Page 79 of Mafia Don's Secret Baby

A crash came from inside the house, and I turned, eyeing where Matteo held off three men on his own.

These ropes didn’t matter. Not when there was another imminent threat to deal with.

I turned and ran toward the front door. Matteo didn’t break his focus, but I knew that if he’d come back, Callum was safe, likely still sleeping in the safe room. We couldn’t retreat until everyone was taken care of, and if I was right about the people on the balcony below, I knew they’d be up here sooner rather than later.

The only stairs to this part of the building were typically sealed by Matteo’s security system and multiple locks. I’d need to check it and keep people from the elevator. Then, we should have enough time to get to the panic room.

It would have to work.

My plan ran through my mind as I rushed past Matteo and into the hallway. I glanced first toward the stairwell, finding that the security measures were still in place. The guards who had been stationed there were each down, lying eerily still. The blood oozing from their various wounds told me all I needed to know.

Dead. Everyone was dead.

My eyes moved to the elevator, and when it dinged, my body went rigid.

The doors slid open, and six men rushed out, all holding weapons.

I immediately reached for the gun at my side and pulled it free, but they were on me too fast. Too many of them. I kicked out my legs in an attempt to hold two of them back, but two more rounded my sides, grabbing my arms. My gun fell to the ground, clattering to the feet of another of the men. Too many. Too many.

I could hold off one or two men, but not six. I flailed and threw my body weight in all directions, hoping to incapacitate even one of them. If I could get to my gun, maybe I’d stand a chance.

I opened my mouth to scream for Matteo, but a sharp on the back of my head made everything go dark.

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Lilianna Genovese

My head throbbed.

It was the first thought I had upon waking. I didn’t want to open my eyes because it hurt so damn badly.

I moved to rub my eyes, and I found a biting pressure at my wrists, then at my ankles.

I found myself on a chair. The entire thing was covered with rust, some of it scraped away from the most used areas. I found my forearm rubbing on an upturned piece of metal uncomfortably, but I ignored it as I tried and failed to kick out my legs.

They had bound me over my clothes, leaving enough wiggle room to begin moving. As I moved my legs up and down, the fabric of my pants moved just enough that the fabric slid easily down the metal of the chair. I kicked myself back, trying to ease it downward and over the bottom of the chair.

If I could kick back the chair enough…

I had to pause as the pulsing pain in my head consumed me.

The headache became secondary to the panic I felt as I finally took in the room around me. The single long florescent light overhead flickered, and I squinted through the discomfort it caused. Where the hell was I?

Within the span of a few breaths, everything came back. The fight. The panic room. Callum.

Matteo.

My heart sped up as I pulled at my bindings. Silas had taught me how to release bindings. How to loosen them. I got to work, recalling his calming and instructive voice in my mind as I pulled and twisted at the coarse ropes.

I needed to get free and make sure they were okay. Callum was supposed to be safe in the panic room, but if they’d killed Matteo, would they find him?

If they killed Matteo.

No.

It wasn’t possible. Matteo was the strongest man I’d ever known, and it wouldn’t be that easy to take him out.

A female’s dark laugh brought my focus back to the present, and I went still. I trailed my gaze across the room. Red walls. One door. God-awful lighting. Aelita.

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