GUARDED BY MY POSSESSIVE MAFIA BROTHERS

Chapter 14: Three Minutes to Live

“Dante!”

I pressed both hands against his chest as blood spread beneath my fingers.

The countdown on every screen showed two minutes and fifty-three seconds.

Dante’s eyes remained closed.

Around us, smoke rose through the cracks in the studio floor. Antonio’s confession continued playing over the speakers, his dead voice competing with the fire alarms.

“I betrayed every woman I claimed to love,” the recording said. “But Isabella was not killed by Vincent Valenti or my son Dante. The person responsible was my wife, Vittoria De Santis.”

Luca dropped beside me and tore open Dante’s shirt.

“The bullet hit his vest,” he said.

“Then why is he bleeding?”

“It entered above the edge.”

My stomach turned when I saw the wound beneath Dante’s collarbone.

“Can you move him?”

“We don’t have a choice.”

A gunshot echoed from the control booth.

I looked toward the balcony where Noah had disappeared.

“Noah!”

No answer came.

The countdown changed to two minutes and thirty seconds.

Marco grabbed Rocco by the collar and dragged him away from the broadcasting console.

“Where is the exit?”

Rocco laughed despite the blood covering his shoulder.

“You heard Vittoria. The building is going down.”

Marco struck him across the face.

“Where is the exit?”

“If I tell you, she’ll kill me.”

Dominic approached and pressed his gun against Rocco’s injured shoulder.

“You should be more concerned about surviving the next ten seconds.”

Rocco’s smile disappeared.

“Behind the main set. There’s a service tunnel beneath the west staircase.”

Luca lifted Dante, but his injured leg nearly gave way.

I moved beneath Dante’s other arm.

“I can help.”

“No,” Luca said. “Find Noah.”

“I’m not leaving Dante.”

“Elena.”

Dante’s weak voice stopped us.

His eyes opened slightly.

“You have to go.”

Relief and anger hit me at the same time.

“You were shot protecting me, and now you think you can give me orders?”

“Yes.”

“Then you’re clearly not dying.”

He tried to smile, but pain twisted his face.

Another explosion shook the studio. Part of the ceiling collapsed near the doors, filling the air with sparks.

One minute and fifty-eight seconds.

“Get him out,” I told Luca. “I’ll find Noah.”

Dante caught my wrist.

“No.”

I looked into his eyes.

“You spent my entire life deciding where I could go and what I could know. That ends tonight.”

“Elena, the building—”

“I will be right behind you.”

His grip weakened.

I pulled away and ran toward the stairs leading to the control booth.

“Elena!” Luca shouted.

I ignored him.

Smoke covered the upper level. I held my sleeve over my mouth and followed the trail of blood along the floor.

“Noah!”

A hand appeared from behind the control desk.

I rushed around it and found Noah leaning against the wall. Blood ran down the side of his head, but I couldn’t see a bullet wound.

“Were you shot?”

“The bullet hit the screen.”

“Then why are you bleeding?”

“The screen hit me.”

Despite everything, I almost laughed.

He tried to stand and fell back.

“The broadcast,” he said. “I couldn’t stop it.”

“Forget the broadcast.”

“You don’t understand. Antonio’s confession has already reached every news station in the city.”

The countdown displayed one minute and twenty-four seconds.

“We can worry about that if we survive.”

I placed his arm around my shoulders and helped him stand.

As we reached the stairs, the speakers crackled again.

Antonio’s voice continued.

“Vittoria learned that I planned to leave her and expose the families controlling our city. She arranged Isabella’s capture to force me into silence. When I refused, she ordered Carlo Bellini to sabotage my car.”

Noah stopped.

“Elena, listen.”

“I already know she killed him.”

“No. Listen to the background.”

Behind Antonio’s recorded voice, I heard a faint sound.

A woman crying.

Then another voice whispered something too quietly to understand.

The recording suddenly cut off.

A new message appeared on every screen.

ONE MINUTE REMAINING.

VITTORIA DE SANTIS SENDS HER REGARDS.

“We have to move,” I said.

We stumbled down the stairs.

The studio was almost empty. Dominic and Marco had dragged Rocco toward the passage behind the set. Luca was carrying Dante.

Sofia appeared through a side entrance with Father Gabriel and two guards.

“What are you doing here?” Marco demanded.

“The outer doors are locked,” Sofia replied. “This was the only open route.”

“Where are the other guards?”

Her expression gave us the answer.

Forty-five seconds.

Dominic kicked through the damaged wall behind the set. A narrow corridor appeared beyond it.

“Everyone inside!”

Marco pushed Father Gabriel forward. Sofia followed with Rocco.

Luca struggled beneath Dante’s weight.

I moved toward them, but an orange light near the broadcasting console caught my attention.

Antonio’s cassette was still turning inside the machine.

It was the only proof of Vittoria’s crimes.

If the building exploded, the truth would die with it.

“Elena, no!” Noah shouted.

I released him and ran back.

Thirty-two seconds.

Flames climbed the curtains around the studio. The heat burned my face as I reached the console.

I pressed the eject button.

Nothing happened.

I pressed it again.

The tape remained trapped.

“Elena!” Dante called weakly from the tunnel.

“I’m coming!”

I grabbed a metal stand and struck the machine. The plastic cover cracked.

Twenty seconds.

A hand closed around my ankle.

I fell hard against the floor.

Rocco had escaped Sofia’s grip and crawled back into the studio. Blood covered his clothes, but his eyes remained frighteningly

clear.

“You cannot take it,” he said.

I kicked him, but he held tighter.

“Let go!”

“You still don’t understand. Vittoria wanted you to hear that recording.”

“She confessed to killing Antonio.”

