Chapter 29

ALESSIO

M idnight was cleaved by the distant roar of engines growing louder by the second.

I grabbed my gun and strode to the window.

Outside, the night was alive with chaos.

Dirt bikes and four-wheelers tore across the fence lines and the gate, their headlights cutting through the darkness.

I caught the shouts and whoops of the riders.

The Conti clan was out for blood.

‘Baby.’

I turned, tagging Cleo at my back, eyes soft.

I sighed. ‘Our fuckin’ nightmare has come to life. Mia sola, you’ll have to listen to everything I say and do it.’

My growl went over and above the revving of engines outside, hurling insults. Even from afar, I sensed the hunger for revenge that consumed them .

‘What do you need me to do?’

I stepped out onto the porch, my gun at the ready.

In moments came the roar of a vehicle rushing the gate.

‘We have to move,’ I said, grabbing Cleo’s hand and pulling her back inside. ‘They’ll be through that barrier in seconds.’

She nodded, her face set in grim lines as she followed me.

We paused at the entryway where we’d laid out our weapons.

We pulled on our Kevlar vests and loaded up our guns.

Then, with a long eye lock at each other and a lingering kiss, I led my woman towards the back of the house.

‘Behind me, always carissima,’ I growled.

We eased into the darkness and sidled along the exterior to the right of Cleo’s home.

The truck’s screech of metal was ear-splitting as it rammed through the gate, followed by the crunch of gravel as it roared into the yard.

The growl of engines shattered the night, accompanied by the staccato pop of gunfire.

I shoved Cleo down, where she was hidden by the stone wall that ringed the porch.

My body shielded hers as bullets peppered the ground around us.

‘Stay down!’ I shouted over the din, risking a glance over the edge. What I observed made my blood run cold.

Franco Conti sat behind the wheel of a massive truck, his face twisted in a rictus of rage. Beside him, his sons Bruno and Rocco leaned out the windows, assault rifles in hand, as they sprayed the house with gunfire.

Hunting spotlights mounted on the truck’s roof swept across the yard, blinding in their intensity. I ducked back down, my mind racing. They were coming in hard and fast, intent to end this once and for all.

Franco’s shout boomed out over a loudspeaker, thick with venom.

‘Alessio! You bastard, I know you’re inside! Come out and face me like a man!’

The Contis behemoth truck was circling, revving over the lawn in the front of the house, their wheels churning chunks of mud out of Cleo’s front garden.

I tagged the glint of their weapons in the moonlight and the twisted smiles on their faces.

‘You’re gonna pay for what you did, you fucker!’ Fabio yelled, raw with rage.

I raised my gun, my finger hovering over the trigger. ‘Come any closer, and I’ll put a bullet between your eyes,’ I growled.

Franco laughed, the sound harsh and mocking. ‘You think you can take us all on, tough guy?’ He taunted. ‘We’re going to burn this place to the ground with you in it! But first, before I do, I’ll need my bride.’

A surge of anger, hot and fierce, went through me.

These bastards had no idea who they were messing with. I’d faced down worse than them in my life, and I sure as hell wouldn’t let them take what was mine.

I aimed my gun at Franco, my voice cold as ice. ‘Last chance, assholes. Turn around and crawl back to whatever hole you came from, or I’ll start shooting.’

A few of their capos on two- and four-wheelers surged forward, thinking they were likely to breach our defenses.

But my snares caught them, their dirt bikes tangling in the concealed wires I’d rigged up.

Shouts of anger and pain rose into the air as they plunged into the booby traps I’d laid out .

They fell and flailed in shallow pits lined with sharpened stakes, hidden beneath a thin brush layer.

The sound of bodies hitting the ground, followed by agonized screams, told me my snares had found their marks.

I stepped out into the open, my gun raised as I blasted at the vehicle. Explosions rang out like thunder in the stillness of the night. Franco cursed as he dove for cover.

‘I’ve got him!’ one of his sons shouted.

Moments later, the air was alive with the crack of gunfire as they returned fire.

The rigged-up truck charged toward me; its hunting spotlight was so bright that it burnt my cornea.

Franco and his sons took wild shots in my direction, shouting at how they’d had enough of my shit.

I fired back to protect Cleo, who was fighting at my side.

With no warning, a deafening roar came as the Contis truck revved even higher, its tires spinning on the gravel as it surged forward.

