56. No Way Out
CHAPTER 56
NO WAY OUT
I sabella
“I’ll hold them off.” Giuseppe shoves me toward Raf as the footfalls grow louder and dangerously close. “Go!” he shouts again.
Flames lick up the old wooden doors to the wine cellar, heating up the narrow space. Sweat slickens my brow, and my lungs struggle as smoke and the pungent earthy odor thickens the air.
Raf’s gaze chases to his brother, and a charged moment passes between them.
“Please, Raffa, go now, before it’s too late.”
My guardian’s hand tightens around mine before he jerks me to the right, in the opposite direction of the thundering footfalls. “Let’s go.” We race across the stone floor, toward the door I’d escaped from earlier. Gunshots ricochet across the narrow hallways behind us.
I point at the door at the end of the hallway, slowing. “Be careful, there are guards out there.”
“Not anymore,” he mutters.
We reach the end of the corridor, and Raf yanks the chair out of the way before drenching it in lighter fluid.
“You’re really set on burning this place to the ground, aren’t you?”
He nods, pure darkness etched into his jaw. “It’s only a breeding ground for more nightmares.”
“Okay. I’ll help.” I reach for the book of matches in his pocket and light a few before tossing them on the floor, igniting the trail of combustible fluid. A wall of heat erupts, crimson and ochre flames setting the hall ablaze.
He pauses for an instant to watch the fire, the flares reflecting across those intense midnight orbs.
I lace my fingers through his and squeeze. I want to tell him I know about the baby, tell him how pissed I am that he lied, but now is not the time. “I’m sorry for the hell your father put you through. And I’m sorry for doubting you for even a second.”
His gaze locks onto mine, the intensity swirling within those dark depths enough to steal my breath away. “I would never betray you, Isabella. I love you. You own my heart and my soul, and nothing will ever change that,” he whispers, voice thick with emotion. “It’s not exactly the most well-timed confession, but I need you to know that just in case?—”
I press my finger to his lips. “Don’t you dare finish that sentence. We’re getting out of here, both of us.” I pause, just long enough to let a smile through. “And I love you. So you better find a way out of this.”
A lop-sided smile crawls beneath my finger before he yanks it away. “I swear I will. As if I didn’t have enough motivation before, now I need to make sure we get out of here alive so I can show the woman I love the real beauty of this damned city.” A fiery glint lights up the shadows in his eyes.
A thrill courses through my body at his words. “Also, what the hell happened to your face?”
“I’ll tell you about it later.”
Bullets pepper the air down the hallway, muddling with the cloud of smoke, and Raf presses me against a wall, his arms covering my head.
“Watch out!” Giuseppe’s voice echoes over the chaos as two guards race toward us.
The crackle of fire and the surge of dark smoke crawls closer, obscuring everything in its path. With one arm over my head and his body draped over me, Raf discharges his weapon at the approaching men. Pop. Pop. Pop .
The sharp blasts vibrate across my eardrum, and I can’t help flinching at each shot. The sound of a body hitting the ground momentarily stills the panic. But there’s still one more guy and with the fiery inferno blazing, I can’t see shit.
A dark form emerges from the haze and pummels into Raf.
“No!” I shriek and stagger back from the force of the men’s collision.
Giuseppe appears next, a bloody gash across his forehead. He jumps into the rumble, trying to wrench Raf free from the other guard’s grasp. My hand instinctively reaches for the fragment of glass in my pocket. I could try…
The piercing bang of a gun sends my heart catapulting against my ribs. The three men are nothing but a blur of black clothes and pounding fists. “Raf!” I scream.
Giuseppe rolls over, crimson splattering his shirt. He clutches his chest, blood dribbling through his fingers.
“ Cazzo , no!” I hiss.
Raf’s hand tangles around the guard’s gun and a sharp crack sends a chill up my spine. The guard cries out, his wrist going limp as Raf wrenches the weapon away before turning it back on its owner. I squeeze my eyes closed as Raf pulls the trigger. Then he’s crawling toward his brother, and I drop down to the floor beside them.
“Giuseppe, you’re okay. I’ve got you.” Raf presses his hand on top of his brother’s, putting more pressure on the wound.
