Vengeful Mafia Prince (Vicious Heirs #2)

Chapter Eighteen—Giovanni

I pull the car to a halt outside the large wrought iron gates of the mansion. This has to be the place.

The address that Elena texted me.

I thought there had to be a mistake at first, but then, I realized that this mansion had to belong to her father. And if he called her here, then I doubted he had anything good in mind for her.

I raced over as soon as I could, from where I was licking my wounds back at the apartment. Valentina has been avoiding me like the plague, clearly not ready to contend with everything I've done or the danger I put her in, letting her run into the man who murdered our parents.

But Elena needs me. And no matter how crazy an idea it might seem, I have to get to her. I have to get her out of here.

There are two men on the gate when I step out of the car, and both of them approach me the moment they lay eyes on me. I reach for the gun I stashed in my pants, the one I took from Elena's father. I make a point not to fuck with firearms if I can, but I grabbed it on the way out the door, something telling me that I was going to need it.

"Back the fuck up," I snarl to them, and I brandish the weapon at one. He lifts his hands at once, his eyes widening, and the other makes a move for me.

I twist the gun in my hand, landing a sharp strike to his chin, and send him crashing back toward the gate. He bounces off the metal with a clang, thudding his head hard against one of the posts, and then slides down, unconscious. I turn my attention back to the other man, who reaches for his gun. I level my weapon at him again.

"Don't even think about it," I warn him. "Now, open those gates."

He hesitates. He probably doesn't want to find out what happens if he betrays someone like Elena's father.

"I said open the fucking gates!"

He springs to it, figuring his life isn't worth keeping these gates shut, I guess. He keys in a code, and the gates slide open, and I stride in, starting up the long gravel driveway toward the mansion.

There's a single man on the door, and it takes him a moment to figure out that my intentions are far from pure. Just as I reach him, he goes to grab a radio pinned to his side. I grab his arm just in time and twist it up and around him, shoving it against his back and drawing a howl of pain from between his lips.

"Open that door."

He doesn't put up much of a fight. Damn, these men are a whole lot less loyal than I would have imagined them to be. He needs to get better staff.

Not that I give a damn.

The door swings open, and I rush inside to find Elena. I have no idea how many people I'm going to have to fight through to get to her, but I'll do whatever it takes.

Inside, two men walk out of a room just off the entrance, and the moment they see me, they both reach for their weapons. I don't have time to think. I pull the gun and fire off two shots, hitting one in the shoulder, the other in the leg, sending them both collapsing to the ground.

And then, I hear a voice.

"Gio!"

I spin around, and there she is—Elena, the woman I came here to save. I rush toward her and pull her into my arms.

"Are you okay?" I ask her urgently, looking her over for any signs of hurt.

She nods. "I-I am. But we need to get out of here."

"I wasn't planning on sticking around," I growl and glance around, making sure the coast is clear. Right now, this is the calm before the storm, before all of his men come descending down upon us, and I want to be as far from here as possible when that happens.

"Back exit?" I demand. She pauses for a moment, clearly not sure what to say.

"Uh, this way," she replies. "Here, toward the kitchen."

She leads me to the exit, and I keep my hand on my gun, ready to take a shot at any second. If these fuckers think they're going to get the drop on me, they have another thing coming. I'll take out anyone who comes after us—whatever it takes to get her out of here.

"I didn't know if you'd come," she admits, her words tumbling from her mouth faster than she can stop them, it seems. "I-I don't even know why I texted you the address, I just felt like someone should know where I was—"

"Because you knew your father was going to try and pull something," I fire back. "Come on. We can't just stroll and chat. Exit?"

She points to the door that leads out into the large gardens beyond, and we rush outside. Keeping close to the house, we make our way quickly around to the front once more, out of sight of any guards who might be looking for us. After the gunshots, they're going to be searching the house, assuming that I'm in there somewhere. Little do they know, of course, that I'm already on the run with Elena.

We reach my car, and I bundle her inside before I slide over the hood and into the driver's side. Kicking it into high gear, I tear away from the house, keeping a close watch on my rearview mirror as we go.

For a while, we drive in silence. I'm sure neither of us really knows what to say. How do you even start after a mess like that? It feels like everything is falling apart, and now that I've taken out some of her father's men, I know it's going to be even tougher for me to shake them. People like that want revenge.

As if he didn't already have enough to make me pay for.

And then, all at once, I realize she's crying. Not just crying, but sobbing, her shoulders heaving, her breath coming in uneven gasps, her body shaking as she tries to pull herself together.

"Hey, hey," I murmur, grabbing her hand. "It's okay. We're out of there now. You have nothing to worry about—"

"Yes, I do," she protests, her eyes shining with tears. "My father... you don't understand what my father will do to you, to me…"

"You said he would never hurt you," I remind her, and she shakes her head.