I stared in horror as it careened towards the giant pine tree in the front yard, Franco blinded by rage.

The impact was tremendous, the sound of shattering glass and twisting metal filling the air as the vehicle slammed into the tree and burst into flames.

But even as the thought crossed my mind, a shout of outrage tore the atmosphere.

Franco emerged from the flaming juggernaut, his face twisted with hatred as he leveled his gun at me.

The muzzle flashes lit up the dark alley as I charged forward, my pistol spitting lead.

Rocco, Bruno, and Fabio also appeared, shaken from the crash but still advancing .

I had a second to react before my rounds found their marks.

Bruno’s revolver jerked out of his hand, clattering across the cobblestones.

Fabio’s Beretta vanished from his grip in a shower of sparks.

The shock on their faces was priceless.

‘Fuck! Impossible!’ Fabio cried, flailing around to where his piece had landed in the shadows.

I kept my aim steady on them, a cold fury in my eyes. ‘Not impossible. I’m just that damned good.’

Their bravado melted away, replaced by the wide-eyed look of cornered rats.

They were outmatched.

With deliberate slowness, I lowered my gun and slid it back into the leather holster under my jacket.

The brothers exchanged confused glances, but I wasn’t about to play by their wishes.

I was going to beat them at my game, my rules.

I rolled my shoulders, loosening up. ‘What do you say, boys? Let’s settle this like men. No more guns, no more tricks. Just you and me, mano a mano.’

Fabio snarled, his face twisted with rage. ‘You think you can take us both, vecchio? You’re insane!’

‘Crazy like a fox,’ I countered with a predatory grin. ‘I’ve been scrapping and brawling before you ever wiped your culo. You don’t stand a chance.’

I shifted into a brawler’s stance, fists up and ready. My muscle memory kicked in, ingrained from countless back-alley bouts.

The Contis had yet to learn what they were in for.

Bruno cracked his knuckles, trying for a badass, rugged look. ‘You’re going to regret this, fucker. We’re younger, faster, stronger. We’ll break you in half!’

‘Enough talk.’ I beckoned them forward with a curl of my fingers. ‘Let’s dance, ragazzi.’

The slow-turning gears behind their eyes were comical as they tried to decide whether to rush me together or split up to flank me. But I wasn’t about to give them time to think. This ends now, one way or another.

They wanted to play the game, thinking I was just some tough guy in his mid-thirties that their youthful arrogance might push around. They were about to learn that I was no old dog and had plenty of bite left in me. And I was going to savor every instant of teaching them that lesson.

The brothers exchanged glances, then charged as one, arms open to grab me from both sides.

Amateurs.

I pivoted at the last second, letting their momentum carry them past me. Bruno stumbled off-balance, and I cracked him across the jaw with a vicious right hook. He went down hard, spitting blood and teeth.

Fabio roared in anger and came at me with a wild haymaker.

I ducked, driving my fist into his soft belly. He doubled over, gasping for air, and I brought my knee up into his face with a satisfying crunch.

Decades of pent-up rage and frustration had fueled my attacks, giving me a strength and speed I’d never experienced before.

All those years of street brawling, all those back-alley fights and barroom scuffles, had been leading up to this moment. This was what I was born for.

But I’d no time to gloat. The other Conti soldiers were already advancing in, trying to surround me .

I had to keep moving and tip them off balance. They might have outnumbered me, but I had decades of experience.

I whirled and lashed out with a spinning back fist, catching one thug in the temple. He crumpled like a puppet with its strings cut.

Two more rushed me from either flank, but I was ready. I grabbed one by the arm and used his momentum to flip him hard onto his back, then snapped a quick front kick into the other one’s groin. He went down, squealing like a stuck pig.

The last two hung back, trying to circle behind me. I let them think they had me trapped, then feinted left and dove right, rolling beneath their clumsy grab. I came up in a crouch and swept my leg out in an extensive arc, taking their feet out from under them.

I pounced as they struggled to rise, hammering them with a relentless flurry of punches and elbows. I had to put them down hard and fast.

Cleo had disappeared in the rush, and I hoped she was OK.

She was badass, but this shitshow was getting out of hand.

The still-standing Contis circled me like a pack of wolves.

