Chapter 21
Sofia couldn't believe her luck when the phone rang. It was as if the universe, weary of watching her play the victim, had finally handed her a loaded deck.
She sat in the driver's seat, her hands trembling, not from nerves, but from pure, manic adrenaline. She flipped open her hidden burner phone, a sharp, dangerous smile pulling at her lips.
?"Lorenzo, listen," she hissed.
"Aiden's arrogance finally tripped him up. He's so blinded by his little war that he forgot the paperwork, he never updated the school's emergency contact list."
She let out a sharp, mocking laugh. "The school just called me. Mia has a fever, and since they can't reach Aiden, I'm the next in line. This is it. Send your men, give me the opening, and I'll give you the only leverage that will make Aiden Thorne crawl."
Lorenzo Valenti, feeling like a cornered rat in a burning house, didn't need to be told twice. He figured if Aiden had let Sofia live after her first betrayal, she either still had value or the "King" was finally getting soft.
He immediately provided the muscle Sofia lacked, a professional hit squad that moved with the cold, surgical precision of a predator.
While Anna drilled the guards at the estate, Lorenzo's team executed a silent massacre. They baited the exterior security detail with a fake breach three blocks away, luring them into a blind alley. The strike was fast and clinical, within minutes, six of Aiden's men were dead.
The Valenti squad didn't just leave the bodies, they stripped them taking the custom tailored Thorne security suits and earpieces.
By the time Sofia pulled up to the school, the men standing at the gates weren't Thorne loyalists, they were Valenti's wolves dressed in stolen suits. They stood with practiced stillness, mimicking the posture of the men they had just murdered.
To the school staff, the security looked tighter than ever. To Sofia, it was a red carpet.
Inside Sofia put on the performance of a lifetime.
"Oh, my poor little Mia!" Sofia cried, clutching her designer handbag to her chest as she hurried into the nurse's office. "Her father is so busy, and Isabella, bless her soul, isn't here. Thank heaven you called me."
The nurse, completely unaware of the Thorne family's internal bloodbath, smiled sympathetically. "She's just a bit flushed, Ms. Sofia. A mild fever. She's ready to go."
Mia, looking a bit lethargic and very confused, let Sofia lead her to the parking lot. "Auntie Sofia? Where's mommy? Where's the Dog?"
"Mommy is busy, darling," Sofia said, her voice dripping with a fake honey that made Mia wrinkle her nose. "We're going to go on a little adventure. Just you and me. Won't that be fun?"
?She walked past the "guards" at the gate with a sharp, knowing nod. They didn't stop her. Instead, they stood as a human shield, strategically blocking the school's security cameras with their bodies as she bundled a sleepy Mia into her car.
Sofia's heart was hammering against her ribs like a trapped bird. She shifted into gear and sped away, heading toward a safe house she knew Valenti kept for emergencies.
?But Sofia had forgotten one thing, in this city, even the shadows were owned.
?Ten minutes into the drive, a sleek black SUV pulled across the road with the grace of a panther, forcing Sofia to screech to a halt.
?"Who does this person think they are!" Sofia huffed, slamming her hand against the horn. "Move!"
The door of the SUV opened, and out stepped a man in a perfectly tailored Italian suit. He looked like he belonged on a runway, or perhaps a throne.
Enzo Rossi.
He walked up to Sofia's window and tapped on the glass with a heavy gold ring. Sofia rolled it down, trembling. "Rossi? What are you doing here? I'm...I'm taking Mia home."
"You're going the wrong way, Sofia," Enzo said, his voice smooth and dangerous. He looked into the back seat at the small, feverish girl.
"Hello, Mia. You don't know me, but I'm a friend of your... mom"
He looked back at Sofia, his smile disappearing. "Anna is a woman of her word. She returned my family to me. I think it's only fair I return hers to her."
Sofia paled. "You wouldn't. Valenti will come after you!"
"Valenti is a dying dog," Enzo spat. "And I don't like people who use little children as pawns. It's tacky."
He opened the back door and gently lifted Mia out. "Come, little one. My car has a DVD player and much better snacks."
As he walked away, he looked over his shoulder at the frozen Sofia. "I'd start driving if I were you. She is approximately five minutes behind me. And I'm sure she didn't bring any W casings this time. She brought a shovel."
Sofia ditched the car, her hands trembling as she hammered out a frantic text to Lorenzo. She shared her coordinates, demanding immediate backup and emphasizing one crucial detail, the Wraith was alone.
Sofia reasoned that while Anna was a nightmare, she was still flesh and blood. Against twenty professional killers, even a ghost had to bleed. If Anna dropped ten, the eleventh would still put a bullet in her.
?Enzo stood by his SUV, watching her stumble blindly into the treeline. A slow, amused smile spread across his face as the darkness swallowed her.
?She has no idea what's coming for her, he thought, almost pitying the woman. She was walking into a trap made of shadows, and she had just invited more lambs to the slaughter.
