Chapter 55

MATTEO

I sprinted down the hall toward the front door.

Just outside, Antonio and Zefiro were locked in a fight to the death.

Each had a gun pointed at the other.

“Hey, I wouldn’t do that if I were you!”

Minnie was a few steps behind me.

“They haven’t seen each other for years, and you do ~not~ want to get between them.”

“I don’t give a fuck,” I said, “that’s my Don. If they accidentally shoot him in the crossfire I will never forgive myself.”

I came to the front door and sprinted out into the snow, instantaneously wishing I were wearing any shoes other than slippers. I couldn’t believe I was having the battle of my life in my pajamas.

Antonio and Zefiro circled one another.

I was about to help Luca when—

“Stop,” Minnie said from behind me, she had a gun stuck to my back.

“I’m doing this for your own good,” she explained. “You have to trust me.”

I was ~really~ getting annoyed with these Rossis.

“What the fuck are you doing?”

“Sorry, sorry, but you saving your Don is not part of the plan. And you don’t want to mess up one of my dad’s plans. He is not a very forgiving man.”

My jaw clenched in anger.

I didn’t care about the stupid plan. Luca could not die.

“Let me go right now, or I swear to God I will kill you,” I said.

Slowly, I turned around to face her, her gun was now pressed against my abs.

~BOOM~.

My gaze snapped over Minnie’s shoulder.

Zefiro had shot at Antonio.

But now standing, half awake, in front of Antonio was Luca.

He had used him as a human shield.

His shirt was now covered in blood where the bullet had penetrated his skin.

The blood was gushing out of his chest. He must have been hit right in the heart.

Luca gasped, gripping his chest.

He dropped to his knees, then fell to the ground. The snow around him turned red.

“No!” I screamed.

Luca was going to have his life taken from him. I was barely aware of Minnie’s small hand on my shoulder.

“It’s going to be okay. Don’t worry.”

Then I looked at her. There was genuine confidence in her expression. She believed her words. I wished I could have the same confidence.

“I’m not going to let him die,” she said.

Another loud noise.

Zefiro shot again, this time right at Antonio, getting him in the shoulder. His hand clutched at his bullet hole, but he stubbornly stayed standing, holding his ground.

“You have gotten good, brother. You never had good aim,” he said to Zefiro, his hand now covered in his own blood. “No one would know you were a weak little boy who could only dream of being king.”

Zefiro held his brother’s harsh gaze with an even harsher one.

“Stop controlling his mind, Antonio,” Zefiro instructed him, the gun now pointed at his head.

“You will get your fight, Zefiro,” he said, spitting out the title as if it were an insult, “just not today.”

Out of nowhere, Antonio grabbed Zefiro’s gun, shooting it upward.

He elbowed Zefiro in the face and knocked the gun away. It skidded away in the snow.

Before any of us could see what had happened, he was gone.

Antonio disappeared into the forest.

Before any of us could run after him, Luca gasped for air, blood sputtered out of his mouth and dribbled down his chin.

His eyes were wide and afraid.

He was clearly back in control of his body, no longer under Antonio’s mind control serum.

He looked down at his chest. His face paled.

The life was leaving him.

“W–what h–” he stuttered before passing out.