GUARDED BY MY POSSESSIVE MAFIA BROTHERS

Chapter 9: The Blood Between Us

Marco pulled the trigger.

Sofia’s body jerked against mine.

For one terrible second, I expected to see blood spreading across her back. Instead, a sharp metallic sound struck the wall beside us.

Sofia opened her eyes.

Marco had fired at the lock on the window.

“Get down!” he shouted.

The glass shattered as bullets entered from the courtyard. Marco threw himself against the door while Sofia dragged me behind the bed.

“You shot at us!” I screamed.

“If I wanted her dead, I wouldn’t have missed.”

Another bullet pierced the wall above my head.

Outside, men shouted orders while alarms continued screaming throughout the mansion. The De Santis soldiers exchanged fire with

Vincent’s guards in the courtyard.

Marco locked the bedroom door again.

“You have less than a minute,” he said.

Sofia stared at him. “Whose side are you on?”

“The side that keeps Alessandra alive.”

“My name is Elena.”

His expression softened for only a moment. “Then Elena needs to leave before Vincent realizes what she heard.”

I pulled the recorder from beneath the pillow.

“You knew about this?”

“I knew Isabella made a recording. I thought it had been destroyed.”

“She said Vincent isn’t my father.”

Marco looked toward the door. “Lower your voice.”

“Then tell me who is.”

“No.”

I laughed bitterly. “Of course. Another man who believes the truth belongs to him.”

“This truth could destroy both families.”

“Both families are already trying to kill each other outside!”

“That is nothing compared to what will happen if Vincent learns why Isabella ran.”

Sofia moved toward the wardrobe and pushed the hanging dresses aside. Behind them was a narrow wooden panel.

You said the eastern passage still exists,” she told Marco.

“It does, but guards are waiting at the lower exit.”

“Dante’s men?”

“Vincent’s.”

“Then help us.”

Marco shook his head. “If I disappear with her, Vincent will know I betrayed him.”

“You betrayed the De Santis family tonight.”

“To maintain my position here.”

I stared at the man who had guarded me since childhood.

“You allowed Vincent’s men into our home.”

“I ordered them not to harm the staff.”

“And the guards I saw on the floor?”

“Sedated.”

“Why should I believe you?”

“You shouldn’t,” Marco said. “But Dante knew I was working for Vincent.”

The room seemed to tilt.

“That’s impossible.”

“Is it?”

“Dante looked ready to kill you at the cathedral.”

“Vincent was watching. We all played our parts.”

Sofia’s eyes narrowed. “Dante sent you into the Valenti organization?”

“Not originally. I was loyal to Isabella. After her death, I remained close to Vincent while protecting Elena from inside the De Santis household.”

“By helping him kidnap me?”

“By ensuring he brought you here alive. Vincent’s other plan involved explosives beneath the cathedral.”

A chill swept through me.

“You knew I would surrender.”

“I knew you would choose innocent lives over your own safety. Isabella would have done the same.”

“Stop comparing me to a dead woman I never knew.”

The words came out harsher than I intended.

Sofia looked away, but Marco stepped closer.

“Your mother died to give you a life beyond this world. Do not waste her sacrifice by trusting the first person who offers you answers.”

“Does that include you?”

“Especially me.”

A heavy impact shook the bedroom door.

“Open it!” a guard shouted from the corridor.

Marco drew a second weapon and handed it to Sofia.

“Take the passage. At the bottom, turn left. There is an old chapel beyond the wine cellar.”

“What about Elena?” Sofia asked.

“She stays with me.”

“No,” I said.

“If you enter the passage, Vincent will know someone helped you. If you remain here, I can say Sofia attacked me and escaped.”

“I’m not letting her go alone.”

Sofia seized my hand. “He’s right.”

“You told me you knew my father.”

“And I will tell you when we are safe.”

“What if I never see you again?”

Her scarred face softened.

“Then find the silver box inside the old chapel. Isabella left proof there.”

The door shook again.

Marco fired at the ceiling. Sofia opened the hidden panel and disappeared into the darkness.

I pushed the photograph she had given me inside my dress just as Marco overturned a table.

“What are you doing?”

“Making this convincing.”

He struck me across the face.

Pain exploded along my cheek. Before I could react, he pressed his gun against my temple.

The bedroom door burst open.

Three Valenti guards rushed inside.

“Sofia escaped through the wardrobe,” Marco said. “Find her.”

Two men ran toward the secret passage. The third lowered his weapon when he saw Marco holding me.

“Mr. Valenti wants the girl downstairs.”

“I’ll take her.”

The guard hesitated. “He said immediately.”

Marco’s gun remained against my head. “And she will arrive alive if you stop wasting my time.”

The guard finally stepped aside.

Marco dragged me into the corridor. Smoke rose from the lower floor, and the sound of gunfire echoed through the mansion.

“Is Sofia going to survive?” I whispered.

“That depends on whether Dante reaches the chapel before Vincent’s men.”

“You expect Dante to know where it is?”

“I sent him the estate plans years ago.”

So many secrets surrounded me that I no longer knew which betrayal was real.

At the top of the staircase, Vincent appeared with two armed men.

His calm expression vanished when he saw the mark on my face.

