Chapter 17
Anna spent the afternoon with Leo and Mia, discovering the simple, grounding joy of building a blanket fort in the library.
As she sat on the floor, she felt that unsteady stutter in her heart again.
Every "I love you" from Mia and "Mom" from Leo was a battlefield she hadn't prepared for, but she was learning to love the terrain.
?While the twins napped, Anna took a moment to refine the estate's defenses. Marcus was still geeking out. As she showed him her custom, matte black sniper rifle, he breathed,
"How did you get this past the sensors? I checked your bag."
?Anna offered a rare, genuine laugh. "Marcus, if I told you how I smuggle hardware, I'd have to show you. And you really don't want to see my creative logistics."
?As evening approached, Aiden prepared to leave for his new casino construction site, the crown jewel of his portfolio. Anna pulled Marcus aside, her voice dropping to a terrifying, low register.
?"If anything like last time happens, you call me immediately," she commanded.
"If he so much as gets a scratch, don't bother coming back. Make sure you're in death's bed yourself, because if I have to come find you, it'll be much, much worse."
?Marcus didn't flinch. He just nodded.
"Understood, Anna. On my life."
?It was not the same case for the other guards on duty that night. A ripple of visible unease moved through the ranks.
They had seen what she did to Burke for a careless mistake, they knew that her threat wasn't just posturing, it was a countdown. To them, she was the shadow currently standing in their driveway, and she was far more dangerous than any street level mercenary.
?Aiden watched the exchange with a smirk. He leaned down, pressing a deliberate kiss to her forehead. "I'll be back for dinner. Try not to scare the staff to death while I'm gone."
Once the SUV pulled away, Anna's smirk vanished.
She thought of Elena. The woman was currently in the hospital with broken bones and a concussion, a "mild warning" in Anna's book, though the doctors called it a tragedy.
It wasn't enough.
But more than Elena, it was the Valentis that haunted the back of her mind. Lorenzo Valenti was a man of infinite ego and limited intelligence. He hated Aiden with a passion that blinded him to common sense.
The fact that they had pulled their spyware wasn't a sign of peace, it was the silence of a predator retracting its claws for a deeper strike.
"They're too quiet," she murmured to the empty hallway.
In the Rossi stronghold, Enzo Rossi sat at the head of a mahogany table, a smirk on his weathered lips. He had never believed the reports of her death.
He remembered the Sicilian uprising, she had saved his life.
She hadn't wanted money. She had simply looked at him, her expression unreadable, and said
"I was in the neighborhood. One day, Enzo, I'll collect."
Then, she had disappeared into the shadows.
"Spread the word," Enzo commanded. "No one touches Thorne. No one even drives past that estate. If she senses a Rossi shadow near those children, we won't have a family left to defend."
But Lorenzo Valenti didn't care for legends. He sat in his wheelchair, a daily, aching reminder of what Aiden had done to him.
?His lip curled in an ugly snarl as he looked at a fresh intel report
Anna has taken the mantle of the children's mother.
He wasn't stupid, he knew he couldn't hit the estate directly with her there. He began mobilizing an army of everyone who wanted a piece of the Thorne empire.
Lorenzo's plan was as simple as it was cruel, he would attack the King relentlessly, stripping Aiden of every moment of peace until there was nothing left of the Thorne empire but ash.
?He leaned back in his wheelchair, his fingers trembling with a mix of anticipation and malice as he reviewed the fresh intel. The message had come from one of his rats planted deep within the Thorne estate, a source that had proven invaluable.
?According to the report, the timing was perfect. Aiden was currently vulnerable, inspecting the skeletal steel of his new construction site with only a standard security detail for company.
He was playing the businessman, distracted by blueprints and bottom lines, while Anna was miles away playing mom with the twins.
?Lorenzo's lips curled into a jagged, ugly smile. He knew the Wraith was dangerous, but he banked on the hope that her new domestic life had softened her edge. He was betting everything that by the time she realized the "King" was under siege, it would already be too late to save him.
The construction site for the Thorne Casino was a skeletal labyrinth of steel and concrete, humming with the sound of heavy machinery.
Aiden stood on the skeletal remains of the third floor, Marcus beside him, reviewing blueprints with his lead engineer. Below, a six man detail kept a tight perimeter.
But Lorenzo Valenti's army didn't come in through the front gate.
The first explosion took out the transformer at the edge of the lot, plunging the site into a dusty, grey twilight as the floodlights died.
