Chapter 6

Chaos consumed the elegant dining room.

Mrs. Ellis, the so-called “family friend” and event coordinator, was thrashing under the weight of two massive security guards.

“Get off me!” she shrieked, her dark-green gown twisting around her legs.

Luca walked slowly toward her. The silence he commanded was absolute. Even Vanessa stopped crying, cowering against the wall.

“You,” Luca said, looking down at Mrs. Ellis. “You recommended Vanessa to me. You introduced us at that charity gala a year ago.”

Mrs. Ellis spat at his expensive leather shoes. “Victor sends his regards.”

Luca didn’t flinch. He looked at Vanessa. “How long have you been working for Thorne?”

“Since the clinic,” Vanessa sobbed, sliding down the wall until she sat on the floor, her red dress pooled around her like blood. “He found out about my father’s gambling debt. He said if I got close to Elena, reported her movements, he would clear it. But I didn’t know they were going to kill her! I just thought they were going to rob her!”

“So you stood by while my wife was murdered,” Luca said, his voice eerily dead. “Then you changed your name, let Mrs. Ellis introduce you to me as a grieving socialite, and spent a year pretending to love me.”

“I do love you!” Vanessa wailed, crawling toward him on her knees. “Luca, I fell in love with you! That’s why I couldn’t let Victor take Ethan tonight! I was trying to save him!”

“By poisoning him?” I yelled, unable to hold my tongue any longer. “By giving him a cake that would close his airway?”

Vanessa glared at me with pure venom. “You stupid maid! You ruined everything! The ambulance was the only way to get him out of the house without the guards shooting!”

Suddenly, a loud crash echoed from the hallway.

The heavy oak doors of the dining room burst open.

Three men in catering uniforms stood in the doorway. But they weren’t holding trays. They were holding suppressed pistols.

The man in the center—the one with the scorpion tattoo on his wrist—smiled a cold, dead smile.

“Nobody move,” the fake caterer ordered.

The wealthy guests screamed, dropping to the floor, hiding under the mahogany table.

Marcus and the other guard drew their weapons, but the caterers already had their guns aimed directly at Luca’s chest.

“Drop ’em, Marcus,” the tattooed man said. “Or the boss gets a hole in his heart.”

Marcus hesitated, looking at Luca. Luca gave a microscopic nod. The guards slowly lowered their guns, kicking them across the floor.

“Victor got tired of waiting for the ambulance,” the tattooed man said, stepping into the room. He looked down at Vanessa with disgust. “You’re sloppy, V. You were supposed to text me when the kid stopped breathing.”

Vanessa scrambled backward. “I tried! The maid interfered!”

The man’s cold eyes locked onto me. I was still standing beside Ethan, shielding his small body with my own.

“Well,” the man said, raising his pistol and pointing it directly at my face. “Let’s fix that.”

Time stopped.

I looked down at Ethan. He was staring at me, his eyes wide with absolute terror.

I didn’t think about my mother’s rent. I didn’t think about my job. I only thought about the little boy who had refused to eat a cake just because he wanted to be good.

I pushed Ethan hard under the table, throwing my body completely in front of him just as the tattooed man pulled the trigger.

But the gunshot never came.

Instead, a blur of black silk lunged across my peripheral vision.

Luca Moretti didn’t dive for cover. He dove directly at the gunman.

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