Cassio
Bron falls to his knees, clutching his gaping throat. Ana breathes out, her shoulders dropping in relief. As proud of her as I am for tricking us all and taking that son of a bitch out, it’s too early to celebrate.
All of Bron’s guards shift, their guns swinging from Colton and me to her, uncertain whether they should shoot. My heart slams against my ribs, not trusting these men for a single moment.
“What the fuck do we do?”
“Stand… down,” Killian tries to instruct.
He’s the Monarch’s heir, but these men aren’t Kings. They’re thugs that Bron hired externally. He didn’t have a single leak amongst his ranks, probably knowing that his son is more favored than he is. Killian has The Kings’ respect in a way that could never inspire treachery, at least from what I’ve seen.
“You ruined everything,” one of the men growls, finger twitching over his trigger.
“Ana!” Her name is a warning cry that breaks from my throat seconds before the all too familiar bang of a gunshot sounds.
My heart stalls in my chest. I blink, staring at the man who just yelled at her—now on the floor, blood pooling beneath his head. Confusion and relief crash over me at once, but the gunfire hasn’t stopped.
More rounds go off, and the room collapses into chaos.
Descending from the ceiling by thick dark rope, the mysterious gunman fires rapidly, hitting every visible guard with expert precision. Not all of them are kill shots, some are meant to disarm, instead.
Bron had a team of twelve from what I could tell, some standing guard close by, and others on standby. The five inside of the room have just hit the ground. Doors bang open at the same time the man’s boots hit the ground. He doesn’t even bother glancing at the noise, and in one swift move, he makes it clear why.
Lifting the black balaclava up and off of his face, Nico shakes out his hair. Apollo, followed by several of our other brothers and Moretti soldiers storm into the room behind him. Nico didn’t need to look at the doors slamming open, because he knew who would be coming through them.
My family is here.
Thank. Fucking. God.
“I want that one alive,” Nico barks at our men behind him, pointing to the bald man who Ana once described to us. He’s bleeding from his hand, from the bullet Nico shot straight through his palm, knocking his weapon out of his grasp.
Looking right at the man in question, Nico’s mouth turns up in a cruel grin. “I hear you don’t typically have a taste for torture. Don’t worry, I’ll be happy to show you what a healthy appetite for torment looks like.”
Apollo drops to his knees at my side, beginning to cut off the ropes that have my arms bound behind my back. Remo does the same for Armani, quickly breaking him loose. Through his groggy state, Armani immediately moves to push Colton on his back, pressing his freed hands over the wounded man’s stomach.
“My shoulder’s out,” I tell Apollo, gritting my teeth. “Push it back in.”
“How’d he dislocate your shoulder?”
“He didn’t. I did, trying to get to her.”
I thrashed so fucking hard to try and get out, to get to my wife, and I pulled my left shoulder straight out of its damn socket. I wouldn’t have stopped until it came off entirely if I thought Bron was going to hurt her. As soon as he made it clear he was going to let her live, I started to accept my fate.
I could die for her, if it meant she’d still live.
I didn’t want Armani to die by my side, and I certainly didn’t want Ana to be trapped with that fucking psycho pervert. Falling into unrequited love with your stepdaughter is vile, whether she was eighteen when he started to look at her or not.
But anything was better than picturing my Ana lying lifeless on the ground. She needed to live—and I would have done anything to ensure she did. By some miracle, I didn’t need to do a thing. She saved herself. And our family arrived just in time to make sure no one got the chance to retaliate.
“All right, brace for it,” Apollo advises, putting his hands on either side of my shoulder.
Breathing in, I make a fist and shut my eyes.
The sound of snapping hits me before the pain does.
“Fuck,” I yell through my teeth.
“You’ll need a sling, but you’re good for now.” Apollo pats my back and stands up, holding out his hand for my good one to take.
“How did you find us?” I ask, grasping his outstretched hand and letting him pull me to my feet.
The only reason I don’t immediately rush to Ana’s side is that I see my father helping her, holding her hair back and patting between her shoulder blades as she throws up. Kissing Bron sickened her, that much is evident by the way she heaves and gags.
“Your wife chipped you,” Apollo replies, huffing like he can’t believe it.
Confused, my brows dip down. “What?”
“In your watch,” Apollo explains, nodding to my wrist. “Apparently, she convinced Remo to keep her secret because she wasn’t using them to track you daily. She gave him the security logins in case either of you went missing. But if you ask me, she’s probably got more hiding on you somewhere. If you feel a prick in your arm in the middle of the night, it’s probably because she’s injecting one inside of you.”
Perhaps I should let her; her planning just saved our asses.
“Fucking move,” a deep voice growls. I look down to see Remo pull Armani off of Colton, but he’s not the one who spoke.
