Chapter 8 - The Betrayal
Sophia woke up the next morning in a massive bed, wrapped in Dante’s heavy duvet. The space beside her was empty, but it was still warm.
She walked out into the living room, wearing his t-shirt.
Enzo was standing by the window, looking tense.
“Where is he?” Sophia asked, a pit forming in her stomach.
“He went to handle Lorenzo Rossi,” Enzo said quietly. “Our men traced him to a shipping yard in Red Hook. Dante took the strike team.”
“He left you here alone with me?”
“He wanted his best man to protect you, Signora.”
Suddenly, the front door’s heavy deadbolt clicked open. Sophia frowned. “I thought you said Dante went to—”
The door burst open. Not Dante’s men.
Four heavily armed men in tactical gear swarmed into the brownstone. Enzo drew his weapon instantly, firing a shot that dropped the first man, but the second man hit Enzo in the chest with a taser, sending the giant crashing to the floor, convulsing.
Sophia scrambled backward, reaching for a kitchen knife, but a massive hand grabbed her hair, yanking her back.
A man in a sharp suit walked into the room, stepping over Enzo’s twitching body. It was Lorenzo Rossi.
“You see, Sophia,” Lorenzo smiled, adjusting his cuffs. “Dante is smart, but he’s predictable. I knew he would leave his safehouse to come kill me. So, I paid one of his security detail to give me this address, and I sent a decoy to the shipping yard.”
Sophia struggled, crying out as her fractured ribs ground together.
“Bring her,” Lorenzo ordered his men. “When Dante figures out the decoy was fake, he’ll come back here. But we’ll be waiting at my warehouse. And he will sign over his entire syndicate to save her life.”
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They dragged her out into the cold morning air, throwing her into the back of a van. Sophia’s heart pounded, but her mind raced. She was a trauma nurse. She knew anatomy. She knew how to survive.
She reached into the pocket of Dante’s shirt. When she had stitched him up, she had kept the small, surgical scalpel from the med kit. Her fingers wrapped around the cold steel.
