Page 57 of Killer Love

“Shut up,” I seethe. He chuckles even louder to himself. “No, Gio, this is on you. Just like Hans Petrovin is on you.”

He smirks. “Prove it.”

“I’m working on it.”

Fox rushes toward us from the front of the house. “We need to move now, Luka.”

I keep my eyes on Gio. “Where is Lucian?”

He shrugs and anger spikes in me.

I lunge at him, ready to pull him off the floor and beat him to death, but Sofia grabs my arm.

“Luka—!”

She pulls me and I jump back to dodge the gunfire blazing from down the hall.

We retreat together into the study to avoid it and Fox leaps in behind us. He kneels by the doorway and peeks out with his rifle, firing off the last of his rounds before throwing the strap over his shoulder and reaching for a switchblade in his belt.

I look out into the hall again and grit my teeth in anger.

Gio is gone.

“How many?” I ask Fox.

He pokes his head out for only half a second, dodging a bullet that pierces the doorway instead. “About seven,” he says.

Sofia gasps beside me, her ears tuning to the sound before it even reaches mine.

A crying child.

“Lucian—!” She lunges for the windows and looks outside into the back garden. “Luka, it’s him.”

I push the curtains aside and watch as Gio limps into the trees with my son thrown over his shoulder.

“Get back,” I tell Sofia, guiding her away from the windows as I grab the nearest chair.

Fox flicks his switchblade open and yanks an eager gunman from just outside the doorway. Sofia screams, jumping away as Fox flips him onto his back and plunges the knife into his chest to put him down.

I throw the chair at the window and it shatters.

“Sofia, come on!” I grab her hand as Fox pulls the rifle from the man’s dead fingers.

We climb outside and Fox kneels beside the window to fire a long stream of bullets at the rest of them to give us enough time to run. Sofia bolts ahead of me, following Lucian’s piercing cries into the woods over the pop of gunfire behind us.

She slips from my fingers, weaving in and around trees in the dark without even needing a map, just like that day fifteen years ago.

This time, I’ll seek out Gio as he hides from me.

When I find him, I’ll kill him.

“Lucian!” Sofia cries out his name, running on pure adrenaline and motherly instinct as I race behind her, trying to keep up.

I lose her in the dark as Lucian’s piercing cry disappears.

“Sofia!”

My eyes adjust to the darkness. I make out the garden shed, nestled between two large trees near the back wall. I’m struck with a vivid hesitation. The first time I saw this place, we met. The last time I saw this place, we conceived our son.

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