“Go,” he hisses. “You’re wasting precious time.” His glassy eyes lift to mine. “Tell him to get you out of here, Isabella.”
“No,” Raf grits out. “I’m not abandoning you.”
“Yes, you are. Just like I abandoned you all those years ago, fratellino . Poetic justice, no ? This is my penance and my punishment. Now, let me have it; it’s what I deserve.” He pries Raf’s fingers from atop his hand. “Go now!” he shouts, eyes lifting to mine.
Curling my arm around Raf’s I tug him off the floor. “Come on, he’s right. Let’s go.”
Pure anguish is carved into my bodyguard’s face as he rises. With one last look at his brother, his head dips, and he spins us toward the door.
Jerking the heavy metal thing open, he drags me outside. I nearly trip over the burnt corpses, but Raf manages to steer me around the piles of grisly charred flesh. A shot erupts, whizzing just over my head and my bodyguard pushes me to the ground. His massive body envelops me as a spray of bullets dot the night air.
All around us, the thud of heavy footsteps looms closer. The basement door is ajar, and smoke billows from the gap. Screams and shouts echo down the hallway where we’d just left Giuseppe.
We’re trapped.
“Raffaele, stand down, you stronzo .” I’ve only known the man for a short while and already I recognize Raf’s father’s voice. “There’s no way out.” It’s not quite as polished and in control as it was when I met him an hour ago.
I’m not surprised. His son has managed to single-handedly cause quite a bit of chaos across the compound. I run my hand down to my pocket and feel for the shard of glass. It’s not much, but it’s a weapon, and I’ll use it if I must.
Alfredo emerges from the shadows, a horde of guards surrounding him, each with a gun leveled in our direction. “I need the girl alive,” he hisses at his men. There must be half a dozen encircling the head of the Ferrara household plus another few crawling around the perimeter. Smoke thickens the air, the acrid odor burning my lungs.
Raf leaps to his feet, pulling me up with him, then jerks me behind his broad shoulders. With one arm holding me back, he trains his own gun at his father. “I’m not standing down unless you let us walk out of here.”
His father steps closer, moving beneath the light of a carefully hung lantern. A wicked sneer slashes across his face. “I’m afraid it’s too late for that, Raffa. You’ve killed my men, destroyed my home… But I must say, I never thought you had it in you. This woman has brought out a new side of my youngest son.”
A savage, murderous one, apparently.
The sinister smile broadens. “You’ve become quite impressive.” He stalks closer and every muscle in Raf’s body stiffens, coiled to attack. “In fact, I’d like to make you a deal. You’re right, you know, this family rift has gone on for long enough. I’d like you to return to the Ferrara fold. You’ve proven yourself more than capable, and I believe it’s time for you to step into your role in this famiglia .”
Raf barks out a laugh, the twinge of madness in the wild chuckle setting the hair on my nape on end. “I would never work for you, Papà . I will never be a part of this family after what you did.”
“Then you won’t survive long enough to have your own.”
The ridges of corded muscles across Raf’s back strain, tensing and coiling. “Kill me if it’ll satisfy your desire for vengeance, but let Isabella go.”
“No,” I cry, curling my fingers around the hem of his shirt. “I’m not going anywhere without you.”
“I’m afraid Signorina Valentino must be part of the deal, Raffa. You see, her uncle has orchestrated strategic moves in my territory. And Dante doesn’t do anything without Luca’s approval.”
I almost snort on a laugh. He clearly knows nothing about my uncle. He’s as unpredictable as they come.
“So Isabella is nothing more than a pawn?” he barks. “You plan to use her as a bargaining chip?”
Alfredo’s head slowly dips. “That’s correct, figlio . If Luca Valentino wants his daughter back, he needs to get his men the fuck out of my territory.”
Raf twists his head over his shoulder, eyes meeting mine. We both know Papà would do anything for me. My mom and our family are the reason why he’s taken a step back from the Kings and allowed Uncle Dante to run the operations. Which apparently, he’s doing a shit job at.
“I don’t trust him,” Raf whispers.
“You think he’ll double-cross Papà ?”
He nods slowly. “That’s the type of back-stabbing bastardo my father is.”
“Okay… so what do we do?”
