Chapter 6 - The Night Lorenzo Chose HerLorenzo abandoned the car three blocks from the burning terminal.
He ran.
Police sirens echoed somewhere behind him.
Flames climbed through broken warehouse windows.
“Vivian!”
Matteo caught him near the entrance.
“Wait!”
Lorenzo shoved him away.
“My wife is inside.”
“And running blindly into fire helps her how?”
Lorenzo looked ready to kill him.
Then they heard gunshots.
Three.
A pause.
Two more.
Carlo was cleaning up.
Lorenzo entered through a loading bay.
Smoke burned his lungs.
Inside, Vivian had managed to free one hand.
Elena lay unconscious nearby.
Carlo's men were abandoning the building.
Carlo grabbed Vivian.
“You're coming with me.”
“No.”
He dragged her toward a rear exit.
Vivian seized a metal pipe from the floor and struck his knee.
Carlo roared.
She ran.
A gunshot exploded.
Vivian stumbled.
For one horrifying second, Lorenzo believed she had been hit.
“Vivian!”
She turned.
Through smoke, they saw each other.
Lorenzo crossed the distance and pulled her behind a concrete pillar.
“Are you hurt?”
“No.”
“The baby?”
“I don't know.”
Fear entered his face.
Vivian had never seen Lorenzo Falcone look helpless.
Carlo appeared through the smoke.
His pistol pointed directly at her.
Lorenzo stepped in front of Vivian.
Carlo laughed.
“Look at you.”
Lorenzo did not move.
“The great Falcone prince using himself as a shield for a woman.”
“She is my wife.”
“She is your weakness.”
Lorenzo looked at Vivian.
“No.”
Then back at Carlo.
“She is the reason I finally know what strength is.”
Carlo fired.
Lorenzo jerked backward.
Vivian screamed.
He collapsed against her.
Matteo returned fire.
Carlo disappeared behind burning crates.
Police sirens grew louder.
Vivian pressed both hands against Lorenzo's side.
Blood covered her fingers.
“Stay with me.”
Lorenzo's face had gone gray.
“Vivian.”
“Don't talk.”
“I need—”
“No.”
“Listen.”
She looked at him.
“If I don't get another chance—”
“You're getting another chance.”
His fingers found hers.
“I loved you.”
Tears blurred her vision.
“I loved you every day.”
“Lorenzo—”
“I was just too much of a coward to let you know.”
His eyes closed.
Vivian slapped his cheek.
“No. Look at me.”
Nothing.
“Lorenzo!”
Matteo reached them.
“We have to move!”
Together they carried him outside.
Paramedics arrived.
Vivian climbed into the ambulance.
No one tried to stop her.
At NewYork-Presbyterian, surgeons operated for four hours.
The bullet had missed Lorenzo's heart by inches but damaged a lung.
Vivian sat in the waiting room wearing his blood.
A physician examined her.
The baby was safe.
When Salvatore arrived, he looked twenty years older.
He sat beside Vivian.
“My son has spent his whole life trying to become me.”
Vivian said nothing.
“I considered that an accomplishment.”
Salvatore looked toward the operating-room doors.
“I was wrong.”
Vivian finally faced him.
“You all taught him love was weakness.”
“Yes.”
“And now you're surprised he believed you?”
The old don lowered his head.
“No.”
At dawn, the surgeon appeared.
Lorenzo had survived.
Vivian entered his room hours later.
He was unconscious.
Machines breathed and beeped around him.
She sat beside the bed.
“I don't know if I can forgive you,” she whispered.
No response.
“I don't know if I should.”
She touched his hand.
“But you don't get to die and make that decision for me.”
His fingers moved.
Barely.
Vivian looked up.
Lorenzo's eyes slowly opened.
He tried to speak.
She leaned closer.
His voice was almost nonexistent.
“Baby?”
Vivian began crying.
“Safe.”
Relief passed over his face.
Then he whispered, “You?”
“I'm safe.”
His eyes closed again.
Three days later, Carlo Falcone was arrested while attempting to cross into Canada under a false identity.
The evidence from Anthony Bellini's safe-deposit box connected him to murders, extortion, trafficking, bribery, and decades of financial crimes.
But the investigation did not stop with Carlo.
It spread through the entire Falcone organization.
Salvatore summoned Lorenzo from his hospital room.
“We have decisions to make.”
Lorenzo looked toward Vivian.
Then at his father.
“No.”
Salvatore frowned.
“What?”
“You have decisions to make.”
Lorenzo removed the Falcone signet ring from his finger.
He placed it on the bedside table.
“I'm finished.”
His father stared.
“You don't walk away from this family.”
May you like
Lorenzo's eyes hardened.
“Watch me.”
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