THE BLOOD OF THE ROSSI EMPIRE

He had taken Lily from me. I was not going to let him take Leo.

A primal, ferocious energy surged through my veins, incinerating the last traces of the terrified, abused girl I used to be. I laid Leo down gently in a padded crate, ensuring he was safe in the corner of the bunker. I raised the shotgun, aiming it directly at the steel hatch.

"Go to hell, Damon," I yelled.

"I'll see you there, bitch," Damon sneered. I heard the hiss of a blowtorch. He was trying to melt the lock.

The heat began to radiate through the steel, but I didn't flinch. I waited, timing his movements based on the sound of the torch. When the metal lock glowed red-hot and gave way, the hatch swung open, revealing Damon's sneering face looking down into the darkness.

He raised his pistol to aim at me.

He never got the chance.

I pulled the trigger of the shotgun. The blast was deafening in the confined space. Damon didn't even have time to scream as he was thrown backward, vanishing from sight. My shoulders ached from the recoil, but I didn't stop. I scrambled up the ladder, emerging from the bunker into the ruined, smoking remains of the cabin.

Damon lay motionless on the floor, his chest ruined. I stood over the man who had destroyed my life, feeling nothing but a profound, overwhelming sense of justice. Lily was avenged.

Suddenly, a massive arm wrapped around my neck from behind, choking the breath from my lungs. A gun pressed against my temple.

"Cute," Dante whispered in my ear, using my body as a shield. "But not good enough."

Across the room, Lorenzo staggered to his feet from behind a barricade of overturned furniture. He was bleeding from a wound in his shoulder, his face a mask of pure agony as he saw Dante holding me hostage.