Page 135 of Fall Before Her Throne

Greco wasn’t anywhere in sight.

I raised my gun and aimed at the lone man first. The sound of the bullet tore through the air, and the reaction was instant. All four men dropped their captives. Luca slammed into the ground, and Chiara immediately rushed to his side. Max yanked me behind a tree, just in time for a rush of bullets to slam into the wood. Chips flew everywhere, and I ducked my head.

“You should have told me you were firing,” Max said, arms wrapped around me, with his back against the wood. “I would have followed you up.”

“You didn’t see the gun in my hand?”

“Think before you act, my love,” he said, peeking around the wood as soon as the barrage of bullets stopped.

I glanced at the branches above us in annoyance. “Act when I act.”

“Sure thing,” he said at the same time that he whipped his gun around and fired four bullets in quick succession. All the men dropped to the ground. My lips pursed, slightly annoyed that he’d killed them before I had. “All right. Let’s go.”

He walked out from behind the tree with a confidence that made me smile, but the feeling only lasted a second. Chiara was still hunched over the body of the man, Luca, and shouts were coming from inside the house. About twenty-five feet lay between us.

“Max, keep an eye on the house,” I ordered while I rushed over. “Chi.” She glanced up, eyes wide. Her hands shook with tremors. “We have to go.”

She nodded, clenching her hands together. “Help me grab him.”

“Max, help.” The time for questions like who the fuck is this guy would have to be later. Max holstered his pistol, grabbed Luca from his other side, and the three of us pulled him up.

“Chiara,” the man mumbled, head lolling.

“We’re okay,” Chiara answered. “You did well. We’re alive.” She looked at Max. “He did his job. He did what you said.”

Max blinked, looking between the two of them. “Okay. We’ll take care of him.”

“We’re too exposed here,” I said, looking around. The four of us stood in the driveway, and it was a decent walk back to our car on the street. The garage started rising. “Shit, we have to move.”

“Hey!” a voice shouted from inside. “Who the fuck are you?”

“Fuck,” Max said while pulling us back toward the van so we could hide behind it. I stumbled over my feet, barely stopping myself from falling face-first into the ground. “Come on.”

Five more men rushed out of the house and my heart jumped into my throat. The realization of the situation settled into my bones.

There was too much space between us and the van. The three of us were carrying Luca’s incapacitated body. If Max and I were going to shoot back, we had to drop him. Chiara couldn’t carry him by himself. She’d be left exposed, or Luca would be left behind.

We weren’t going to make it.

The sound of tires screeching drew my head backward. The SUV tore into the driveway. Obi’s furious face shone through the windshield before it faltered for just a second when it locked on me. The engine roared as it barreled down the driveway and immediately turned in front of us to block us from Greco’s men inside the house.

After a hail of bullets slammed into the car’s side, my guys instantly leapt out of the car and fired back. Obi gave concise orders, and they all followed with extreme precision.

“Come on,” I urged, pulling Max and Chiara to the back of the SUV. We had to get Luca inside. We’d figure out the rest once the guys had dealt with the Camorra. I heard more gunshots, men’s grunts of pain, but it had to be the Camorra men. There was no way they’d be better than the Shadows. My guys could handle the rest of our enemies.

Max pulled open the trunk, and he and I pushed Luca into the back. He flopped inside with a groan of pain, but his eyes didn’t open. It finally gave me a chance to give him a look. If he were in terrible shape, we’d have to call Willow or figure something else out.

I put a hand on Chiara’s shoulder. “What happened?”

She shifted from foot to foot. Her voice was flat and lifeless, like she were in shock. “They attacked us at the house. I thought the car was your guys. I thought…I didn’t know what they looked like, but obviously it wasn’t you. They grabbed me, grabbed my arms. Luca tried to defend me. They just beat him up and then shoved us both into the van. He woke up on the ride back, but they knocked him out again and threatened to kill him if I made any wrong moves.”

“No gunshot wounds?” I tilted his head from side to side and checked for his pulse. The beat was steady. Max inspected the rest of his body, looking for bruising or wounds. Any indications of internal bleeding. “No other injuries?”

“They just hit him in the head.”

“I don’t see any blood.” The poor man had a goose egg on the back of his head, probably from a pistol or some other blunt object, but it wasn’t bleeding. “We can try to get him medical attention.”

“Okay, please,” Chiara said. She grabbed Luca’s hand and squeezed it. Her voice wobbled. “He was a good friend while we were there. He tried to protect me.”