Chapter Two
Matteo Costello
The expectation of conflict had been on everyone’s mind today. But our suspicions had been assuaged when Aelita had been texting Silas provocatively all morning, and Vlad had been on his best behavior for the past week. It was almost too good to be true.
Still, Alessio, Silas’s father, had warned me in private that he’d intercepted talk of a coup today, and I’d planned accordingly. I stood behind Silas, monitoring the room for any sign of a threat. I kept a close eye on Vlad as he walked his daughter down the aisle, monitoring him for any indications of a threat.
But the first shot hadn’t come from him.
It had been Aelita, and she hadn’t hesitated. By the time I stepped forward, she had the gun pointed at Alessio. I reached for my firearm, but Vlad stood in front of me, drawing his weapon, too.
I watched Silas drop to his knees as I turned my full attention on Vlad and kicked the gun from his hand. I slammed my fist into his jaw and aimed my own weapon, only for it to fly from my hand. Someone had shot it from my hand.
I trailed my gaze around the room, and the second it took for me to take in all the details felt like an eternity as I took in the face of each and every person attacking us. I locked my attention on Vlad Petrov for just a moment, allowing fury to bubble to life in my chest. I put aside the cool and composed facade I typically maintained.
I’d kill every single one of these motherfuckers who had a role in this.
Vlad stood between me and Aelita, and I needed him out of the way to get to Silas. I’d kill him, and then I’d kill Aelita. Then, I’d get Silas the medical attention he needed. He’d survive this. He had to.
I charged toward Vlad first, but two other men passed him, coming for me with their weapons. I didn’t have much to defend myself with, but I had years of experience.
I heard another shot from behind before the telltale sound of a body hitting the floor.
I knew what had happened without looking.
I felt the presence of my best friend fade, and there was nothing I could do to stop it. Not with Vlad attacking me and then two other goons following in his shoes.
Aelita had single-handedly killed the Don and the heir, and she thought she’d get away with it.
One man made the fatal mistake of getting too close before drawing his weapon, and I pushed his wrist away, causing a misfire. In a swift motion, I twisted his arm behind his back, disarming him and taking the weight of the weapon in my hand. I ducked behind him and allowed his friend to fire twice. His body absorbed the shots before I fired the gun once.
I only needed one shot to take down my target, unlike these low lives.
When he fell, I turned the gun on the man in front of me and pulled the trigger again.
It was easy to ignore the spray of blood against my face as I rushed toward where Aelita was trying to escape the carnage. Vlad stood at her back, allowing his cronies to finish off the Costello family.
I took four long steps before I heard it.
A scream, both unfamiliar and completely familiar, rang through the room.
I froze, turning toward it with every ounce of unrestrained fury I’d felt since the first shot was fired. I saw Lilianna dive atop a small child, using her body as a shield.
I didn’t think. I didn’t even hesitate before sprinting toward them, gun raised.
The man who stood over them looked almost cocky in his resolve as he pointed his gun toward Lilianna, but I was faster. I pulled the trigger without missing a beat, and he fell to the ground. He wasn’t dead from the shot, but he was no longer conscious.
I’d take care of him later.
I finally stopped when I stood over her, and she peeked over her shoulder, eyes flashing in surprise when she saw me there. I could see her tears—proof that she’d seen what had happened to both her father and brother. But right now, that didn’t matter.
“Get up,” I demanded, glancing around the room. Everyone was engaged in either a fight or otherwise distracted, but that could end any second.
Lilianna’s chest rose and fell quickly, but she didn’t hesitate. She stood and cradled the screaming child in her arms.
“Give him to me,” I demanded. I expected her to argue, but she didn’t. She handed him over, and I swung him onto my back. “Lili, I know you can fight your way out of here. Fucking fight.”
She nodded quickly and pulled her sleeves up to her elbows as she began following me toward the door both Vlad and Aelita had used to escape. I’d get her out first. I had to save her first. If not for her sake, for Silas’s.
He’d haunt my ass into an early grave if I didn’t protect his sister.
Someone came from the left, and another man came from the right simultaneously. I turned to the man with the gun and pulled the trigger. By the time I turned to the other man, I watched Lilianna easily disarm him with a swift blow. She lifted a leg in an immaculate kick that caught him in the midsection, and I pulled the trigger as he slumped forward.
That was the woman I remembered. Not a defenseless mafia princess. Lilianna had never been that. Her father and brother had trained her as well as my father had trained me, and wherever she’d been over the past three years, I knew she’d never let those skills go.
