Page 35 of Vicious Heir

Panic slices through the ballroom. It’s like a physical ripple as people begin to understand what’s going on. Adriano barks orders, and soon we’re surrounded by a dozen armed men, all of them looking grim. His sister’s with us in the middle of the group, talking away on her headset, her face grim and afraid.

“Stay next to me,” he says, pulling me closer against him. He takes my hand and clamps down. “Don’t move more than six inches away.”

“What’s happening?”

“I don’t know.” He nudges his sister. “Bianca, update.”

“Fire department is on the way.”

“Are there people downstairs?”

“I don’t know, maybe.” She chews her lip, looking around, and lowers her voice. “Dead ones, I think.”

“Get to the fucking stairs. Move!”

The group starts hustling. Adriano keeps me right against him. The crowd of rich society wedding guests parts like a wave atfirst until they begin to realize what’s happening. The elevators aren’t working, and the stairs are their only way out of this burning building.

“Get the fuck out of our way,” Adriano roars when there’s a stampede toward the emergency exit. “Shoot them if you have to! My wife is all that matters.”

One of the guards slams an old rich man aside. He crumples, crying out in despair and pain. His expensive watch can’t help him as he’s stepped on by the crowd that follows. It’s amazing how all their wealth and power count for nothing in this situation. They’re all just people, and people panic when bad things happen.

We reach the stairs. Adriano’s men keep shoving, kicking, and punching viciously to make room. I’m dragged along, feeling confused and overwhelmed. “Where’s my grandmother?” I call out. “What about my brother? Where’s Kennedy?”

“No time for them.” Adriano’s face is stone. “No time for anyone else but you.” He slams his knee forward, shoving through the bottleneck of guards. He surges ahead, pulling me along.

“No, please, you have to help Kennedy. Please! We can’t leave her!” I whimper as I’m dragged through the crowd, Adriano’s powerful body making a path for us among the terrified people.

He snags one of his guards. “Find the maid of honor. Protect her with your life. Move!” He shoves the man away as he wades forward. I choke back a sob, looking around wildly for her, but I can’t find Kennedy anywhere. It’s chaos and craziness, a stampede of terrified humans in a cramped stairwell, and Adriano fights his way through it. We wind our way down and down until finally, the bottom floor is just ahead.

“Fire!” someone wails from ahead. A woman has the door open. Half her face is burned, her ear a melted mess of dripping flesh, and her clothes are singed so badly they’re stuck to her body in places. “Oh, God, please, help!”

“Luca,” Adriano yells over his shoulder. “Get everyone out! Help that woman!”

His guards shift from forcing their way ahead to acting as shepherds. Adriano lunges through the door, moving past the burned woman, keeping me close. “I’ve got you,” he murmurs in my ear.

The lobby ahead is in total chaos. Smoke curls thick into the air. Debris is scattered all over. Glass glitters on the ruined floor. Fire consumes the shape of a wrecked car, licking at the tall ceiling and the huge front windows. The welcome desk is splinters, and the guard working there is likely dead.

Adriano stops for nothing. He kicks his way forward through the mess, gun drawn now. As he reaches the door, he pauses and holds me back, peering out into the night. Nothing happens. Nobody moves. There’s yelling from behind us as the guests begin to follow, and a crowd forms on the sidewalks, watching in horror.

“As soon as we’re out of here, you start running. Do you understand?” He looks back over his shoulder. “Luca, damn it! Where’s my sister?”

“She’s with me!” a man calls back from somewhere on the other side of the smoke. “We’re coming!”

Adriano nods to himself, staring ahead angrily. “Are you ready?”

“I’m in heels,” I whisper, heart racing wildly. There’s no way I’m running anywhere, not in these shoes. I can barely walk in them.

Without hesitating, he scoops me up into his arms. Luca and Bianca appear with a gaggle of other survivors, the burned woman included.

I’m in shock from the attack, choking and coughing from the smoke, trying to process this behavior from my husband. No part of me ever envisioned he’d turn into some ultra-protective pit bull under these circumstances, but suddenly, I’m the center of the world.

It’s terrifying and exhilarating. I’ve never been this important to someone before, and I don’t know how to behave.

All I can do is lean closer to him as he holds me in his arms.

Then Adriano bursts out into the night. He sprints forward like I’m nothing. Wind whips through my hair as he careens down the front steps past the astonished onlookers. Ahead, a town car is parked against the curb, and he heads straight for it. Once the door’s open and I’m unceremoniously dumped inside, he gets around to the front and climbs behind the wheel, pausing only to let Luca get in the passenger seat and for Bianca to get in beside me.

“Hold on,” Adriano says and peels out. “Bianca, radio back to the venue. Now that Lucy’s safe, tell our men to help with the evacuation.”

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