“Get ready to fight our way out of here.”
“And, what have you decided, Raffa?” Alfredo’s eyes lift over his son’s shoulder to meet mine. “Or are you the one in charge, signorina ?”
“She’s in charge,” Raf grits out, “but I won’t force her to waste her breath on you.” He takes a step to the side, and I mirror his movements. The guards’ guns trace our subtle shift.
Fuck, there is no way out of here.
I don’t know what the hell Raf has planned, but it better be good or we’re dead. Weirdly enough, the thought isn’t completely debilitating. Losing Raf would be one thing, but both of us dying together? It wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world.
Dio , when did I become so fatalistic?
“So, what will it be?” Alfredo hisses, taking a step closer.
Only a few yards separate us now. I gingerly sink my fingers into my pocket and close them around the jagged glass. My years of Krav Maga surge to the surface. If we could just get Alfredo closer, I’m sure I could land a hit to his jugular. He’d never see it coming. I’d practiced the move for years, only without the sharp weapon, instead just using the edge of my hand to strike the throat and incapacitate my attacker.
“Get him closer,” I whisper to Raf.
“What? Why?”
“Just trust me.”
The lines across his forehead furrow, but he takes a measured step toward his father and gun-toting lackeys. “There’s something I have to say to you, Papà …”
He raises a dark brow and inches closer. “What’s that?” He eyes the gun clenched in Raf’s fist. “I’m not taking another step until you drop the weapon.”
With a grunt, he tosses the Glock onto the grass only a few feet away. Then he whispers over his shoulder, “Get ready.”
Another step and Raf and his father are nearly nose to nose. The circle of guards tightens around us, and I only hope this doesn’t end up being a bloodbath.
“This is only for your ears.” Raf leans close, and I can barely make out his words over the roar of my pulse. “The day you killed Laura and my child, you destroyed something in me, Papà, and now I’m going to destroy you. I’ll see you in hell, bastardo .”
Raf strikes at the nearest guard, wrenching his weapon free and I dart around his broad shoulder, lunging at his dad with the shard of glass. Putting all my weight into it, just like my instructor taught me, I strike at his throat.
The sharp weapon pierces his skin, but I can tell by the amount of blood I didn’t hit the jugular. The glass protrudes from his neck as he chokes and gasps. All hell breaks loose as the guards descend around us.
Alfredo clutches his throat, wheezing as he staggers, blood rushing down his pristine white shirt. Raf shoots one of the guards in the face, then rounds on a second. More shots erupt from behind us, and I whirl around in time to see Giuseppe crawling through the basement door.
He takes out two of the guards before he collapses again.
“Giuseppe!” Raf calls out.
He squeezes the trigger and brings down another guard racing across the lawn. Then his head lolls forward, and he drops to the ground with a shuddering breath.
No …
I spin back toward Raf, and in a whirlwind of movement I can’t quite follow, he manages to subdue the remaining circle of guards until only one man beside his father is still standing.
“Drop the gun, you cornuto, and I’ll let you live,” he snarls at the remaining guy. His lip is split and blood spatters his cheek. It takes me a second to recognize the guard, Alfonso, from earlier.
“Let him go,” I mutter. “He was going to help me escape. He only works for your father because he’s terrified of him.”
Alfonso’s head bounces up and down. “ Si, é vero .”
Raf swings his Glock at the guard. “Get the fuck out of here before I change my mind.”
The man drops his gun and races across the courtyard.
Alfredo sinks to the ground, his hand still wrapped around the glass protruding from his neck. He glares up at me, then turns that hateful gaze onto his son. A long minute of silence thickens the air. The sudden stillness after the chaos of the shootout is unnerving.
Raf crouches beside his father, a feral smile lighting up the impenetrable darkness in his eyes. “I am going to enjoy every second as I watch the life drain out of you, Papà .”
He gasps and blood trickles from his lips, dribbling down his chin.
“You deserve a special seat in hell for what you did.”
A sickening gurgle seeps out from his thinned lips.
Raf pivots his gaze from his father, blazing irises finding mine. “You don’t have to watch this.”
“I’m not leaving you.”
He nods slowly as I crouch down beside him.
And we wait…