Page 58 of The Last Vendetta

“Because I only want you, Renzo.” Her breath hitched as she kissed me soundly. “All I want, now and forever, is the enemy I can’t have.”

Fuck. She was killing me here. She spoke the truth, but I never wished for a lie more than I did at that moment. I wanted it to be false. I longed for a way to stay with her.

“Don’t run,” I told her. “Because I need?—”

Gunshots rang out in the distance. Then closer.

She gasped, falling against my chest. I didn’t wait. Hearing bullets hitting the car threw me into action. I held her tightly and turned her back into her seat, lowering her with my shove.

One glance in the mirrors showed me that men had found us. My instincts had been right. Someone had been tailing us out of the city. I’d lost them, weaving around and throwing them off our tail, but parked here for a stolen moment with Giulia made us vulnerable, sitting ducks.

Their cars were marked as the enemy. Not the Romano, Bernardi, or Acardi outfits, but another. The Greeks. I’d been so focused on Giulia and our conversation that I hadn’t noticed we’d been driving near their territory.

“Stay down,” I ordered her.

She was already slinking low in her seat, aware of what was necessary. No hysterics. No fear. Just the simple understanding of how things worked in our violent lives.

“Here.” She handed me the gun from the glove compartment, competent and knowing what came next.

I took it, keeping one hand on the wheel. “You know how to shoot?”

She rolled her eyes at me, already sliding a smaller gun out of her purse. “Why wouldn’t I?”

I laughed. If I hadn’t fallen in love with her already, this cemented the fact that I would soon. “Because you’re not a soldier.”

“My uncle thought I should know a thing or two about defense,” she quipped as she watched the side mirror, prepared to help me shoot our way out of the trouble on our tail.

19

GIULIA

Giulia

Renzo sped up to lose the Greeks closing in on us. When they failed, he counted on their colliding and getting in an accident to slow them down.

With deft maneuvering, he avoided crashing. But it wasn’t enough. He slowed to fire at the closest car, and that did the trick.

I watched with my heart trapped in my throat, my pulse skyrocketing and my breaths so quick, as he shot at the front wheels. The SUV swerved, then flipped, and with the second car right behind it, that vehicle was smashed.

Large flames shot to the sky, but we were too far to be caught in the heat. Renzo kept a steady hand on the wheel and sped further away. Seeing him so tense and taut, his muscles flexed as he gripped the wheel and his gun, proved that he was no damn spare. He wasn’t an inferior brother only now expected to perform as the Bernardis’ second in command.

This wasn’t the action of a man just suddenly coming into his strength or finesse as a ruthless Mafia man. He’d always been like this, always prepared to kill and defend, but I didn’t know if it was himself or me that he was keeping alive.

“Are they targeting you?” I asked once several quiet moments filled the car as he sped away.

“Maybe you.” He glanced at me, checking over me quickly. “Word spread that Rocco’s dead. I wouldn’t put it past them to try to take out more of your Family.”

Which would make sense why Mother was drugged too. But no security footage showed anyone coming inside the house that night.

I nodded. “Or they want to attack with the knowledge that I’m Nickolas’s bride.”

He growled. “Don’t fucking say that.”

I sighed, trying to come down from the adrenaline rush and relax. We were safe. We’d gotten away, and knowing how much Renzo hated to hear of me as Nickolas’s bride soothed my needy soul—needy for him.

“They could try to take me out to counter the Acardis aligning with the Romanos.” It needed to be said despite how cold it sounded.

“I thought the same thing about Luka.” He glanced at me, taking my hand and looking at me again as though he was still worried I could’ve been injured or stressed from that scare.

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