“Go,” I told her, shoving her out the open door and following behind her. The trembling boy clung to my neck tight enough that I coughed, but I didn’t ask him to let go. Not yet.
I scanned the open area for any proof of the Petrovs who had killed my best friend, but the only motion was a car in the distance, speeding away.
I glanced at my watch and used the speed dial to call Anthony, my second-hand man.
“You need us?”
He and a team of men were on call just in case, and I knew they’d be here in moments.
“The Genoveses are dead,” I told him. “Send a car to follow the silver SUV that’s turning off Belmont Road. I need everyone else here. Take as many men alive as you can.”
“Are you still there?” he asked, and I heard the telltale sign of tires skidding in the distance. He’d be here any moment.
I glanced at where Lili stood shaking. “I have something else to attend to. Bring any captives to the cellar.”
I ended the call before he could say anything more, and I pointed to the black sports car Silas and I had driven here. Not much room for a kid, but it would do for now. “Get in. I need to get you both out of here.”
She nodded and grabbed the boy around the waist, bringing him into her chest as we made our way to the car. She tucked him in the back.
I had to get her out of here.
Lilianna and the boy. Their safety was more important than immediate vengeance.
I peeled out of the driveway and onto the main road, heading back into the city where we could blend into the traffic and find a way to fix this.
I found my attention constantly drawn to her. The same light green eyes that had once keenly watched me were scanning the roadway for threats. Her silky dark hair hung just above her shoulders, unlike when we were growing up, and it had been long and billowing. The uncertain way she’d previously carried herself was gone, replaced with a confidence that suited her.
Everything about her felt foreign.
The youth that had clung to her previously was gone, replaced by the trappings of much a more mature woman.
I’d been attracted to her when we were both young and immature, but this new side of her had my heart racing in anticipation. The memory of our night together clung to my mind, and I couldn’t stop glancing her way.
If it were anybody else in that room, I wouldn’t have hesitated to chase the Don and his heir. There were three known Dons in the city, and the other two hadn’t dared to fuck with me since I took over for my late father. Not until today. Until one of them had been killed by the other.
Having Lilianna back…well, that changed things.
“Why are you back?” I asked her.
She flinched from the hostility behind my words, and I made a note to soften my voice around her.
“I couldn’t miss Si’s wedding,” she said. “He was excited to see me afterward. To—to introduce me to his wife.”
The tears that had briefly stopped were running down her face again, but she brushed them away with the back of her hand.
“You didn’t tell me you were leaving.”
The anger I’d felt when I learned she’d run away after sleeping with me still coursed through me as I thought about it. It didn’t matter now—not after all that had just happened. But as I looked over at her, the wound still felt fresh.
“I couldn’t stay,” she said.
I didn’t push, not as I saw the grief in her eyes that swallowed every other emotion whole. We could talk about this later, but for right now, we both needed to grieve—her for her lost family and me for my lost friend and alliance.
I drove through the city, taking the roundabout way to my penthouse apartment. I kept a keen eye on all the cars that surrounded us, and I mercifully concluded that none of them appeared suspicious. I didn’t need more conflict to deal with tonight.
I pulled into the underground garage of the building and put the car in park, taking a deep breath to steady my still-racing heart. The adrenaline of the night still pumped through my veins, and I tightened my grip on the steering wheel before releasing it and stepping out of the car. I walked around to Lili’s door and pulled it open.
She climbed out, then turned back to collect the child from the back seat, lifting him and pulling him into her chest. It was almost as if she couldn’t get enough contact. As if she needed him close after all that had happened.
“Whose kid is that?” I asked. We couldn’t bring him here—not when we didn’t know how far this coup went.
“He’s mine.”
My heart skipped a beat in my chest as I stared at them together. His eyes moved up and met mine, and I saw the familiar light green. They had the same noses. They were similar in a lot of ways.
“Yours?” I repeated. I watched as she struggled to find words for a moment. “The dad?”
“In Italy,” she said immediately.
I clenched my jaw and nodded as I took it in. The woman I’d been thinking about for years—the woman who had taken and run away with the last warm piece of my heart—had been a mother for all these years.
“And you’re with him?” I asked, my voice hardening.
“He’s not in the picture.”
That loosened the slowly tightening strains of anger that had been working through me.
Lilianna wasn’t with the boy’s dad, and that changed everything.