From the shadows of the neighboring warehouses, a dozen armed men emerged, moving with a tactical coordination that smelled of high-priced mercenaries.
"Contact!" Marcus roared, drawing his sidearm and shoving Aiden toward the concrete stairwell. "Get the boss to safety! Go! Go!"
The air was suddenly thick with the rhythmic thud thud thud of suppressed gunfire. One of the newer guards, a man named Elias, found himself pinned behind a stack of steel beams as bullets shrieked off the metal. He watched in horror as two of their detail went down.
Marcus slumped against a jagged pillar, his jaw clenched tight as he pressed a blood soaked hand against his shoulder. The sniper in the crane was a pro, he wasn't just firing, he was suppressing them, pinning the entire detail down while the ground team closed the distance to Aiden.
?Elias crouched down, his breathing shallow, and his vision tunneling. ?He knew the protocol. He was supposed to call the estate's main dispatch, trigger the tactical alarm, and wait for the secondary response team.
But as he reached for his radio, his fingers didn't just tremble, they went numb. ?He looked at Marcus, who was losing color fast, and then at the stairwell where Aiden was trapped.
?If Aiden died, or even if he just bled, the response team wouldn't be the ones Elias had to worry about. It would be her.
He remembered the predatory promise she had made, Don't bother coming back.
?Elias bypassed the dispatch button. With shaking hands, he pulled his phone and hit the direct line that the security team had begun to treat like a prayer to a dark goddess.
Anna was in the library, helping Mia find a missing Lego piece, when her phone vibrated with a specific, sharp rhythm.
She answered on the first vibration.
"Speak," she commanded, her voice already dropping into the Wraith's frequency.
?"Ma'am," he choked out the moment the line opened, "it's Elias. The casino... Marcus is down. He's bleeding. They're closing in on the Boss."
?He didn't wait for her to ask how it happened. He just squeezed his eyes shut and whispered, "Please. Just get here."
Anna stood up slowly. The warmth she had felt moments ago with the children didn't disappear, it condensed, turning into a white hot core of lethal intent. She looked at Mia, her baby girl, who was watching her with wide, curious eyes.
She scooped the girl up, her movements a blur of controlled urgency, and headed straight for the east wing where the bedrooms were located. She found Vanessa and Sofia huddled in the hallway, their faces pale as they whispered to one another.
The moment Anna rounded the corner, they both jumped, looking like they wanted to vanish into the wallpaper.
"Vanessa," Anna said, her voice like the click of a safety being disengaged.
Vanessa swallowed hard, her hands trembling. "Y-yes?"
"Take them. Now." Anna handed Mia to her and gestured for Leo, who had just emerged from his room rubbing his eyes, to follow.
She led them toward the heavy, reinforced door of the estate's secondary panic room.
She turned to Vanessa, stepping into her personal space until the other woman was forced to look her in the eye.
"You are to stay in this room. You are to lock this door. And you are to ensure that nothing happens to my children."
She let the word my hang in the air, a claim that was now a warning.
?"If a single hair on their heads is out of place when I return," Anna continued, her gaze shifting sharply to Sofia.
She watched the younger woman's fingers twitch, saw the instinctive way her hand began to reach for the pocket where her phone was hidden.
Sofia froze, her breath hitching as Anna's eyes narrowed into twin slits of lethal ice.
?"There is no corner of this earth where you will be safe from me," Anna whispered. The threat wasn't a shout, it was a promise.
"Sofia.... I am certainly not as blind as you think I am. Keep your hands where I can see them, or you won't have hands to reach with."
?Sofia's face drained of all color, her hand dropping to her side as if the phone had suddenly turned into a live coal.
Vanessa nodded frantically, clutching Mia to her chest. "I understand. I promise, Anna. I'll keep them safe."
Anna looked at the twins one last time, her expression softening for a heartbeat. "Leo, Mia, stay with Vanessa. I'm going to go bring Daddy home. Stay inside until you hear my voice. Understood?"
"Yes, Mommy!" Leo chirped, trying to be brave even as he sensed the danger.
Anna watched the heavy door hiss shut and the locks engage. The second the light turned red, the "Mom" was gone. The Wraith turned toward the garage, her mind already calculating wind speed, bullet drop, and the fastest route to the casino.
Lorenzo thought he was being clever by catching the King "unprotected," but he had forgotten the cardinal rule of the underworld, you don't hunt a lion when the lioness is nearby.
"Lorenzo," she whispered to the empty room. "You should have stayed in the wheelchair."