Not my family.
Nothing but her.
She had become my world.
I thought I knew what love meant. I thought I understood. Boy was I wrong. Love wasn’t something I could feel when it made me feel good, when I was happy, when I got what I wanted. Love wasn’t some fleeting moment of happiness. It was messy. It meant fighting with someone and still showing them respect. Love was saying sorry even when I was right. Love was being there even when I wanted to be somewhere else.
Love was pain.
Love was fear.
Love was blindly walking into a situation without regard for my own welfare to ensure that the woman I adored was safe.
There was no overthinking.
Only action.
I don’t rightly know where the rage came from but the second the helicopter touched down and I heard her screams, I didn’t think. What was there to think about? Forgetting everything and everyone around me, I ran into the building, not caring for my own safety. My life didn’t matter.
What mattered was her.
My Donatella.
I could hear them shouting at me through the coms in my ear but I didn’t care. I refused to wait one more second. I knew Gideon was trying to create something. Something bigger than me and I was willing to play along but not at the expense of Donatella. Working together and singing kumbaya and all that shit would have to wait. Nothing was stopping me from getting to her.
Kicking the door open, I started shooting at anything that moved. Fuck taking prisoners. As far as I was concerned, they sealed their fate when they took my woman. Making her scream…well that just infuriated me further.
My aim was true as men dropped all around me. I didn’t bother keeping count. It didn’t matter. They were all dead souls walking. The second they were in my line of sight, I shot.
The more I shot, the more they came.
I knew it was futile, that I wasn’t going to walk out of this warehouse but I didn’t care. If this was going to be my end, I wanted to go knowing I did everything in my power to make this world a better place for her. Ridding her of these fuckers who only wanted one thing from her was going to be my pleasure.
I knew the men who came with me would save her. They wouldn’t accept any other outcome. It wasn’t their way. They went in with one goal in mind and they would let nothing get in their way of reaching that objective. They were good men. Honest men. Heroes in my book. Me not so much. Like I’ve said before, I was singular minded and right now, Donatella was the one thing on my mind.
My woman needed to live.
She would live.
That’s all I cared about.
Hearing the click, click, click of my now empty guns, I dropped them on the concrete. Grabbing the bat, I had strapped to my back, I grinned. “Alright you mother fuckers. Let’s play ball.”
Ignoring everything else around me, I took swing after swing as they rushed forward trying to get to me. Unlike my companions, I refused to cover my face. I had nothing to hide. I was a Valentinetti. If I killed someone, I wanted them to know who did it. As I made my way deeper into the warehouse, the fading sounds of gunshots all but stopped around me, as the team I was with had arrived.
Looking around at the carnage I created, I spotted Miguel Costa standing with my woman in his arms. A gun pointed at her head.
That shit was really starting to piss me off.
Concentrating on Donatella, I whispered, “It’s gonna be okay baby. I promise.” I wanted to scream, fall at her feet and beg her forgiveness for not protecting her better. There wasn’t a part of her body that I could see that wasn’t bruised. Her beautiful face was black and blue and one of her eyes was swollen shut.
“Fucking move and I will kill her.” Costa sneered. When he cocked his gun, a loud pop was heard. In the next instant, Costa’s head exploded as his body fell to the concrete, taking Donatella with him.
Rushing to her, I fell to my knees, gathering her in my arms.
“Come on baby. Wake up for me. Show me those beautiful angry eyes of yours.” I whispered, brushing her unruly hair away from her face and when she looked up at me and smiled, I knew she would be all right. Hugging her to me, I’d never felt such elation, such love before in my life.
She was safe.