?When the "Night of the Heirs" had begun, Enzo had quietly placed a perimeter of his own men around the school. It wasn't an act of aggression, it was a silent act of gratitude.
He had observed the unfolding chaos as the Wraith systematically dismantled the power structures of the other families. Yet, the Rossi heirs remained untouched.
?In their world, that wasn't an oversight, it was a message. It meant he owed her. Again.
?So when his men alerted him that Sofia had walked out with Mia, Enzo didn't hesitate. He personally headed for the intercept, sending a short, vibrating text to the Wraith's private line before he even hit the highway.
When Anna's car screeched onto the scene five minutes later, tires smoking against the asphalt, she found Enzo leaning casually against his SUV, looking entirely too composed for a man in the middle of a kidnapping. On one hand, he held a straw for a much happier looking Mia.
Anna stepped out of her vehicle, a Glock in each hand, her face a mask of pure, unadulterated slaughter. Her eyes were wide, glowing with a lethal maternal instinct that made even the Rossi guards step back.
"Where is she?" Anna hissed, the air around her practically vibrating with violence.
Enzo didn't flinch. He simply pointed toward the darkening tree line of the horizon. "She fled into the woods. Clumsy. She tripped twice, and I believe she lost a shoe. A very expensive Italian heel. A tragedy, really."
Anna's gaze snapped to Mia, who waved a half eaten granola bar with a sleepy grin.
"Mommy! Mr. Enzo says you're a ghost! Can ghosts eat granola?"
The terrifying tension in Anna's shoulders snapped instantly. She dropped the safety on her weapons, holstering them with a blur of motion as she rushed over. She pulled Mia into her arms, checking her temperature and pulse with a trembling, practiced hand.
"You saved her," Anna said, her voice finally finding its breath as she looked up at Enzo.
"I know we're not even, but I hope this counts for something, Wraith," Enzo said, straightening his jacket and smoothing a stray hair. "Three debts is a heavy burden to carry. This should at least lighten the load."
As Enzo drove away, Marcus pulled up in a secondary vehicle. He jumped out, saw Mia safe, and nearly collapsed.
"Is she okay? Is Sofia dead? Can I go back to bed now?"
"She's fine," Anna replied, her voice returning to its calm, lethal baseline.
"Did you reach Aiden?"
?"No," Marcus groaned. "The scramblers are still active. He's in a total blackout until he hits the downtown hub."
?Anna nodded. She trusted Aiden to keep himself safe, he hadn't built an empire by being easy to kill. But her focus was elsewhere. She smoothed Mia's hair, pressing a tender, lingering kiss to her forehead.
?"Marcus, take Mia. Go get Leo using the back entrance and head straight for the estate. Do not stop for red lights. Not for anyone."
?Marcus blinked, looking at the dark treeline. "And you?"
?Anna's gaze drifted toward the woods, her eyes narrowing into cold, dark voids.
?"I'm going to find Sofia. We need to have a heart to heart conversation... you know, girl talk," Anna said, letting out a short, jagged laugh that held absolutely no humor.
Her expression flattened into something lethal. "I want her to understand that Isabella's mercy died the very second she put Mia in that car."
Marcus shivered. "You know, I liked you better when you were just teaching me how to shoot targets. This version of you is going to give me a stroke. You're scarier than Aiden, and that man literally owns the city."
"Move, Marcus," Anna said, a small, dark smirk playing on her lips. "Before she gets too far. I want her terrified, not lost."
"Come on, princess, let's go get your brother," Marcus murmured, his voice soft as he reached for the small, shivering girl.
?"Mommy?" Mia asked, her eyes glassed over with fever, searching for the familiar warmth of her mother's embrace.
?"Go with Uncle Marcus, baby," Anna said, her tone a perfect, haunting lullaby that masked the storm underneath. "Mommy has to go on a hunt, but I'll be home soon. I promise."
?As Anna handed the girl over, the tenderness vanished. She turned her gaze to Marcus, and the air between them turned to ice.
?"Marcus," she said, her voice dropping to a lethal, vibrating low. "You protect them with your life. If anything happens to them......."
?"Yes Anna, I know" Marcus whispered smiling softly. He tucked Mia securely into the reinforced backseat, already mentally checking his perimeter.
?Marcus watched as Anna popped the SUV's boot, his jaw dropping at the sight. Nestled among the high tech hardware sat a sleek, matte black compound bow and a quiver of carbon fiber arrows.
?Is that a bow? he thought, a cold sweat breaking out on his neck. She wasn't just going to find Sofia, she was going to hunt her. Like an animal.
??Anna felt a dark relief that Aiden was unreachable. Sofia was the twins' last blood tie to their late mother, and she knew Aiden might still harbor a sentimental ghost of a feeling for that final link to Isabella.
But Anna was hollow of such mercy.
?She stepped toward the treeline.
She wasn't going into those woods to simply end a life, she was going to turn the forest into a cathedral of agony. She would hunt Sofia and Valentis minions with the rhythmic patience of a nightmare, peeling back their hope until only hollow terror remained.