Chapter 18 - The Defector
The silence in the grand foyer was heavier than the thick smoke hanging in the air.
At least a dozen of Luca’s surviving capos and loyal guards had their weapons raised, but the barrels were no longer pointed at Dante’s mercenaries. They were pointed directly at my back.
“Shoot her, Boss!” one of the lieutenants yelled, his voice rough with panic and rage. “She’s a goddamn Romano! She set us up!”
I stood perfectly still, closing my eyes and waiting for the bullet that would finally end this terrifying nightmare. I couldn't even blame them. In their violent world, my bloodline was an automatic death sentence.
But the gunshot never came.
Instead, Luca moved with blinding, explosive speed. He didn't turn his weapon on me. He spun around, raising his heavy pistol and aiming it directly at the forehead of his own lieutenant.
“Lower your weapons immediately,” Luca commanded, his voice vibrating with a demonic, absolute authority that rattled the crystal chandeliers above us. “Anyone who points a gun at her dies before they can pull the trigger.”
A collective gasp echoed through the room. The undisputed king of the Eastern syndicate was openly threatening his own men to protect the daughter of his greatest enemy.
“She is a Romano!” the lieutenant protested, his hands shaking as he kept his gun leveled at me. “It’s a trick, Luca! She played you!”
“I didn't know!” I screamed, finally turning around, tears streaming down my dirt-streaked face. “I swear to God, Luca, I didn't know until yesterday! I grew up in foster care! I am just Avery!”
Dante laughed a cruel, barking sound that shattered the tense standoff.
“Pathetic,” Dante sneered, raising his own weapon. “The great Luca Moretti, undone by a pretty face and a bleeding heart. Kill them both. Burn the house to the ground.”
His mercenaries raised their automatic rifles, ready to unleash a fatal storm of lead.
But before Dante could give the final order to fire, I raised the heavy tactical pistol Luca had handed me earlier. I didn't point it at Dante's men. I pointed it directly at my uncle's chest.
“Call them off, Dante,” I warned, my voice suddenly adopting an icy, lethal calm I didn't even know I possessed. The Romano blood was finally speaking.
Dante stared at me, genuinely shocked by my defiance. “You would shoot your own flesh and blood to protect the man who slaughtered your father?”
“My father abandoned me to strangers,” I replied ruthlessly, my hands completely steady now. “Luca took me in. He protected me. He trusted me. You threatened to murder an innocent baby in his crib tonight. You are not my family.”
Dante’s face twisted into an ugly mask of pure hatred. “Then die with him, you traitorous bitch.”
He pulled his trigger.
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I pulled mine a microsecond faster.
The deafening crack of my pistol echoed through the foyer, and Dante Romano’s eyes went wide with shock before he collapsed heavily onto the marble floor.
