“Go,” I told him. “We’ll follow.”
Nicolo’s eyes widened. “What? What about you?”
Alesso gave him a shove in the direction of the darkness and the trail to salvation. “Go, we’ll be right behind you, tell my father—”
But he didn’t get his last words out as the sound of gunfire began to fill the clearing.
The Russians were firing at the FBI.
“You idiots!” I shouted over the ringing in my ears. “What the hell are you thinking?”
I gave Nicolo a much rougher shove than the one Alesso had given him, sending the younger man stumbling into the dark. “Get the hell out of here! Go!”
Nicolo shot me one last look before turning and disappearing into the dark.
I reached for my gun—to do what with it, I wasn’t sure—but Dante’s deep timber stopped me.
“Elio!”
I whirled around only to find Dante and Ranieri hovering over something on the ground.
My heart leapt up in my throat as I realized that, at some point while gunfire was being exchanged, a stray bullet had found its mark.
Alesso was on the ground, his face paler than I had ever seen it and he was clutching at the wound blossoming on his chest.
I ducked, trying to avoid being hit by a bullet myself as the Russians continued to fire at the FBI and screams filled the night.
“Alesso,” I said as I dropped into the dirt next to him and pulled him into my lap. There was too much blood and we were too far away from any medical help. “Just hang on, we’ll get you out of here.”
Alesso’s blue eyes were wide as his mouth opened and closed uselessly, his brows pinching together in pain. “You have to go.”
“What?” Ranieri asked, frowning. “We’re not going to leave you here, that’s crazy.”
“You have to—” Alesso’s words were cut off with a groan. “Cini needs you.”
“She needs you,” Dante rumbled, saying more than he had all night as he moved to pick the other alpha up.
But I knew there was no way we were getting down the hill on foot with him and Alesso seemed to know that.
Alesso reached up and wrapped his fingers around my tie, and with a surprising amount of strength he yanked me down so that my ear was next to his rasping mouth. “You need to protect her. I saw what you did tonight.”
My heart began to pound in my chest. He had seen me kiss her? How? I was sure that the door to the solarium had been closed behind me.
“Alesso—”
The alpha cut me off. “No, stop, I need to say it. I’m so pissed at you…”
He let out a rattling wheeze, blood suddenly starting to leak out of his mouth and nose.
I’d known he would be pissed at me. There was no way for something like this to work—a member of his pack kissing hislittle sister. Guilt flooded my chest as the sound of an explosion filled my ears.
Apparently, alongside the guns, the Russians seemed to have also brought grenades. Gods, this was turning into a literal warzone. How the night had gone so completely wrong, I didn’t know.
“I’m so sorry, Aless, it will never happen again,” I hurried to apologize, afraid I would never be able to if I waited.
“No,” Alesso said with a frown as he held up a bloody hand to stop me. “That’s not what I—”
“On the ground!” a harsh voice barked at us, keeping Alesso from finishing his sentence as I was forcibly dragged away by an FBI agent who wasted no time slapping cuffs on me.
