Page 98 of His Savage Ruin
Matteo doesn't move. Doesn't try to dodge or run or even flinch away from the weapon pointed at his heart. His eyes are still locked on mine and there's something in his expression thatmakes my throat close up because I can read what he's thinking as clearly as if he'd said it out loud.
He came here knowing he might die. Came anyway because getting me out alive mattered more than his own survival.
I can't let that happen, can't watch the man I love die because—the thought slams into me hard enough that I forget to breathe for a second because when did that happen, when did Matteo become someone I can't imagine living without? The word feels wrong and right at the same time and I don't have space to process it because Lorenzo's finger is moving toward the trigger.
I have to do something.
My right hand is free and I can feel it again, so I start pulling at the other zip tie and I can feel the plastic starting to give way. One more good pull and it might break, and then I'll be able to move from this damned chair.
Lorenzo's finger starts to tighten on the trigger and I see the moment he's going to fire, see it in the way his shoulders set and his jaw clenches and his eyes go flat and dead the way they always did right before he hurt me.
In that second, I tear the other zip tie and throw myself forward with everything I have, using the momentum of my whole body to lunge at Lorenzo even though my ankles are still tied to the chair legs and the movement is going to hurt like hell when the restraints catch. I'm aiming to grab his gun hand, anything that will throw off his aim enough that the shot misses.
My hand connects with the back of his right one as he pulls the trigger and the gun goes off with a sound that's so loud in the enclosed space that my ears immediately start ringing. The bullet goes wide, smashing into concrete somewhere behind Matteo and sending chips of stone flying, but Matteo is still standing and that's the only thing that matters.
I don’t even feel the pain in my legs when I fall down.
Lorenzo jerks his hand back and the gun falls from his grip, clattering across the floor and sliding under the metal shelving unit against the far wall. His other hand comes around fast and catches me across the face hard enough that stars explode behind my eyes and I taste blood where my teeth cut into my cheek. I can hear shouting but it sounds like it's coming from underwater, muffled and strange, and I can't tell if it's Matteo's voice or Lorenzo's or someone else entirely.
Then the door behind Matteo explodes inward and suddenly the basement is full of men with guns.
CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN
Matteo
The second the Brotherhood crashes through the door I'm already moving, my body responding to training that's been drilled into me since I was old enough to throw a punch. Enzo comes in first with his weapon up and his eyes scanning for threats, and Rafael is right behind him with that wild grin on his face that appears whenever violence is about to happen.
Dante slips in along the wall with his gun steady and his movements precise, and Luca is covering our six.
The basement erupts into chaos faster than I can track. Emilio's men are pouring out of doorways I didn't even know existed, their weapons coming up to meet my brothers’ as they spread out across the space. The air fills with the sound of gunfire so loud it makes my ears ring, and the smell of cordite burns my nose and throat.
I dive for the gun Lorenzo dropped, my fingers closing around metal that's still warm from his grip. A bullet smashes into the concrete next to my head and stone chips spray across my face hard enough to draw blood, but I'm already rolling to the side and coming up in a crouch with Lorenzo's gun pointing at the nearest threat.
One of Emilio's soldiers is aiming at Enzo's back and I put two rounds in his chest before he can pull the trigger, watching him drop like someone cut his strings. The body hits the floor with a thud I barely hear over the continuing gunfire.
Lorenzo is scrambling toward Alessia and I can see the rage on his face, can see his hands reaching for her throat again. My body moves before my brain finishes processing the threat and I cross the distance between us in three long strides.
I grab Lorenzo by the back of his collar and haul him away from Alessia hard enough that fabric tears and he stumbles backward into me. My arm comes around his throat in a chokehold that cuts off his air immediately, and I can feel him clawing at my forearm, trying to break free.
Every instinct I have is screaming at me to just tighten my grip and be done with it, to crush his windpipe and watch him choke the same way he choked Alessia on that balcony. It would be so easy and nobody here would stop me. Part of me wants it so badly I can taste it.
"You put your hands on her again and I'll break every bone in your body before I let you die." The words come out rougherthan I intend because I'm fighting the urge to just end him right now.
He tries to speak but only manages a strangled sound that might be my name or might be a curse. His hands scrabble at my arm with weakening strength and I can feel his pulse hammering under my forearm.
I release the chokehold and shove him forward hard enough that he stumbles and goes down on his knees, coughing and gasping for air. My hand finds the knife Enzo gave me before we came in here because he knew I wouldn't walk into a fight actually unarmed even if I had to hide the weapon well enough to pass a pat-down.
The blade slides free of its sheath with a soft sound and Lorenzo's eyes go wide when he sees it. He scrambles backward on his hands and knees, trying to put distance between us.
"Wait—wait, Romano, we can work something out—" His voice comes out ragged and desperate, and he's holding one hand up like that's going to stop me. "Money, territory, whatever you want?—"
This damned son of a bitch spent months terrorizing Alessia, and now he thinks he can buy his way out. It would be hilarious if the rage inside of me wasn't burning so hot I can barely think straight.
"There's nothing you have that I want." I move toward him and he tries to scramble away faster but his back hits the wall. "Except watching you die."
Just then, his hand comes up fast and catches me in the throat with more strength than I expected from someone who just got choked half unconscious. I choke and my grip loosens for a second, and that's all he needs to shove me back and scramble to his feet.
He lunges for a gun, but I'm faster. My hand closes around his ankle and I yank hard enough to send him sprawling face-first onto concrete.
