Chapter 7 - THE SHIELD
“NO!”
Vincent threw his massive body across the room, but he was too far away.
I didn't think. I just reacted.
I shoved Lily hard to the left, diving in front of her just as the deafening crack of the gunshot echoed through the study.
Pain exploded in my shoulder, burning like hot iron. I hit the Persian rug hard, my head cracking against the floorboards.
Through the ringing in my ears, I heard Vincent roar like a wild animal. He tackled Sal, driving him through the heavy glass coffee table. The two men fought brutally, glass shattering, fists flying.
Margaret grabbed Lily and pulled her behind the heavy mahogany desk, covering the little girl’s ears.
I lay on the floor, clutching my bleeding shoulder, gasping for air.
Vincent grabbed a heavy brass bookend from the floor and brought it down on Sal’s head. The enforcer went limp.
Chest heaving, his suit torn and bloody, Vincent scrambled over to me.
“Grace. Grace, look at me,” he pleaded, pressing his hands against the wound on my shoulder. “Stay with me.”
“Lily,” I gasped, tasting copper in my mouth. “Is Lily okay?”
Lily peeked out from behind the desk, her face pale but unharmed. “I’m okay, Grace. I’m okay.”
Relief washed over me, closely followed by a wave of dizzying darkness.
“You saved my daughter,” Vincent said, his voice breaking. He stripped off his expensive suit jacket and pressed it against my wound to stem the bleeding. “After everything my family did to yours, you still took a bullet for my child.”
“She’s... she’s an innocent,” I whispered, my eyes fluttering shut. “The cycle... has to break.”
“It’s broken,” Vincent vowed, leaning his forehead against mine. “I swear to you, it’s broken.”
Sirens wailed outside, louder this time. Real police officers swarmed into the room, securing the unconscious hitman and calling for paramedics.
As the EMTs loaded me onto a stretcher, I felt a small, warm hand slip into mine.
Lily was walking beside the stretcher, refusing to let go.
“You’re going to be okay, Grace,” the little girl said, her brown eyes fiercely determined. “Mommy sent you to me. She won't let you leave yet.”
Vincent walked on my other side, his hand resting reassuringly on my uninjured arm.
As they wheeled me out of the mansion, I looked back at the grand, imposing structure. The house of secrets, of poison, of mafia blood.
Rosa was being stuffed into the back of a federal transport van. Vanessa was crying on the curb in handcuffs. Carlo was nowhere to be seen, likely already en route to a federal holding cell.
The empire had fallen in a single night.
I closed my eyes, letting the darkness take over, feeling safer than I had in three years.
Because I knew when I woke up, the nightmare would finally be over.
May you like
But I didn't realize that Isabella had left one final secret waiting for me at the hospital.
A secret that would change my entire life.
