Page 136 of Ruthless Redemption

“Their money is used as a weapon,” Matthew snarls. “Isn’t it, Emmanuel?”

The old man chuckles into his oxygen mask, still preoccupied with his phone.

“You’re not going to address the allegations?” Lorenzo places his cake down on his plate.

“I have a feeling he knows his hours are numbered.” Matthew inches forward and edges toward me, becoming a partial shield. “Isn’t that right?”

“My hours aren’t the concern.” Emmanuel lowers the mask. “It’s your whore who will be dead before nightfall.”

I open my mouth but my snappy retort is lost to an erupting melee.

Lorenzo shoves to his feet. Matthew drags me behind him, then lunges for the table. I stumble, Salvatore’s hand reaching out to stabilize me as the man of my heart grabs a butter knife and flings it in a blinding flash of silver toward the guard over Emmanuel’s right shoulder.

A scream lodges in my throat as the blade skewers the guard’s eye, sending his head backward, his body following in slow motion.

He hits the deck with a nauseating thwack. Emotionless. Dead.

Adena scrambles to her feet with a wail as guns are drawn from every angle—Emmanuel’s remaining guard, Remy, Matthew, Lorenzo’s security—all of them in a mass standoff while my heart becomes a jackhammer.

“No more bloodshed,” Lorenzo roars over the deafening squawk of birds. “Lower your weapons.”

I’m jostled from all angles as Matthew shields the front of me, Remy and Salvatore closing in on my sides.

“The time for peace is over,Zio.” Matthew keeps his barrel trained on Emmanuel. “He no longer deserves your protection. Either support me or become my enemy.”

My stomach nosedives. “Matthew,” I whisper.

He doesn’t want this. Making an adversary of his uncle wasn’t the plan.

“What you need is time to air your grievances without an audience.” Lorenzo holds a hand out to me through the protective shield of men, his gaze kind. “Bella, I think it’s best if we wait in the house. Let the family vent their injustice in private.”

I wait for Matthew to protest. For him to demand I stay by his side. But he doesn’t say a word. He keeps his back to me, his body stiff.

“Matthew?” I whisper, unsure what to do.

A man lays dead on the deck. The remaining guard has his aim pointed right at me through Salvatore’s shoulder. And those birds,myGod, they scream for the tension to stop.

I have no weapons. Nothing to protect myself with apart from the masculine wall surrounding me, most of whom were my enemies only yesterday.

“I will stay with her,figlio.” Lorenzo reaches around Remy for my hand. “She will be far safer in the house. She won’t trigger you in there. Or be a temptation for others.”

A trigger? A temptation?

I don’t want to be either of those. But I know I am.

I’m Matthew’s greatest weakness and I’m going to get him killed.

“I’ll go.” I squeeze his hips.

“No.” He reaches behind his back, grabbing my wrist, his fingers punishingly tight as his attention remains on the threats. “You stay with me.”

Emmanuel chuckles beneath the oxygen mask as he tugs Adena back to her seat. “Yes, let her stay. It’s much more fun this way.”

I ignore him.

I ignoreeverything. The fear. The panic. The hysteria.

All I focus on is Matthew and how to get us out of here alive.

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