“No. Antonio accused her. There is a difference.”

Fifteen seconds.

Rocco pulled me closer.

“She wanted the broadcast to happen. Every judge, politician, officer, and mafia leader named on that tape will believe you released it.”

“Why would she do that?”

“To make certain you have nowhere to hide.”

A gunshot rang out.

The bullet struck the floor beside Rocco’s hand.

He released me.

Dominic stood at the entrance to the tunnel.

“Move, Elena!”

Ten seconds.

I smashed the machine again and pulled the cassette from its broken compartment.

Dominic grabbed my arm and dragged me into the corridor.

Behind us, Rocco began laughing.

“You can run from the fire,” he shouted. “But you cannot run from your inheritance!”

The steel door closed as the countdown reached three.

Dominic pushed me forward.

“Run!”

The tunnel shook violently.

A deafening explosion tore through the station.

The force threw us onto the concrete floor. Heat rushed through the corridor, followed by smoke and fragments of metal.

For several seconds, I couldn’t hear anything.

Dominic pulled me upright.

“Are you hurt?”

“I don’t know.”

“That means you can walk.”

We continued through the tunnel until cold night air struck my face.

The passage opened behind an abandoned warehouse several hundred meters from the station. Flames rose into the sky, consuming the building where Antonio’s secrets had waited for years.

Luca lowered Dante onto the ground.

I ran toward them.

Dante’s face had turned pale. His eyes were closed again.

“Dante?”

I knelt and touched his cheek.

He didn’t respond.

Father Gabriel removed Dante’s vest while Sofia opened an emergency medical kit.

“The bullet is still inside,” she said. “He needs surgery.”

“How long does he have?”

“I don’t know.”

“That isn’t an answer.”

“It is the only one I can give you.”

I pressed my hand over Dante’s wound.

“Open your eyes.”

Nothing happened.

Anger rose through my fear.

“You do not get to die after spending years telling me how dangerous everyone else is.”

Luca knelt across from me.

“Dante, wake up.”

For the first time, I heard fear in Luca’s voice.

Dante’s eyelids finally moved.

His gaze found me.

“You disobeyed me again,” he murmured.

A broken laugh escaped me.

“You’re welcome.”

His hand weakly closed around mine.

“The tape?”

I showed him the cassette.

“I saved it.”

“You should have saved yourself.”

“I did both.”

“Reckless.”

“You raised me.”

His lips almost formed a smile before pain forced his eyes shut again.

“He’s losing too much blood,” Sofia warned.

Dominic looked toward the road.

“We cannot take him to a hospital. Vittoria will have men watching every emergency room.”

“My doctor has a private clinic outside the city,” Marco said.

Dante opened his eyes again.

“No.”

Marco stared at him. “You will die without treatment.”

“I don’t trust you.”

“You don’t need to trust me. You need to survive.”

Luca stood.

“We’re wasting time. Marco drives. Sofia keeps Dante alive.”

Marco and Sofia carried Dante toward the nearest vehicle.

I tried to follow, but Noah caught my arm.

“Wait.”

He held out his hand.

“Let me see the cassette.”

I gave it to him.

The plastic case had cracked during the explosion, but the tape inside appeared undamaged.

Noah turned it over.

His expression changed.

“What is it?” I asked.

“This label is new.”

Dominic stepped closer. “How can you tell?”

“The ink hasn’t faded. The cassette Antonio recorded twenty years ago should look older than this.”

Father Gabriel examined it beneath the light from his phone.

“He’s right.”

My heart began pounding.

“Then what did we hear?”

“A copy,” Noah said. “Possibly an edited one.”

“But Antonio’s voice was real.”

“His voice was real. That does not mean every sentence appeared in the original order.”

I remembered the faint crying behind his words and the woman whispering in the background.

“Someone changed the confession.”

“Vittoria,” Dominic said.

A cold realization settled over me.

“She wanted the city to hear Antonio accuse her.”

Father Gabriel nodded slowly.

“Because while everyone searches for Vittoria De Santis, she can disappear under another identity.”

A soft click came from the darkness.

We turned.

Vittoria stood between the trees, holding a gun aimed directly at my heart.

Her red dress was torn, but she appeared completely calm. A black vehicle waited behind her with its engine running.

Dominic reached for his weapon.

“Don’t,” she warned. “You will not fire before I kill her.”

Everyone froze.

I held the cassette tightly.

“You planned the explosion.”

“I planned everything.”

“You shot your own son.”

“Dante chose to stand in front of you.”

“You murdered Antonio.”

Vittoria smiled.

“Is that what the recording told you?”

“Rocco said you wanted it broadcast.”

“Rocco has always understood the value of a convincing performance.”

I looked toward the burning station.

“Was any of Antonio’s confession true?”

“Enough of it.”

“What does that mean?”

“It means your father created several recordings. Each contained a different version of the truth because he trusted no one.”

Noah lifted the damaged cassette.

“Then where is the original?”

Vittoria’s eyes remained fixed on me.

“The original was never recorded on tape.”

Father Gabriel stepped forward. “Vittoria, leave Elena out of this.”

“You helped Antonio hide her memories. You have no right to speak.”

A sharp pain moved through my head.

“My memories?”

Vittoria’s smile deepened.

“You were inside the room when Isabella was taken. You saw who betrayed her. Antonio ensured you would never forget.”

“I was a baby.”

“No, Elena. That is only another lie your brothers allowed you to believe.”

Images flashed through my mind.

A white room.

A woman screaming.

Blood on a silver ring.

A child hiding beneath a table.

Me.

I staggered backward.

Vittoria raised her weapon.

“The original confession,” she said softly, “is buried inside Elena’s childhood memories.”