Page 117 of Ruthless Guardian

Another step and Raf and his father are nearly nose to nose. The circle of guards tightens around us, and I only hope this doesn’t end up being a bloodbath.

“This is only for your ears.” Raf leans close, and I can barely make out his words over the roar of my pulse. “The day you killed Laura and my child, you destroyed something in me,Papà,and now I’m going to destroy you. I’ll see you in hell,bastardo.”

Raf strikes at the nearest guard, wrenching his weapon free and I dart around his broad shoulder, lunging at his dad with the shard of glass. Putting all my weight into it, just like my instructor taught me, I strike at his throat.

The sharp weapon pierces his skin, but I can tell by the amount of blood I didn’t hit the jugular. The glass protrudes from his neck as he chokes and gasps. All hell breaks loose as the guards descend around us.

Alfredo clutches his throat, wheezing as he staggers, blood rushing down his pristine white shirt. Raf shoots one of the guards in the face, then rounds on a second. More shots erupt from behind us, and I whirl around in time to see Giuseppe crawling through the basement door.

He takes out two of the guards before he collapses again.

“Giuseppe!” Raf calls out.

He squeezes the trigger and brings down another guard racing across the lawn. Then his head lolls forward, and he drops to the ground with a shuddering breath.

No…

I spin back toward Raf, and in a whirlwind of movement I can’t quite follow, he manages to subdue the remaining circle of guards until only one man beside his father is still standing.

“Drop the gun, youcornuto,and I’ll let you live,” he snarls at the remaining guy. His lip is split and blood spatters his cheek. It takes me a second to recognize the guard, Alfonso, from earlier.

“Let him go,” I mutter. “He was going to help me escape. He only works for your father because he’s terrified of him.”

Alfonso’s head bounces up and down. “Si, é vero.”

Raf swings his Glock at the guard. “Get the fuck out of here before I change my mind.”

The man drops his gun and races across the courtyard.

Alfredo sinks to the ground, his hand still wrapped around the glass protruding from his neck. He glares up at me, thenturns that hateful gaze onto his son. A long minute of silence thickens the air. The sudden stillness after the chaos of the shootout is unnerving.

Raf crouches beside his father, a feral smile lighting up the impenetrable darkness in his eyes. “I am going to enjoy every second as I watch the life drain out of you,Papà.”

He gasps and blood trickles from his lips, dribbling down his chin.

“You deserve a special seat in hell for what you did.”

A sickening gurgle seeps out from his thinned lips.

Raf pivots his gaze from his father, blazing irises finding mine. “You don’t have to watch this.”

“I’m not leaving you.”

He nods slowly as I crouch down beside him.

And we wait…

CHAPTER 57

A VOW

Raffaele

The early light of dawn seeps through the window in Isabella’s bedroom, illuminating the space in a warm glow. The brilliant rays wash over her tranquil face, bathing her in an otherworldly radiance.Dio, I love her. And to think I’d come so close to losing her only a week ago.

A flicker of movement sends my head spinning toward the door. A shadow creeps across the crack beneath, and I draw in a steadying breath, reminding myself it’s supposed to be there.

Isabella’s new bodyguard arrived nearly a week ago now, fresh from Manhattan. After the disastrous turn of events with my family, we’d told Luca everything. It was probably the second most frightened I’d ever been in my life. To tell the man who trusted you with his only daughter that you’d fucked up and it had nearly cost her life? And more than that, that you were in love with her?

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