Page 120 of Savage Devotion

To my shock, he lunges not away from Luca, but toward him. Instead of killing his brother, the man he's been hell bent on destroying for months…years…he tackles him to the ground.

Bullets whistle past their heads, through the space where he stood moments before and into the hard floor.

"Get down!" Dante bellows, his body covering both Luca and Bianca as they collapse behind the cover of a wooden pew.

I draw my weapon, firing at the closest attacker. The man falls with a wet gurgle, red blooming across his vest.

The cathedral becomes chaos.

Gunfire and screams echo against stone walls that have witnessed centuries of violence yet still stand unmoved by human suffering.

My focus narrows to survival, to protection, to the man who has become my entire world. I can't die now. Not after everything we've been through together.

I move from pillar to pillar, dodging shots and praying to God I can get back to Dante.

Through the mayhem, I see him crouched beside Luca, both brothers returning fire against Nico's men. Bianca huddles behind them, face contorted with what I now recognize isn't just fear.

A sharp cry escapes her, her hands clutching her belly as fluid darkens the stone beneath her.

Her water just broke.

"Dante!" I scream over the gunfire, drawing his attention to Bianca's condition.

His eyes widen with understanding just as a bullet finds its mark in his shoulder, spinning him backward with the impact. Blood sprays across Elena's memorial plaque, a horrifying offering to the woman they all came to honor.

"NO!" The scream tears from my throat.

Not again. Not again.

"DANTE!"

Luca turns at my cry, horror dawning as he sees his brother's blood pooling on sacred stone. In that moment of distraction, another bullet grazes his arm, tearing fabric and flesh.

Between the wounded brothers, Bianca cries out again, curling protectively around her belly as her body begins the process that waits for no one—not gunfire, not betrayal, not death itself.

The heir to the Ravelli empire will not wait to be born, even as its legacy crumbles around it.

I make my decision in an instant, moving through gunfire with reckless speed until I reach them. Dante's eyes find mine, pain and fierce determination warring in their depths.

"Get... her... out," he gasps, pressing his hand to the bleeding wound in his shoulder.

"Not without you," I reply, already tearing strips from my dress to stanch his bleeding.

Beside us, Bianca whimpers, her face contorted in a pain I can only imagine. "The baby... it's coming... please... help..."

Luca looks between his wounded brother and his laboring wife, desperation etched into every line of his face.

For the first time since I've known of him, the perfect, controlled King of the Ravelli Empire appears completely lost.

"Go!" Dante orders him, shoving him toward Bianca. "Get her somewhere safe. I'll cover you."

"And leave you to die?" Luca's laugh holds no humor. "How fitting. One final betrayal."

"Not betrayal," Dante corrects, grimacing as he reloads his weapon with blood-slick hands. "Strategy." His gaze finds mine, silent command passing between us.

I position myself between the wounded Dante and the laboring Bianca, weapon raised as more of Nico's men converge on our position.

As Dante's blood spills across ancient stones and Bianca's pained scream echoes through the cathedral, I make my choice—the one that will change the Ravelli empire forever.

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