10. Nico
10
Nico
M aria's words hit like bullets. "Francesca has evidence that could destroy every major crime family in New York. She plans to release it at midnight."
The room erupts into controlled chaos. I watch Isabella's face, seeing the same realization dawn in her eyes. Her mother has outplayed us all.
"We need to split up," Matteo says, already pulling out his phone. "Contain the damage before it spreads."
I don't like it. Every instinct screams that we're walking into a trap, but what choice do we have?
The families are already scrambling, vulnerable, eager to save their businesses and stop more confidential information from leaking.
One push could start a war that would paint the streets red.
Within minutes, the mansion empties…
Matteo and Lorenzo head to intercept the information drop. Olivia and Angelo leave to handle damage control with our legitimate businesses, while my father coordinates with the other families.
Even Luca Bellanti, still reeling from his wife's betrayal, leaves to work on his political connections.
It's all too neat. Too clean. But I can't piece together why until it's too late.
An explosion suddenly hits and everything turns black. Isabella's hand finds mine in the dark, squeezing so hard it hurts. "Nico—" She can't finish, and she doesn't have to. I know.
We are outnumbered.
The next explosions come fast, one after another, like they knew exactly where to hit us. Of course they are—Maria gave them everything. Every security code, every blind spot, every weakness in our defenses.
The woman who helped raise me, who held me through nightmares and bandaged my wounds, has handed us to our enemies gift-wrapped.
I pull Isabella close, my mind racing. "The interrogation room," I tell her, already moving. "It's the safest room we've got."
We don't even make it halfway. They come at us from everywhere, moving through our home like they own it. The hallway fills with gunfire and screaming.
Isabella fights like she was born for this. She takes down the first guy who comes at her without hesitating. I handled two more, but they keep coming.
"Nico!" Isabella screams my name just before the bullet tears through my shoulder. The pain is blinding, but I can't stop. Won't stop. Two more shots find me—leg, side. Blood soaks through my clothes, hot and sticky.
I groan loudly, forcing myself to keep moving, to keep fighting.
We're almost to the interrogation room when I hear Maria's scream. Despite everything, my heart lurches at the sound. I turn just in time to see her body crumple, blood blooming across her chest.
The momentary distraction costs us everything.
They're everywhere now, too many to fight. Isabella stands over me while I bleed, holding a gun she took from one of them. Her hands don't shake, but tears stream down her face.
"Run," I beg her, feeling myself go lightheaded. "Isabella, please, just run—"
"Shut up," she sobs, pressing harder on my wounds. "Don't you dare ask me to leave you. Don't you dare."
"Look out!" I use the last of my strength to push her away from the guard behind her. My shot catches him in the throat. The gun falls from my numb fingers.
"No, no, no!" Isabella's hands are on my face, leaving bloody fingerprints. "Stay awake! Look at me, Nico! Please don't leave me, please—"
But I've lost too much blood.
The last thing I see is them dragging her away from me. She fights them hard, screaming my name until one of them slams a rifle into her head.
Then nothing.
We walked right into Francesca's trap. The information leak, the splitting of our forces—it was all orchestrated to get to Isabella. And I let it happen.
As my consciousness fades, I make a promise to whatever dark gods are listening. I will find her. I will burn down every building, break every bone, spill rivers of blood to get her back.
And then I will show Francesca exactly why the other families call me The Reaper.
She doesn’t understand what she has just awakened—the creature my father spent years creating, the monster I've kept caged, for Isabella's sake.
But the cage is open now.
And I'm coming for them all.