Page 19 of Second Chance with The Don

I begin to feel a burning panic that hurts my heart and makes me feel as if I’m choking on the air I breathe, until I remember something. Lucas and I sat in the same seats of this theatre both times that I brought him here. Knowing him, if he found himself in the middle of a scary, violent outburst, he would go to the place where he felt most safe. Quickly, I take to my feet and run toward the front row of seats where he and I sat together before. And there, to my instant relief, is Lucas.

But as relieved as I am to have found my son alive, I am also dismayed by what else I find there with him. There, right next to where he’s crouched and hiding under the seat, terrified and crying and covered in blood splatter, is the dead body of his nanny. I reach down and grab my son away from the grisly scene, wrapping him up protectively in my arms and holding him for a moment while he cries.

“It’s my fault, Daddy! It’s my fault!” he wails. “She was protecting me. She used her body to wrap around me when all the bullets came. It’s my fault she’s dead.”

Fury and rage consume me as I hear my small, innocent son blame himself for this atrocity. Lucas will forever be scarred by this, and he’ll carry around the same sort of self-blame that I’ve carried over the death of his mother. He didn’t deserve this, and I refuse to let this act go unpunished.

I bend down and stare straight into his eyes, ignoring the sound of continued fighting around me. Most everyone has run out of bullets now and is falling back on knives and fists to finish up the job.

“This wasn’t your fault, Lucas,” I say to him with a stern seriousness so he knows I mean it. “This is the fault of the very bad men we’ve talked about, the same sort of bad men that killed your mother. You aren’t to blame, do you understand me?”

He nods his head and I use my thumb to wipe away his nanny’s blood from his face. Now that I’ve found him, I call out to my brother and tell him to get Lucas out of here safely. “I’m going to end this whole thing right now,” I tell him. “Get my son out of here, and get Dahlia and Lucas back to my apartment safely.”

“What about you?” Alessio asks. “Aren’t you coming too?”

My eyes glance down at the body of the dead nanny and Alessio follows my gaze. “I have something to finish here,” I growl.

Alessio grumbles but does as I ask because he knows I’m not going to listen. He takes Lucas up in his arms and races out of the theatre building. I launch into what’s left of the crowd, a mangled mix of mafia soldiers and mobsters, and I execute every strike with precision. There may be more of them, but none of them can fight as well as I can. They’re all fatigued, poorly trained and careless, and definitely not as filled with rage as I am right now.

I’m also hellbent on finding Hector. He’s the one responsible for all of this, and for pitting the mafia and mob against each other. He played them both and I’ll be damned if he gets away with it. I kill until my shirt and pants are covered in blood, and until the remaining men who could easily outnumber me start to back away in fear. When I can’t see Hector anywhere here, I jump up onto the stage and go in search of him. When I find him cowering in the backstage area, trying to hide from the fighting his play has caused, I burst into an unhinged laugh at what a puny and disgraceful man he is. “Why am I not surprised to find you here hiding like the sniveling coward you are?” I taunt as I walk up to him.

His eyes widen when he sees me covered in blood with a knife tightly clenched in each hand. I’m positive that I look more like a monster than a man at the current moment. “Innocent lives were lost because of this infighting,” I growl at him. “Infighting you caused with your greedy goals. Lives of innocent people who didn’t even know they were sitting inside a theatre filled with real criminals and mobsters while watching what was supposed to be a fictional play.”

“You can’t blame me for all of this,” Hector grovels, knowing that he’s staring into the face of a man about to kill him. “The mafia and the Irish Mob have been enemies for a long time before my play even existed. All I did was add a little fuel to an already existing fire.”

“And now I’m going to snuff you out,” I say as I lunge toward him and sink a knife in each of his eyes before he even has a chance to react.

21

DAHLIA

“Lucas!” I shout in relief when I see Alessio coming toward Petre and me, carrying the boy in his arms. As soon as Alessio sets his small feet on the ground, I grab Lucas into a hug. “Oh my God, are you okay?” I ask as I look him over from head to toe. He’s covered in blood but not injured, thank God.

“His nanny was killed,” Alessio says.

I look down at Lucas and his eyes are red and swollen from crying. I wrap my hand firmly around his and hold him close. “You’ve been very brave and very strong,” I commend him. “This is all going to be over soon, and everything will be okay.” Lucas nods at me with a stiff upper lip, but I can tell he’s traumatized.

“Where’s Vari?” I ask Alessio in a panic. He glances over at Petre and the two of them share a knowing look. “He went after Hector, didn’t he? Why does he always need to be such a lone hero? He’s going to get himself—”

Before I can finish the sentence, Vari stumbles out of the building and walks toward us. He’s badly injured, clenching his hand to his shoulder while blood seeps between his fingers and soaks the front of his shirt.

“Shit, you’ve been shot,” Petre says as both brothers rush up to him. Vari leans his weight on Petre with his good side and comes to stand in front of Lucas and me.

“What happened in there?” Alessio asks. “Did you find Hector?”

“Yeah, he won’t be a problem anymore.”

“You need to go to the hospital,” I say as I look at his shoulder.

“I’m fine.”

“You most certainly arenotfine,” I frown. “You’re losing a ton of blood and you need the bullets removed and stitches.”

“I said I’m fine,” Vari repeats coldly. “I’ll handle the gunshot wounds at home. I don’t want to raise suspicions at the hospital.”

“I think that ship has sailed,” a welcome voice says from behind me. I turn to see my mother standing there.

“Mom? What are you doing here?” I ask in surprise.

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