Page 82 of Mafia Don's Secret Heir
“Luca—”
“Behind me, Valentina.” My voice cuts through the cacophony like steel and fire. She hesitates but complies, her eyes burning with defiance. I press the keys into her hand, the grip tightening over her fingers. “Stay in the car if it gets worse.”
It’s a lie. There’s no “worse”. There’s only blood and fire until one side is ash.
The Rossi family hitmen are precision itself—trained killers sent with one mission: destroy everything. Including my family. Someone tipped them off about our survival. Someone inside. My fury simmers beneath the surface, waiting to explode.
Marco meets me at the base of the stairs leading to the mansion. Blood streaks his shirt, but he’s still standing, a testament to why he’s my second.
“They came through the south perimeter first,” he reports over the sound of bullets pinging off metal. “The Rossis aren’t holding back this time. They’re going for a full takeover.”
“Or extinction,” I growl. “What’s the body count?”
“On our side? Five, maybe six. We’ve taken down at least ten of theirs.”
“Not enough.” I load my weapon, the click of the chamber sliding into place like a death knell.
Marco nods, his face grim. “They’re targeting you, Luca. You and the kid.”
My grip on the gun tightens, the weight of his words burning into me. They want my son, my bloodline—dead.
“Not tonight,” I snarl, pushing past him and into the fray.
The battlefield is nothing short of utter chaos, and I am its conductor. The air around me explodes with the sharp cracks of gunfire and the shouts of my men, every sound honed to a razor's edge. My focus narrows to each movement, each threat, as I dispatch yet another Rossi soldier with a single shot to the chest.
But something feels off.
The hair on the back of my neck rises as I step forward, instinctively turning to cover Marco's flank. A shadow moves in the smoke—a man, his pistol aimed, his sights trained on me.
And then, like lightning splitting the darkness, Valentina appears.
She moves fast, too fast for me to shout at her to stay back. My heart stutters, rage and terror battling for dominance as I watch her lunge at the Rossi hitman. She grabs his wrist, throws her weight into the motion, and the shot he fires digs harmlessly into the ground.
“Valentina!” My voice is a roar, but she doesn’t falter.
Her hand flashes, a glint of something sharp catching the light before it plunges into the man's throat. His body jerks violently as she pulls the hairpin free and drives it in again, the fluid motion born of raw survival. Blood sprays in an arc, staining her face and hands, and I can barely breathe.
The hitman drops, lifeless, and Valentina stumbles back, chest heaving. For a heartbeat, the world stops, every soundfading into nothing as my eyes lock onto hers. She looks up at me, her gaze a mixture of fury and defiance.
“I told you,” she gasps, her voice trembling but steady, “I’m not staying on the sidelines.”
I cross the distance between us in three strides, my hands gripping her arms. Her body shakes, her breath shallow, but her expression is resolute.
“Are you insane?” I snap. “You could have been killed!”
“And so could you!” she fires back, jerking out of my grip. “You didn’t see him, Luca. He would have shot you!”
Her words hit me like a punch to the gut, and for a moment, I can’t respond. She’s right. I didn’t see him.
“Don’t ever do that again,” I growl, my hand cupping her blood-streaked face. My thumb brushes her cheek, smearing crimson across her skin. “Do you understand me?”
Her lips tremble, but she doesn’t back down. “I’m not going to sit by and watch you die. If I’m your queen, then I’m your partner. In all of it.”
The fire in her voice stirs something deep in my chest. She’s fierce, unstoppable, and it takes everything in me not to drag her out of this hellscape and lock her somewhere safe.
“Please, for the love of God, stay close to me,” I finally say, the words rough and edged with desperation. “If you’re going to fight, you do it at my side. Nowhere else.”
She nods, and for a brief moment, there’s an understanding between us that’s stronger than anything I’ve felt before.
