the last of the red haze disappeared, a deep, ravenous hunger took its place.

The hunger to see her face. To touch my Maddelena.

Still without speaking, I turned from the helipad, my strides lengthening as I headed for the bunker.

‘Hey, Cesare, wait.’

‘Fuck no,’ I growled at Rafa.

‘ Frate , you’re covered in blood. Maybe wash up first?’

I looked down at myself. My vest and shirt were ruined beyond repair. My knuckles, arms and face were covered in blood spatter. But the need clawing through me was greater. Besides, I was proud to let her see how I’d protected her.

So I kept walking.

The soldiers guarding the door took one look and sprang into action, throwing the bolts securing the bunker.

She was the first thing I saw.

In the middle of my nearest and dearest. She was the jewel of my heart.

I stopped in the doorway as her eyes darted frantically over me.

‘Not my blood.’ I answered her silent, screaming question.

She nodded once, then threw herself into my arms. I caught her tight. Tighter. Breathed her in. Took her mouth. Revelled in my naked adoration and obsession.

When we broke apart, I whispered against her mouth, ‘I love you, and I will always come back to you. Do you hear me, bedda ?’

‘I hear you, my love.’ She pulled back, looked deep into my eyes. ‘But it’s over for now, yes?’

‘It’s over,’ I echoed. ‘Shall we begin our beautiful, crazy life now?’

‘Yes. Absolutely yes.’