“Move, birdie,” Nunzio grits out.
My teeth bite into my lip until I can taste the blood on my tongue, searing with rage from the sight of him touching her.
The rugged metal of Manuel’s gun presses against my temple like a branding iron. His hot breath, reeking of stale cigarettes and alcohol, prickles the back of my neck, and I’ve already decided that Manuel will be the first to get his head smashed against the pavement.
My jaw tics with anger, and my rage builds to a crescendo. My teeth grind together like stones as I think about all the things this bastard has done to Mira, every second of pain he caused her. A thousand screams echo in my head, pushing me over the edge as I envision a myriad of gruesome ways to take away his life so slowly he’ll pray that the devil takes him quickly.
“Mira, please,” I start, and she stares at me with so much pain I can feel it seep into my soul. “Don’t do this.” My voice is almost unrecognizable from the rawness of emotion. “Let him do whatever he wants with me, but don’t you dare give up. Do not get in that car. Run. Run as fast as you can. Please, Hummingbird.”
Mira’s gaze burns as teardrops glisten in her eyes, her jaw set firmly in a mask of resolve.
“I won’t let him hurt you.”
“Mira, please!” I shout, desperation choking my voice, and I let out a scream that tears my soul apart, ripping from the deepest part of me, a cry that bounces off the walls and echoes into the darkness.
Nunzio chuckles, a sickening sound. “I think your husband is having a hard time with this,” he says to Mira, and I wish I were still the reckless Nicoli who would take his chances, even if there’s just a five percent chance I’ll be able to fuck him up. But I can’t be reckless. Not when it comes to her. Never with her.
She glances over her shoulder in my direction, her eyes glimmering with tears, her feet barely keeping up with Nunzio’s relentless pace as he drags her toward a car. I’m struck by the horror of it all, my heart pounding like thunder in my chest until every breath is like shards of glass tearing through my lungs. Every muscle in my body and every instinct in my blood screams at me to act, to intervene and stop this, but I’m fucking powerless. Nothing I do now will prevent this from happening, and it’s the worst kind of agony I’ve ever felt.
Nunzio cackles in triumph as he forcefully drags Mira to the car, her eyes wide and pleading as she frantically looks back at me, our gazes interlocked as he steals her away from me. It’s fucking excruciating, like venom poisoning my blood and slowly killing my heart.
Jesus, where is he? Where fucking is he?
I glance up at the building in front of me, my thoughts frantic with every possible thing that could go wrong. If he doesn’t pull through, all of this gets shot to shit, and I lose my wife to this psychopath once again.
There’s a quick flash on the top of the building, like light bouncing off a metal surface, and my stomach lurches up my chest.
“Motherfucker,” I mutter under my breath.
“What did you say?” Manuel growls behind me.
The air around me suddenly turns cold, and my blood pumps faster in my veins as I let out a feral growl. “I said, get ready to die, motherfucker.” Without warning, I drop into a defensive crouch and whip to the side just as a bullet pierces the air with an explosive roar. The deadly projectile finds its mark directly in the center of Manuel’s forehead, blasting a hole in his skull. His body drops heavily to the ground, blood oozing out of the wound. It’s a perfect kill shot.
“Now, you’re just showing off,” I mutter as I look up at the building where our sniper is positioned.
A second bullet comes zapping through the air, instantly killing the second guy, and as he drops to the ground, his gun lands right in front of my feet, so I grab it and start running toward Mira.
Nunzio whips around, momentarily distracted. I seize the opportunity and lunge, slamming my shoulder into his midsection. We crash to the pavement in a tangle of limbs. I grapple for the gun, fingers clawing desperately until I wrench it from his grasp, slamming his hand into the asphalt with such force, trying to get him to let go.
His fingers snap open, the weapon falls out of his hand, landing a few feet away, and I slam my elbow straight into his ugly motherfucking face.
I’m clambering to my feet when a large frame steps in beside me, Maximo towering over Nunzio. “Today you die, motherfucker.”
“Maximo, no!” Mira launches forward, putting herself between us and Nunzio like she’s protecting him.
“Mira, what are you doing?” Maximo narrows his eyes at her.
“You’re not going to kill him.”
He stares at her in disbelief, and I know this man’s mind is about to break with confusion. “This fucker needs to die, Mirabella. Why are you protecting him?”
“I told you that his life is mine to take,” she says sternly. “Not yours or anyone else’s. Mine.”
Nunzio scurries up to his feet, readying to run in the other direction, but I can’t aim with Mira blocking my view.
I swipe around and yell into the night, “Davian! Shoot him!”
“No!” Mira gasps, darting to the side, trying to get into the sniper’s line of sight.
“Mira!” A scream tears from my soul, and I don’t know how the fuck it’s possible, but I swear I can hear that one bullet explodes from the sniper’s chamber, and the world freezes around me. Dread slams into me, a sheet of ice cutting my bones, and I’m paralyzed, terror coating my skin like a thousand nails. Fear twists and turns within me as I desperately try to make sense of what is happening. And all I can think about is how this bullet is going to my wife’s chest and will break through and sink deep into her beating heart. It’s a split second, but I’ve already seen my life without her flash before my eyes—the agony, the despair, the emptiness. At that moment, my mind’s made up. I will end my life. I will end my life here and now rather than take a single breath without her.
Her honey-blonde hair. Cherry-red lips. Her laughter. God, no. Don’t let me lose her.
The single gunshot pierces the air like a jagged blade, slicing through every other sound and leaving nothing but an eerie silence. Then I hear it, a shrill scream of agony that is muffled by my raging thoughts, and in a surreal moment, Nunzio crumples to the ground with a guttural gasp.