I settled into a fighter’s stance, blood singing with the thrill of impending violence. ‘Come on then, you sons of bitches,’ I taunted. ‘Let’s finish this.’

They rushed me as one, but I was ready. I became a whirlwind of flying fists and precise strikes, my body moving on pure instinct honed by years on the unforgiving streets. One by one, they fell before my onslaught.

A piercing scream broke through the air

Cleo.

Ice flooded my entire spirit, and I jolted.

The extreme wave of shock hit hard as I twisted and spotted her being dragged by her neck.

The man wrenching her along was Rocco as he strutted backward past the grime and wreckage of his truck.

He was flanked by Franco, who wielded a shotgun, firing in the air, a glaze of madness in his eyes.

My essence shifted to fire, and my chest scorched.

How the fuck had they overcome her?

I rushed forward when a half dozen Contis capos fell on me, answering my question.

That’s how.

They’d had a dozen more men lurking, waiting until I was preoccupied.

The fuckers all tackled me to the ground.

I caught flashes, heart-wrenching glimpses of the Conti pair dragging her to a waiting second truck, where a dark figure was hunched behind the wheel.

She yelled, kicked, and screamed even as they bundled her inside.

I roared, trying to hold off my attackers, growling with frustration as they swarmed me, impeding me from getting to my woman.

Rage boiled through my veins. With a roar, I surged against the goons restraining me, desperate to get to her.

Still, they teemed at me, fists and boots raining down blows as they pinned me. I bucked and struggled but couldn’t break free.

‘You bastards!’ I snarled. ‘I’ll fuckin’ kill every last one of you!’

I bellowed as the SUV Franco and Rocco had pushed her into started up and pulled away.

That’s when I lost my everlovin’ shit .

With a rush of strength, I lifted off and threw down three attackers pummeling me.

I reached into my pants, where my hunting knives lay sheathed inside my boot.

I unleashed the sharp fuckers and began slashing.

Cutting, stabbing, gashing, splitting open sinew, vessels and muscle.

Sick, fluid resonance and screams rose around me as I moved like a god of retribution through the ranks, uncaring, unsparing, fuckin’ undone with rage.

I had nothing but crimson in my vision as the lights of the errant SUV disappeared into the darkness.

Enraged even more, I lunged toward Fabio, Bruno, and their fucking clown entourage.

One by one, they fell, and those who didn’t fled into the night in terror.

For my vengeance was unquenchable.

My wrath was unequivocal, and I’d only just begun.

The crunch of gravel beneath my boots joined with the distant hum of cicadas as I marched down the moonlit road.

My senses were on high alert for any sign of an ambush.

Not that anyone would try jumping me, for I appeared like a devil out of the underworld, my hair, skin, and clothes streaked with blood and gore.

I held my Sig in one hand and a deadly blade in the other as I strode along a silver-etched track, eyes hard, face harder.

I walked for an eternity, the range melting beneath my relentless pace.

Sweat trickled down my back, plastering my shirt to my flesh, but I barely took note, driven to protect what was mine.

At last, I reached a spot where the trees thinned out, and I spotted the faint glow of civilization in the distance.

Pulling out my phone, I checked it.

I was finally within network range.

Growling in relief, I tapped on a number.

Despite it being late, the call was picked up in three rings.

‘Fratello, scusa,’ I growled, my voice grim. ‘It’s Alessio. I need you to jack some shit up.’

A moment of silence fell on the other end, then the timbre, familiar rasp. ‘Che cosa?’

I took a deep breath, steeling myself. ‘The Contis. They’ve taken her. I must have Mauri and his men, as many as you can spare. It’s going to be war. It’ll necessitate all the help I can get to rain hell down.’

I referred to our Calibrese contingent of enforcers and capos.

The latter had moved to Australia from Italy and now worked at our import fulfillment center.

They’d be the army I needed to face the unknown.

Lorenzo’s voice rumbled. ‘Is she worth it?’

‘Far more than all the fuckin’ rubies in this world, Renzo,’ I snarled with a vicious edge to my snarl. ‘Shit, I can’t breathe without her. Will you help me or not?’

After a long pause, Lorenzo sighed. ‘You know I will, fratello. Famiglia is everything. I’ll send Mauri and his best men. They’ll be your way by early morning. Fuck, I might even come along for the joy ride.’

Relief washed over me. ‘Grazie, Renzo. I’ll owe you.’

