Chapter 8 - The Price of LoyaltyThe town car spun out of control, crashing violently through a wooden guardrail and coming to a shuddering halt against a thick grove of coastal pine trees.
Smoke poured from the hood. The air tasted of sulfur, burning rubber, and fresh blood.
Dante kicked open the passenger door, dragging me out into the freezing rain and mud. Two of his bodyguards emerged from the wreckage of the lead car, returning fire against the shadowy figures advancing through the trees.
“To the tree line!” Dante ordered, keeping me shielded behind his massive frame as bullets whined through the branches above us.
We scrambled up a muddy embankment just as the abandoned town car erupted into a massive fireball, illuminating the dark woods in orange light.
We hid behind a fallen oak trunk, panting heavily. Dante’s shoulder was soaked in blood where a bullet had grazed him through the coat. Without hesitation, I tore a strip of fabric from the hem of my expensive emerald dress, pressing it hard against his wound.
“Hold still,” I hissed, my hands shaking as I tied the makeshift bandage tight.
Dante winced, his dark eyes locking onto mine through the downpour. Even covered in mud and bleeding onto the forest floor, he looked like a king of the underworld who refused to bend the knee.
“You saved my life back there,” Dante muttered, his voice raspy. “You could have run into the woods alone. Why didn't you?”
“Because,” I whispered, looking straight into his eyes, “you paid my brother’s tuition. And because nobody else in Baltimore has the guts to fight for people like us.”
Dante let out a dark, breathless laugh, reaching up to cup my cheek with his bloodstained hand. “God help us, Rosie. You really are mine.”
Before I could answer, the crack of a sniper rifle echoed through the trees.
A bullet splintered the bark inches from Dante’s head.
From the shadows of the foggy woods, a familiar voice called out, dripping with venom:
May you like
“Vescari! Your time is up!”
It was Moretti’s head enforcer. And he brought an army.