The world around us speeds up to a frantic pace, and I lunge toward Mira with a wild urgency, grasping her around the waist and yanking her body close. I’m clutching her so damn tight, weaving my fingers through her hair so desperately that they tangle in the strands. “Jesus, Mira,” I murmur, pressing her hard against my chest.
Her body shakes with sobs, and I breathe out heavily, closing my eyes, thanking God that my worst nightmare didn’t just come true.
“You’re okay,” I murmur, pressing my lips hard on the top of her head, breathing in deep so I can smell her familiar scent to make sure this is real, that I’m not dreaming. “You’re okay? You’re not hurt?”
She shakes her head and tries to lean back, but I only pull her back harder, refusing to let her go.
“I’m okay,” she whispers through the tears. “You? Are you hurt?”
“No. I’m fine, Hummingbird. We’re both fine.”
“Thank God.”
I lean back, sliding my hands to her cheeks as I study her face, ensuring there’s not a goddamn scratch on her. “I need to get you home.”
“What about Nunzio?”
“Mira,” I try to protest because I already know what she’s going to say.
“You promised, Nicoli. You gave me your word.”
“I know.”
I press my lips against hers, sucking in a breath, completely disarmed by this woman. I don’t ever want to stop kissing her. Never.
Nunzio curses behind us, and I reluctantly break our kiss to look in his direction, the fucker squirming on the ground in pain, his leg bleeding profusely.
Maximo looks at me, silently urging me to give him the order to end this—to finally kill Nunzio so we can all move on. But as much as I want to kill Nunzio myself, Mira’s right. I made her a promise, and no matter how much it goes against every instinct I have, I’ll keep that promise.
Maximo curses when I lightly shake my head at him, and I know he’s tearing me apart limb by limb inside his head right now.
“How’s everyone doing down here?”
I turn and cock a brow. “Davian fucking Stark.”
He grins, clutching a cigarette between his lips.
“You cut it real fucking close, man.”
“What can I say? I have impeccable timing.”
“I don’t know if I want to kiss or kill you right now.”
“Hey.” He points to Manuel’s dead body. “Do you see that? This man’s skull is cut right through the middle, exactly. Do you know the amount of skill it takes to pull that off?”
“Well, I—”
“Exactly. You don’t. You can’t rush perfection, man.”
“You call that perfection?” I gesture toward Nunzio, still clutching his leg.
Davian shrugs. “Hey, I could have placed a bullet through his eye socket, but you clearly instructed not to kill this fucker.”
“That, I did,” I mutter, regretting my decision to pass that little instruction along. “Baby,” I say as I pull her close. “Meet Davian Stark. The best fucking sniper in the US.”
“Fuck you,” Davian spits out. “I’m the best goddamn sniper in the world.”
I snort and watch as he takes Mira’s hand.
“It’s nice to finally meet you, Mrs. Del Rossa.” He cocks a sly brow. “You are even prettier than I imagined.”
“Okay, Casanova,” I warn, pushing him away. “Keep your dick on a leash.”
“If he breaks your heart, you call me up, okay?” He winks at Mira, and I simply press my lips in a thin line.
“If you didn’t just save our asses, I would kick yours right about now.”
“Love you, too, man. Good luck.”
And like a fucking phantom, Davian just disappears into the darkness. There’s a reason he’s the best in what he does, and that’s also why he’s high up on the Dark Sovereign payroll.
“Yo, Nicoli,” Maximo calls, and I quickly glance his way. “What are we doing with this fucker?”
Mira places her fingers around my elbow, and I close my eyes, my head and my heart at war with each other. My head is telling me to gut Nunzio from nose to navel, feel my knife tear through his insides. But my heart—damn my heart—it’s telling me to keep my word because as much as I want to kill Nunzio myself, Mirabella is the one who needs this to move on.
I walk up to Maximo, who has his gun trained on Nunzio. “You know as well as I do that his life is owed to your sister. No matter how much you and I want to do this, it’s not up to us.”
“Jesus Christ, you are all a bunch of pussies,” Nunzio spits out, sweat streaming down his face, forehead creased from pain. “You gonna have a woman do a man’s job, Nicoli?”
My jaw clenches, and I ball my fists.
“It makes sense for you to have her do the dirty work since Del Rossa men are known to lack goddamn spines.”
Fury lights up every inch of my body, and before I can even think, my fist connects with Nunzio’s jaw. He falls back, this time clutching his nose. So I lean over him, bringing my face so close to his so he can smell the hatred on my breath. “The only reason I’m not cutting out your tongue right now is because my wife wants to hear you scream while you beg for death.”
A car comes to a screeching stop, the headlights casting looming shadows across the streets.
Caelian leaps out of the car, the ignition still on, and rushes toward us. “If you two fuckers leave me behind again, I will personally shove spark plugs up your pee-holes. What the fuck is wrong with you?”
Maximo keeps his gun aimed at Nunzio. “Someone had to stay behind and call for backup.”
“That’s me. I’m the fucking backup.” Caelian stops abruptly by the corpse of the man who got sniped right between the eyes. “I see Davian made it in time.”
“Barely.”
Another SUV pulls up, both Alexius and Isaia getting out of the car. “Is everyone okay?” Alexius stomps closer, his gaze sweeping across the scene.
“Everyone’s fine.” I glance at the two dead bodies and an injured Nunzio. “Well, those who matter.”
“Mira, you okay?” He walks up to her and pulls her in for a hug.
“I’m okay,” she says against his chest.
Alexius leans back, scanning her for injuries. “The baby okay?”
That’s when Mira’s eyes meet mine. I give a light nod, and she smiles. “There is no baby.”