Shoving a medic to the ground, Nico drops a bag of supplies, ripping open a package of wound-packing gauze with his teeth.
“If he fucking dies, so do you,” Nico barks, kneeling down by Colton’s side to look for more injuries while the medic begins to work. “So fucking stupid, getting yourself shot. What were you thinking, huh?”
The bleeding cowboy tries to laugh, a crimson grin painting his face. “Knew you cared about me, maniac.”
I hope the blood is coming from Armani accidentally smearing it and not from inside his mouth. Because either he bit his tongue when he was shot… or he’s bleeding into his fucking lungs.
“Shut the hell up before you bleed out,” Nico snaps back.
Colton doesn’t care that Nico appears pissed with him, he uses what little strength he has to grab the front of his shirt and tugs him down. Their lips meet in a harsh crash, more like a punch than a kiss, but Colton sighs like it’s the greatest thing he’s ever felt, and Nico freezes for a moment before shoving back.
“Goddammit, why would you fucking do that!”
“Just in case,” Colton whispers, a new kind of relief in his voice. Like dying doesn’t feel so horrible now that he’s kissed my brother.
Nico looks like he wants to hurt him for pulling that stunt—he looks like he’s malfunctioning like a robot with a glitch. The two men aren’t together. Nico has never been together with anyone, but it seems that Colton doesn’t care.
“Don’t do it again,” Nico demands in a cold tone.
“Uh-uh. Gonna kiss you so much more if I don’t die,” Colton slurs with an attempted smirk.
“You’re not going to fucking die,” Nico snaps.
“Hopefully,” Colton agrees. He’s starting to doze off and I’m growing more concerned. My brother is too.
“If you die, I’ll kill Dustin,” Nico threatens. “You hear me? You stay awake or your little brother is joining you in the afterlife, asshole.”
“God,” Colton swoons. “You like me soooo much.”
“We need to move him,” the medic reports. He’s packed the wound, but they’ll need blood to give Colton and to repair any internal damage before sewing him up properly.
“Let’s go.”
Apollo joins in on the effort, helping to lift Colton onto a board and get him the hell out of here. Remo is helping Armani to his feet, allowing him to lean on him and limp toward the exit. They can go ahead, but I need to see my girl before I go anywhere.
Ana is done hacking up her stomach contents by the time I stumble over to her. She’s wiping her mouth with one of Dad’s handkerchiefs while he checks her over, making sure she isn’t hurt.
“Cassio,” she breathes out, tears swimming in her eyes. “I’m so sorry. For what I said, and what I did, I was just trying to—”
“Shut up,” I mutter tiredly, pulling her into my chest by the back of her neck. “Don’t ever apologize for what you just did, Ana. You saved us.”
My shoulder screams at the pressure of having her against it, but I don’t give a fuck. Nose dropping into her hair, I inhale deep, breathing in her familiar scent. I could hold her like this for hours—days, even—fucked shoulder and all.
“Colton,” she cries, shoulders shaking. “Is he going to be okay?”
“He will be,” I say, though I’m not one hundred percent sure.
“Let’s get you both to the hospital,” Dad suggests, softly patting Ana’s arm. “I want to torch this building.”
“Is it over?” Ana sniffs.
“It’s over,” Dad assures her. “All the guards are taken care of. The ones Nico wanted alive will be relocated to a more secure warehouse, and the others will go up in flames with this wretched place.”
“Good,” she husks.
Putting my good arm around her, I follow as Dad guides us out of the building and into the cool city air. Dusk is quickly fading as morning chases the shadow of darkness from the sky.
We climb into an SUV together, refusing to be separated again so soon. Dad takes the driver’s seat and begins the journey to whatever hospital Nico, Apollo, and Armani are headed toward to help Colton.
“I hear you put trackers on me,” I whisper, my hand stroking her shoulder as I tuck my wife in closer.
Ana flushes, looking sheepish. “Just in your watch. And some of your tie clips… and some of your shoes.”
I laugh incredulously, unable to help it. “My shoes?”
“Yeah, don’t tell Armani but I kind of sort of cut the soles off, stuffed a tracker chip in and glued them back together.”
“I think if I told him that you cut into custom Italian leather shoes worth more than a mortgage payment, he’d have an aneurysm.”
“Precisely,” she agrees, giving me a conspiratorial grin. “So, it’ll just have to be our little secret.”
“Why do I find it incredibly hot that you chipped my personal belongings without my consent, Wife?”
Ana blushes harder. “Well, if you think that’s hot, I guess I can tell you about the one I stashed in your car.”
I laugh so hard that my shoulder pangs, giving a painful throb.
“I love you so fucking much.”
“Good,” she declares. “Because I love you more.”
I don’t think that’s possible, but I don’t argue.
“You’re never getting away from me, Cassio Moretti.”
“I’d never dream of it, Ana Moretti.”