"That was when I was still playing at being his sweet little daughter," she shoots back bitterly. "Back when— back when I didn't ask questions or cause trouble or make him doubt himself. But now..." She trails off. I don't say anything, letting her gather herself before she continues. "But now, I know he's not going to give me that grace, not anymore. He's going to... if he gets his hands on me, he's going to kill me. It's that simple."

Fuck. Once she gets the words out, I understand why she's crying so hard. I know exactly how it feels, to have your relationship with your family ripped away in a matter of moments.

"You have to come stay with me," I tell her.

She snorts. "Yeah, like your sister is ever going to stand for that—"

"I don't give a fuck what my sister thinks!" The words catch me off guard—her, too.

She looks at me, a furrow in her brow. "You don't mean that."

"I don't want you to get hurt," I reply, gritting my teeth, holding on to the wheel so tight that I can see my knuckles straining against my skin. "I... I can't lose you, Elena. I can't."

I try to get the words out, but they're strangled, so caught up in the mess of everything going on inside my head that I don't know where to start. I want her to see that I mean this, that I want her more than I want anything else in my life, but I don't see what I can do to get her to look past the lies I fed her for so long.

I pull the car onto the side of the road so she can gather herself. It's clear she's losing control, her mind spinning out as she tries to wrap her head around the enormity of everything that has happened. I lean over and wrap my arms around her, holding her close, pressing my face into her neck and breathing in the scent of her.

I won't let anything happen to her. I just won't. I don't care if I have to take on her father, take on the world, anything that's thrown at me, as long as it means I can get her out of this in one piece. I kiss her cheek and pull back, drawing her face around to mine so that she's looking at me properly.

"We're going to get out of here. Out of the city," I promise her.

"And where can we go? There's nowhere we can make it to. He's going to come looking for us—"

"I'll figure that out," I reply, waving a hand. "I have money. Access to enough that we can make a new start, at least. It won't be easy, but it's better than being here, isn't it?"

"And what about my life?" she exclaims. "What about college, what about my—"

"You can start college over somewhere else," I assure her. "We both can. We can study together, we can find jobs, we can get a little place of our own. We don't have to live this life anymore."

As I speak, I can almost see the fantasy playing out before me, so vivid that I just want to reach out and grab it. The two of us, on an early Sunday morning, wrapped around each other in bed, crawling out just so that we can get some coffee before we retreat back under the covers to hide from the world. And I would do anything to make that real, anything—even if I know it's nothing more than a fantasy.

She parts her lips, and I can tell she's going to agree with me—until we hear the roar of an engine beside us. A car closes off our exit back onto the highway.

"What the fuck—"

"That's my dad's car," she explains in a panic. "He must have followed us here. Is there some way we can get out?"

"He's blocked us off."

I peer around the side of the car, reaching for the gun at my side. Much as I would have killed for a chance to be face-to-face with this man with a gun in my hand just a few months ago, this is different. I can't do anything to him in front of her, I know it would destroy her. I know she would fall apart completely if she saw her father killed right in front of her eyes, at my hands. No matter how much I want to keep her safe, that will destroy whatever remains between us.

So all I can do is watch as her father slowly climbs out of the car beside us. He moves with a measured calm, like he knows there's no reason for him to rush. He's got nothing to worry about. He's totally in control here, and he knows it.

He reaches her side of the car and leans on it, gesturing for her to roll the window down. As though under some kind of trance, she does as she's told.

"Get out of this fucking car."

His words are low and leave no room for argument. She turns to me. Her eyes are a picture of sadness and terror, and I feel helpless as I sit there beside her.

I can't do anything.

I have to let her make her own choice, no matter how hard it might be to watch it unfold, no matter how much it kills me to see her walk away from me like this.

"I love you," she whispers to me, and she leans forward to kiss me, just once, on the mouth. And then, she climbs out of the car, standing between me and her father, the forest behind her, the highway in front. She looks so small compared to him, like he could snatch her up and take her from me at a moment's notice.

And all I'll be able to do is sit there and watch it happen.

I can't hear what they're saying to each other. He's getting right in her face, close enough that I can see the twisted look of anger in his eyes. He grabs her by the arm, and my grip tightens on my gun. If he so much as lays another hand on her, then I'm going to pull this fucking trigger, and I'm not going to think twice. My emotions are getting the better of me. This man has already taken so much from me, and now he wants to take her, too?

She yanks herself free of his grip and takes a few steps backward toward the car. For a moment, I think she's coming in to join me, to tell me we've got to get out of here.

But, instead, to my total shock, she shoots off toward the forest and, in a matter of seconds, vanishes between the trees.

Her father stands there, too surprised to react for a moment. For a beat, both of us just sit there, clearly unsure of exactly how we're supposed to react. But I'm not going to let her face whatever is out there alone. No, I'm going to go after her.

And I'm going to save her.

I leap out of the car and rush toward the woods after her, following what I can remember of her path between the trees. I hear him yelling behind me, but I pay no attention to him. There's only one thing that matters to me right now, and it's getting her out of here, alive.

And getting a chance to tell her that I love her, too.