Page 24 of Wicked Rivals

Stefano reacting even after being shot, hauling Enzo to safety first before literally doing anything else.

He had saved my son.

Even if I couldn’t admit it out loud, it wouldn’t matter.

I knew what I had seen.

Stefano undid his tie with one hand, then tightened it with his teeth around his arm above the bullet wound. He reached across his body into his pocket for his phone and shouted above the rain of gunfire crashing through my café.

“Tony? Bruce? Are you hit?”

He grunted, tapped the speaker button, then tossed it on his lap, so he could reapply pressure to his wound.

I had the urge to help him, to tighten the knot in his makeshift tourniquet, to make sure the bleeding at least slowed, but nothing in this world could make me let go of my son.

“No, boss,” his man said over the phone. “We went around back. Approaching your position now.”

The kitchen door squeaked open and then Man Bun and Baldy rushed in, guns drawn as they crouched to avoid catching a bullet of their own. They knocked down tables to use as cover while more chairs shattered into splinters and sawdust.

It had been less than five minutes since Stefano walked through my front door. And in time, my once peaceful little life had become his mafia war zone.

“Did you get a count on the shooters?” Stefano called out.

Baldy popped up from behind an overturned table and fired through the nonexistent window over our heads.

“Not yet, boss,” he shouted.

Enzo jumped with every shot. I tightened my arms around him as best I could.

“Val,” Stefano barked as he shook me.

The way he stared made me think he’d called my name a few times, but it was hard to hear anything other than the popping burst of gunfire and the high-pitched ringing in my ears.

“What?” I shouted.

“When I give the word, you take the boy and run to the brick wall over there. This couch won’t hold up much longer. I need you two out of the direct line of fire. Do you understand?”

I nodded.

“Good. On my signal, stay low and move quickly.”

I nodded again and shifted to bring my feet under me.

Then I secured Enzo on his feet as well, both of us crouching behind the couch. I maneuvered him to my other side, so my body would be between his and the window when it was time for us to run.

Stefano reached behind himself and pulled a pistol from the back of his waistband.

“Are you ready?” he shouted.

Nodding again, I stared at the brick wall.

Stefano crept to the other end of the couch and fired.

“Now, Val, move!”

With all the adrenaline surging through me, it wouldn’t have surprised me if I’d been able to throw Enzo over my shoulder and run with him that way. It wouldn’t have been necessary, though.

Enzo popped up out of his crouch the second I did, and together we raced across the room to our safety zone.

---