Page 115 of The Mastermind
My head was still tilted up when the second arrived.
The sky remained dark. Then carnage descended.
Screams ripped through the air, some abruptly silenced in a way that meant only one thing.
We were under attack.
‘Fuck!’ Cesare yanked me into his body and dropped to the deck, wrapping his body around me. Protecting me. Leaving himself wide open to flying bullets.
‘Cesare!’
‘Stay down, Maddelena! Do. Not. Fucking. Move.’ The command was raw. Lethal. Totally belied by the single tremble that went through him, before he grew statue still.
Pops turned into a spray. I yelped when a staccato round landed far too close.
I felt Cesare move, assess. Then press down tighter on me.
‘Boss.’
Fist. As ever close by.
‘What’s the situation?’ Cesare snapped as I heard a gun cock close to my head. Squeezing eyes I didn’t remember shutting open, I saw Fist crouched next to us, his gaze scanning as he passed a gun to Cesare.
‘They entered through the west gate where the catering trucks were parked. Dressed as fucking waiters,’ he reported flatly. Then just as blandly, he shot off three rounds. A shout nearby preceded the heavy thud of a body dropping.
‘We need to move from here, Boss. I’ll take her?—’
‘No. I have her,’ Cesare interrupted.
Springing up, he swept me off my feet and into a full sprint.
‘I’ve got you, baby,’ he repeated.
My head bobbed as I curled into his arms.
More blood-curdling screams tore through the air, soldiers sprinting past us as Cesare raced us inside.
The ballroom, festive just minutes ago, was a scene of chaos. Tables were overturned, the cake I never got to cut a giant mess on the floor.
Cesare tensed as another round of gunfire shattered a window.
‘Bibi and the women?’
‘They’re safe in place. They’re waiting for your missus before they lock down.’
Waiting for your missus?
‘Tell me you don’t mean what I think you mean?’
Livid eyes bore down on me. I knew the emotion wasn’t directed at me, but it still made me shiver.
‘It means exactly that,’ he rasped. ‘You can take any unhappiness you feel about that out on me later.’
I’d lost sight of where he was taking me, but when I saw the reinforced double doors, my blood went cold.
He’d just declared he would protect me with his last breath. What if fate had decided he should make good on that promise tonight?
I clung onto his lapels when the doors opened and he walked through it. And I saw that, indeed, the room held all women, children and the elderly.
