“Tough times calls for tough measures. Viktor’s holding Luca at St. Sebastian’s. He wants the exchange there because it’s defensible and he knows the layout.” I move to stand beside her, close enough to feel the warmth radiating off her skin. “We’re going in through four entry points with sixty men. Marco will lead the extraction team through the basement tunnel while I draw Viktor’s attention from the sacristy.”
“And where will I be during all this?”
Here it comes. “Upstairs with Elena. There’s a panic room on the third floor that can withstand anything short of a missile strike. You’ll be safe there until?—”
“No.”
“Scarlett.”
“I said no.” She turns to face me and her eyes are harder than I’ve ever seen them. Steel wrapped in green. “Luca will be terrified. He’s been with Viktor for over twenty-four hours now and he’s five years old. He needs his mother there when you get him out.”
“He needs you alive.”
“He needs me there.” She doesn’t back down. “I’m a nurse. I can help if people get hurt during the assault. I can stabilize wounds,keep people alive long enough to get real medical attention. And I will not sit in a bunker while my son is in danger.”
“This isn’t a negotiation.”
“You’re right. It’s not.” Her voice is steady but final. “I’m done being protected. I’m done being left behind while other people risk their lives for my child. Either I go with you or I find my own way to that cathedral and you can’t watch me every second between now and then.”
The thing is, I believe her. This isn’t an empty threat or desperate emotion. This is Scarlett telling me exactly what she’s going to do and daring me to stop her.
I could. I could have Marco lock her in the panic room and post guards at every door. I could sedate her and make sure she sleeps through the whole operation. I have the power to keep her safe whether she wants it or not.
But a lot has changed since she walked back into my life. My perspective of her person has evolved, and I no longer see her as some ornament to protect but the mother of my son. And now, my partner, no matter how I tried to deny it.
“You stay with the medical team,” I hear myself say instead. “Two blocks back from the cathedral until we have Luca secured. Then and only then do you come in.”
“Deal.”
“I mean it, Scarlett. If you try to go in early, my men have orders to physically restrain you. I won’t lose you both.”
“I understand.” She holds out her hand and I take it without thinking. Her fingers are cold and trembling slightly, but hergrip is strong. “Show me everything. I want to understand what you’ve planned.”
So I do. I walk her through the blueprints and explain each team’s role, the timing of the breach, and the extraction protocols. She asks questions that surprise me with their intelligence, points out a gap in our coverage near the side chapel that I actually missed, and suggests positioning the medical team closer so they can respond faster if things go wrong.
By the time Marco returns for the full briefing, Scarlett knows the operation as well as any of my men.
“Teams are assembled,” Marco says from the doorway. “Weapons distributed. Everyone knows their positions.”
Scarlett stands beside me, shoulder touching mine, and I feel something I haven’t felt since I found Luca’s empty bed.
We’re going to get him back. Whatever it takes. Whoever we have to kill.
My son is coming home.
25
SCARLETT
“Widen your stance,” Dante says from behind me, calm and professional, the same tone he’s been using for the past two hours as he walks me through basic firearms training in the estate’s underground range. “Feet shoulder-width apart. Weight slightly forward.”
But the gun feels strange and wrong in my hands.
It’s heavy and cold, feeling exactly like what it is; a weapon designed to kill people. My fingers keep wanting to loosen around the grip, like my body knows instinctively that I shouldn’t be holding this thing.
But my son is out there with a monster, and I’m done being helpless.
I adjust my position and he moves closer behind me, his hands coming to my hips to correct my balance. The touch is innocent, nothing like how those same hands moved over my body last night, but I still feel the warmth of him through my clothes.
