The main entrance doors slam open.
Ten men pour through. Maybe more. Black tactical gear. Faces covered. Weapons raised.
Avtomaty.Automatic rifles.
They don't announce themselves. Don't make demands.
They just start shooting.
The first burst of gunfire shatters champagne glasses at the bar. The second rips through the crowd. People scream. Bodies drop.
My hand is already moving—reaching for the Glock at my hip, pushing Vittoria down, covering her body with mine as we hit the stage floor.
More gunfire. The sound deafening in the enclosed space. Muzzle flashes lighting up the entrance like lightning.
Glass explodes. Wood splinters. Someone near the bar goes down hard.
Fuck.
CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
Vittoria
Dmitri's hand presses against my back, pushing me down, then forward, then back again. My knees scrape against broken glass. The air tastes like gunpowder and champagne.
Bodies drop around us. Some diving for cover. Others not getting up.
"We need to move," Dmitri growls in my ear. His gun is out, aimed at the entrance where tactical gear and muzzle flashes paint the darkness. "The door behind us. Now."
I crane my neck, trying to see. Pietro is somewhere to my left. Nico's voice cuts through the chaos, shouting orders in Italian. My mother screams Amanda's name.
"Move, Vittoria." Dmitri's voice drops to that tone that usually makes me obey.
Not tonight.
"Give me a gun."
"No."
"Dmitri—"
"I said no." He fires twice over my head. Someone falls near the entrance. "Stay down and move backward."
Men are shouting in Russian. In Italian. In English. The sounds blend together into a symphony of violence that makes my ears ring.
I should listen to him.
I should stay down.
I should let him protect me like he's been trying to do since the moment bullets started flying.
But there's a gun three feet away. Lying next to a man in a suit who isn't moving. His fingers are still curled around the grip.
I lunge for it when Dmitri turns up front.
My hand closes around cold metal. The weight feels wrong in my palm—heavier than I expected, lighter than it should be. I don't know how to check if it's loaded. Don't know if the safety is on.
Don't care.
