Antonio
I’m ripped out of my dreaming state with a start, eyes narrowed, gaze flitting around the room. I have honed my instincts well enough to know when something is off, and right now, I’m certain something is not as it should be.
I throw on some clothes and grab my laptop, flipping it open and tapping into the CCTV—and when I see what’s waiting for me, horror crawls up my spine.
The house is under attack.
Unfamiliar masked men are spread out across every camera, grappling with my guards, herding the household staff into the pantry and locking the door, smashing statues and tearing paintings and generally causing whatever chaos they can.
I don’t know how they got in, but with the sheer enormity of the force, they might have given the guards no choice.
I spring to my feet, reaching for the gun in my drawer, and check that it is loaded. I’m moving on autopilot now, utterly unable to click in to what is really happening here. It feels like every muscle in my body has been pulled tight, and the only choice I have is to unleash it someone, somehow.
And then it hits me. Julia. Is she okay? I leap to my feet, checking the laptop, but the footage streaming from her end of the house is so dark I can hardly make anything out. Fuck, I need to get to her. Now.
I slip out of my bedroom, making my way down the corridor.
It looks like they haven’t gotten there yet, these fuckers who have come after my property, but I know it’s only a matter of time before they do.
I press my back to the wall and move down toward the entrance hall, keeping my footsteps light and my gun lifted.
When I turn the corner, I’m faced with the kind of chaos I could never have imagined taking place right here under my own roof.
The smell of gun smoke is heavy in the air, and marble is shattered across the floor where the statues have been destroyed. Several paintings are spilling from their frames, paper dangling from them uselessly.
And beyond, even worse, I can see one of my guards, Kieran, slumped at the bottom of the staircase, his hand pressed to his gut, and what looks like blood leaking from between his fingers.
I rush toward him, dropping to my knees at his side, and realize he’s taken a fucking bullet.
How the hell did I sleep through that? I don’t know what’s happening here, but I need to figure it out soon if I’m going to keep whoever this is from getting what they want.
As though I don’t already know. I move Kieran’s hand, pressing on the wound myself, blood bubbling up between my fingers.
“Kieran,” I say, trying to pull him back into the moment. “Kieran, can you hear me?”
His head lolls as he tries to lock eyes with me. “Don…?”
“What happened?” I ask him urgently. I get the feeling I don’t have much time left with him, and I need to get as much information out of him as I can if I’m going to stop this turning into even more of a mess than it already is.
“They swarmed us,” he groans, his voice thick with blood and pain. “They—they took us out at the door, and then they came in, and they…” He grunts.
“Who?” I demand. “Who came in?”
He spits a mouthful of blood on tothe wood below. “Andreo.”
It doesn’t surprise me, hearing my son’s name like that.
But it strikes a harsh blow deep in my guts.
How could he do something like this? These men, he’s known many of them for the better part of his whole life, and yet he’s willing to come in here blasting, killing them, maiming them, hurting them, for… for what?
“Where is he?” I demand.
Kieran gestures vaguely in the direction of one of the doors at the far end of the entrance hall. “Somewhere…somewhere down there, I didn’t see…”
I glance over my shoulder—and my stomach drops when it hits me that he’s pointing toward Julia’s quarters. Of course. I should have known that she would be what he came back for.
If what she had told me about him was true, then there was never going to be a chance in hell that he would let her slip through his fingers.
No, he feels like he is owed that woman, and he won’t allow anyone to take her from him, least of all me.
He might have no idea about the pregnancy, but I can only imagine the rage it would kick him into if he discovers it.
His own father, making the woman who was meant to be his wife pregnant with his own sibling…
“Harry, over here!” I call to another one of the guards, indicating for him to take over tending to Kieran, and spring to my feet to deal with whatever’s waiting for me down there.
My heart slams into my ribs with every step, and I grip the gun tight, keeping it low, but ready to fire off a shot the first chance I get.
How far could he have gotten with her already? Is he gone, did he snatch her up before I even knew about it? A million questions rush through my mind, but nothing is more important right now than making sure she’s okay.
I burst through the doors, and to my relief, I’m met with the sound of her voice.
“Antonio!”
Julia sounds terrified as light spills into the corridor, illuminating the nightmarish scene before me.
Andreo has Julia in his grip, arm wrapped around her throat, and she’s desperately trying to break loose from him.
But it’s no good, his grip on her is too strong, and he turns to me, as though he has been waiting for me to arrive.
There’s a look in his eye that I don’t think I’ve ever seen before in my life—something monstrous, something so far removed from my son it looks like someone else has overtaken his body completely.
“Get away from her,” I snarl, but he just grins at me.
To my horror, he looks genuinely pleased, as though this is what he has been waiting for, not just a chance to get his hands on her, but the opportunity to see the look on my face when he does.
“Worried about your wife?” he replies, his voice bubbling over with satisfaction. “She was meant to be mine first, you know—”
“Andreo, let her go,” I insist, taking a step toward him, the gun clutched tight in my hand.
One move, and I can fire off a shot at him, but I need to make sure she’s out of the way first. I know I would never, in a million years, be able to forgive myself if I hurt her.
All of this was meant to protect her, and what kind of man would I be if I failed at that?
“She’s coming with me,” Andreo replies, and Julia lets out a terrified whimper, trying to pull away from him, only to be held firmly in place. He brings his face down to hers as he pulls her against him, clearly enjoying her discomfort.
“No, she’s not,” I reply, speaking slowly, doing my best to control my voice. I can’t let him know how much he’s getting to me. I know it’s what he wants, for me to flip my shit in a way I can’t come back from, and I have to keep my head on straight if I’m going to get her out of this mess.
Seeing the way she struggles in his grip, it’s clear that the terror she felt from him before is just as potent now as it was then, and I hate that she has been thrown back into those dark memories when she should have been safe here under my roof.
Andreo raises his gun, a glint of dark metal in the dim light.
I don’t move a muscle. He has it trained on me.
It’s hard to believe he would pull the trigger on his own father, but then, he has revealed himself to be anything but the man I imagined him to be.
My son would never betray me like this—but this man, I’m not so sure.
“Out of my way,” Andreo snarls.
“I’m not going anywhere,” I say.
He takes another step toward me, his voice dropping to a menacing growl. “Out of my way, old man.”
I don’t move an inch. If I let him think he has managed to take control of this situation, then I’m going to lose her.
I can feel Julia staring at me, willing me to do something, but I’m utterly helpless.
If I make a move, he will shoot, and then there’s nothing I can do to help her. But if I don’t…
He will take her. And our child. And I know I couldn’t live with myself if I let something like that happen.
He presses the gun against her, and she closes her eyes, her knees buckling, as if she’s trying to take herself anywhere other than in this moment. Terror courses through me, a desperate need to protect that I don’t know if I can control.
“Out of my way.”
This time, I know I will cost Julia her life if I don’t obey. I let out a long breath and force myself to step aside. If I’m alive, then I can come find her—chase them out of this mansion, shoot out the wheels of his car, anything to make sure she comes back alive. But if he shoots me—
He pushes Julia past me, and just as they reach the end of the hall, he turns to me once more. And there’s that mad smile on his face again, a grin that seems to speak to something darker beneath the surface.
To my horror, he raises his gun once more. “I like it when you do what I tell you, Dad.”
And with that, he pulls the trigger. Sound deafens me, ears ringing, and a shock of pain thunders through my body before I drop to the ground. I don’t even know where the bullet hit.
The only thing I care about, as I force my gaze upward again, is the terror in Julia’s eyes as she’s dragged out of the corridor—and into whatever nightmarish plan my son has for her.