like this was a reunion long overdue, the kind

e man who sold out the Moretti syndicate in Milan and vanished before I could put a bulle

across shattered glass as bullets chewed through mahogany and steel. She sc

to kill her myself. I pressed my hand over her wound, blood slick and hot again

on rocked the floor and the sprinklers burst to life, rain mixing with blood, turning the office into a war zone.

lway

his voice carrying through the sm

word tasted

wice through the desk, the recoil steadying my pu

tteo said. "Shame you won't live l

t had been circling us since Milan, t

nstinctively covered her stomach. The memory slammed into place, the nig

gnant," I s

gain, confirming everything. "Yes," she

s.

u mean was,

cien. When I refused to sign for you

violent need to burn the world down inch by inch. Matteo

versus

d pushing her toward the emergency stairwell hidden behind the bookshelf

er "Don't stop

my shirt with shaking fingers

o the room, gun raised, his gaze locking o

His eyes dropped to her bloodied arm, then to her

epped in front of her, gun aimed at his heart. "You tou

used. "Still possessive, Lu

ead of security, blood pouring from his

om New York and sign over the company to

raight, that same strength that had always drawn

ive you my em

ed and pulled

n collapsed, lifeless. So

he room erupted again, screams and gunfire blending into chaos. I grabbed Ava

waiting like a promise of escape. I shoved her into the passeng

police, not yet, these were Mat

low, They won't stop, she said. They own

n we disappear" Her head snapped

d you." The city blurred past us, neon lights reflecting in the windshield like fractured futur

ll heavy b

dangerous. "You're staying with

ting beneath the fear. "Then you need

wallowed "The contract you

ran cold,

the words that shattered ever

nd the child I was carrying And Mat

my phone buzzed again. A

ITIATED, SAFE H

d the tunnel from both ends, engines

, her grip tight wi

ere," she

s time. And then a shadow stepped out of the car ahea

mot

nting a gun s