Page 74 of Broken Princess

CHAPTER 39

LORENZO

I'm on high alert as I follow Miceli through the dark house. There's no sign of Amelia—or Milo, for that matter. But I know he's here somewhere.

"Where are they?" Miceli whispers, frustration evident in his voice.

I shake my head, just as confused as he is.

But then I hear a noise coming from upstairs, even though the house looks like a one-story, and I know we've found them. He must have taken her to the attic.

Miceli and I look at each other before carefully making our way up the hall to the pull-out stairs already hanging from the hatch in the ceiling.

"I'll go first," Miceli mutters, moving forward before I can protest, and there's no way to push him out of the way without alerting Milo to our presence. I'm sure he already knows we're here, though.

I hear a muffled cry as I follow Miceli into the darkness, and sure enough, across the room, Amelia is tied to a chair with a gag in her mouth. Milo is nowhere to be found, though.

I take a step forward immediately, but Amelia gives another muted cry of warning, her eyes widening as she looks at something behind me. Before I can turn around, something strikes me in the back of the head hard enough that I black out.

By the time I come to, I'm on the floor, my face pressed to the dusty wooden floorboards. I can feel what I’m sure is blood running down the back of my head, and it takes a few blinks for my vision to clear.

When it does, I see Amelia still in the chair, but now she's awake and looking at me with fear in her eyes. And then I see Miceli and Milo standing face to face, with Miceli between the other man and his daughter. Both men are armed, and I can see the anger in Milo's eyes.

"You're going to pay for what you've done," he growls at Miceli. "You took everything from me, and now I'm going to take something from you."

"This is between you and me, Milo," Miceli says, his voice low and calm. Even though Milo is the one who set this trap, he seems to be the one in control, and I can tell that's enraging the other man even more. "Let the kids go, and we'll settle this like men."

Milo just shakes his head, a deranged look in his eyes. "No," he says. "This ends now."

Miceli's eyes meet mine for a fraction of a second, but it's enough. I know what he wants me to do, and I nod before quickly getting to my feet.

I make my way around the room as quietly as possible, trying to stay out of Milo's line of sight. But he's so focused on Miceli that I'm able to get behind him without being noticed.

Just as he's about to pull the trigger, I make my move. I leap forward and tackle him to the ground, knocking the gun out of his hand in the process. It goes off, hitting the wall across the room, but before I can get to my feet and reach for it, Milo elbows me and snatches my gun.

He gets up on one knee and takes aim at Miceli, who freezes, giving Milo enough time to grab for the other gun on the floor. He aims the other at me and shifts the gun on Miceli to Amelia, and my heart stops in my chest.

"Careful, Miceli," he says in a mocking tone. "Wouldn't want anything to happen to your baby girl."

Miceli's eyes harden with a cold, sharp anger I've never seen in them before, but it's close enough to my own to understand it perfectly. "You would really hurt my daughter? A pregnant girl?" he challenges, his voice laced with disgust.

"You're not one to talk," Milo snarls. "Fucking coward."

"Maybe so," Miceli agrees. "And for what it's worth, I regret what I did to you back then. If I had it to do over again, I would, but I've changed. You clearly haven't."

That only seems to enrage him further. There's no telling what he's going to do in this state, and I have to act. If I rush him again, his attention will be on me rather than Amelia, and Miceli will have the chance to take him out.

The moment I move forward, Milo lowers the gun on Amelia instinctively to take aim at me, but as he fires, something unexpected happens. Rather than the bullet hitting me like I planned on, something moves in front of me, too fast to process.

Miceli.

He lurches forward, clutching his chest, as the wild look in Milo's eyes turns to shock. I'm still stunned myself, but I'm not letting his sacrifice go to waste.

I elbow Milo in the face and tackle him to the ground, disarming him completely. I press the gun to his forehead and his eyes widen in realization.

"You touched what's mine," I snarl. "Now you can give my regards to every other fucker who made the same mistake."

I fire the shot, and his body convulses once before he goes limp. There's no time to savor the life leaving his eyes.

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