‘You owe me nothing,’ my brother added, his growl fierce. ‘We’re blood, Alessio. We stand together, sempre.’

I disconnected, messaged him my coordinates, and slipped the phone back into my pocket.

The die was cast.

I turned to jog through the bush back to the cabin, scowling, wrath energizing me, driving me.

I faltered halfway as a searing pain went through my side, my ailment flaring.

I fell to one knee, shaking.

With a roar, I rose once more.

Cursing the freakin’ world, I fought through the shakes.

I lurched, jaw clenched in agony of body and mind that seared to the core, fuckin’ wanting to burn the universe for her.

Franco had no idea what he was in for.

The Calibreses were not to be trifled with, and I would show them how deadly we could be.

MIA

My gorgeous man hung up, his hand lingering on the phone for a second before he turned to look at me.

The room was dim, and the only light came from the small bedside lamp, which cast a soft glow over the walls.

The air was thick with the quiet of the late night, the kind that wrapped like a blanket, shrouding us from the world outside.

Preceding the call, we’d been wrapped in each other’s arms, lost in a session of baby-making and wild fucking with unrestrained passion.

Now, my hand rested on his chest, moving with his breath’s rise and fall.

I tagged the conflict in his eyes, the pull of duty warring with the desire to stay. ‘You have to go, don’t you?’ I asked, already knowing the answer.

He nodded, his expression pained. ‘He needs me,’ he rasped as if that explained everything. And in a way, it did.

I sat up, pulling the duvet around me for comfort. ‘What’s happened?’ I asked, not sure I wanted to know.

‘Alessio’s been attacked,’ he murmured, a shard of pain crossing his face. ‘He also wants us to help him find a woman.’

I studied him and tagged the concern and care etched into Lorenzo’s features.

The lines on the edges of his eyes appeared deeper, the weight of his brother’s pain pressing down on him.

I wished to tell him to stay, to let someone else handle it, but that wasn’t fair. This was who he was, and part of me had always admired that about him.

But it didn’t make it any easier.

‘Do you ever wonder -,’ I started, then stopped myself.

I didn’t have an idea of how to finish that sentence. Do you ever wonder if things were different? That you didn’t always have to go? That you didn’t need to put your life and mine on the line so often?

He reached out, brushing a strand of hair away from my face. ‘Sometimes, bella,’ he murmured as if reading my mind. ‘But this is what I have to do.’

I swallowed hard, forcing back the lump in my throat. ‘I know,’ I whispered. ‘I just wish it didn’t have to be tonight. Or this week.’

We’d set aside time to work on baby-making; these seven days were the window to make it happen this month.

However, Lorenzo’s family was his responsibility.

Alessio needed him, and the Calibreses never abandoned their own, always having each other’s back.

Lorenzo leaned in, pressing a gentle kiss to my forehead.

‘So do I,’ he murmured against my skin, his breath warm and comforting. ‘But I promise, I’ll come back to you. I always do.’

I nodded, not trusting myself to speak.

My eyes locked on him as he dressed, his movements quick and efficient, like he’d done a myriad times before.

He strode to his safe and pulled out two weapons, tucking them into the waistband of his trousers, then threw on a leather jacket and boots.

When he was ready, he stood by the bed for a moment, gazing at me with soft regret and a love that always blew my mind.

‘Ti amo, bella,’ he rasped, the words heavy with meaning.

‘I adore you too,’ I replied, my voice trembling despite my efforts to stay strong.

He leaned down, capturing my lips in a slow, lingering kiss that felt like a goodbye and a promise.

When he pulled away, I tagged the smolder in his eyes .

My eyes flicked to the set clench to his jaw, radiating with a steely purpose forged with a ruthless affection.

He also showed possessiveness for his loved ones, which was the one quality that had drawn me to him in the first place.

‘Be safe,’ I whispered, my hand reaching out to grasp his for one last moment.

‘I will,’ he said, giving my hand a reassuring squeeze before he released and turned to leave.

I let him go, the door closing with a soft click behind him, and then I was alone.

The room’s silence pressed in on me, the bed suddenly too big, too empty.

I curled up under the blankets, his scent still lingering on the pillow beside me and tried to hold on to the promise he had made.

He would come back. He always did. But that didn’t make the waiting any easier.