“What happened?”

“Sofia was in Isabella’s room,” Marco answered. “She attacked me and escaped through the eastern passage.”

Vincent looked at the open bedroom door.

“What did she tell Alessandra?”

“Nothing.”

“I can answer for myself,” I said.

Vincent climbed the remaining stairs. His gaze settled on the recorder in my hand.

The color drained from his face.

“Where did you find that?”

“In my mother’s room.”

“Give it to me.”

I tightened my fingers around it. “Why? Are you afraid of what she said?”

His voice became dangerously quiet. “That recording belongs to me.”

“No. It belongs to the daughter she was trying to protect.”

“I am your father.”

“Are you?”

The words stopped him.

Marco subtly shook his head, warning me, but it was too late.

Vincent grabbed my shoulders.

“What did you hear?”

“That my mother was afraid of you.”

“What else?”

“Nothing. The recorder stopped.”

His eyes searched my face.

Below us, the front doors exploded inward.

Dante entered through the smoke with Luca beside him. Both held guns, their dark suits stained with blood and dust.

Dante saw Vincent touching me.

“Take your hands off my sister.”

Vincent pulled me against his chest and placed a gun beneath my chin.

Every weapon in the hall rose at once.

“You invade my home and still make demands?” Vincent asked.

“You took Elena.”

“She came willingly.”

“She sacrificed herself because you threatened innocent people.”

Vincent smiled. “She inherited that weakness from her mother.”

Dante’s finger tightened around the trigger.

“Call Isabella weak again.”

Luca stood slightly behind him, searching the upper floor. His gaze found Marco.

Something silent passed between them.

Marco hadn’t lied. My brothers knew he was a double agent.

“You deceived me,” I said to Dante.

His eyes moved to my bruised cheek. Rage sharpened his features.

“Did Marco do that?”

“It was necessary,” Marco replied.

“I’ll decide how necessary it was after I break his hand.”

Even now, Luca almost smiled. “There’s the Dante we know.”

Vincent pressed the gun harder against my skin.

“You are in no position to threaten anyone.”

Dante looked at me. “Are you hurt anywhere else?”

“No.”

“What did you learn?”

“Dante,” Marco warned.

Vincent turned his gun toward him. “You told me she heard nothing.”

“She didn’t.”

“Then why are you afraid of what she might say?”

Marco aimed at Vincent.

The Valenti guards immediately pointed their weapons at him.

“You have protected her for twenty-one years,” Vincent said slowly. “Not for me.”

“I protected Isabella’s daughter.”

“You betrayed me.”

“I served the only Valenti who deserved loyalty.”

Vincent fired.

Marco fell backward, blood spreading across his shoulder.

At the same moment, Dante shot the guard beside Vincent. Luca fired at the second man, and the entrance hall erupted into chaos.

I drove my elbow into Vincent’s ribs.

His grip loosened.

I ran.

Dante reached me halfway down the stairs and pulled me behind a marble column. Bullets shattered Isabella’s portrait above us.

“You came for me,” I breathed.

He held my face between his hands. “I will always come for you.”

For one fragile second, I wanted to forget every lie and let him take me home.

Then I remembered the recording.

“Vincent isn’t my father.”

Dante became still.

“You heard the rest?”

“You already knew.”

He looked away.

“Who is my real father?”

“Elena, we need to leave.”

“No.”

Luca crouched beside Marco and pressed a hand against his wound while the remaining De Santis men secured the entrance.

“Dante, tell her,” Marco said through clenched teeth. “This has gone far enough.”

Vincent had disappeared behind the upper corridor, but his voice came through the mansion speakers.

“Bring me my daughter, and I may let you leave alive.”

“I am not his daughter,” I shouted.

Silence followed.

Then Vincent laughed.

“What have they told you now?”

I took the photograph from inside my dress. Something fell from behind it—a small folded paper I had not noticed before.

Dante tried to take it, but I stepped away.

The paper contained a handwritten message from Isabella.

Alessandra must never learn that Antonio De Santis is her father. If Vincent discovers my betrayal, he will kill our daughter and every De Santis who protected her.

I read it twice.

Then I looked at Dante.

Antonio De Santis had been his father.

Our father.

“You didn’t adopt me,” I whispered. “I was already your sister.”

Dante’s silence confirmed it.

Luca lowered his head.

All the anger left my body, replaced by something far more painful.

“You knew we shared the same father?”

“Yes,” Dante answered.

“Since when?”

“Since the night he died.”

Before I could ask another question, Vincent spoke through the speakers again.

But the confidence had vanished from his voice.

“Alessandra, what did that letter say?”

An explosion shook the western side of the mansion.

Fire climbed the curtains.

Dante pulled me toward the exit while Luca lifted the wounded Marco.

Across the hall, Vincent emerged from the smoke with murder in his eyes.

He no longer looked like a father welcoming his lost child.

He looked like a man who had finally understood that my existence was proof of his wife’s betrayal.

“Kill her!” he roared.

Dante covered me with his body as every Valenti gun turned in our direction.

And at last, I understood why my brothers had hidden my blood.

They had never been protecting their family from me.

They had been protecting me from the man who would burn the world to erase what my birth revealed.