Chapter 7 - The Maid Who Walked Into a War
Julian Rossi had always been easy to underestimate.
That was intentional.
While Leo inherited the public burden of the Rossi name, Julian cultivated the appearance of harmless wealth.
Wine.
Art.
Charities.
European vacations.
Nobody feared him.
That gave him freedom.
“You should have stayed invisible,” Julian told Leo.
“Funny,” Leo replied. “I was about to say the same thing.”
Connor was dragged into view.
His injured hand was bandaged.
A gun pressed against his neck.
Leo’s expression remained blank.
“Let him go.”
“The card.”
Leo raised it.
Julian smiled.
“Daniel Mercer caused twenty years of inconvenience.”
“You murdered him?”
“No.”
Tessa listened through Leo’s concealed microphone.
Julian continued.
“My father wanted Daniel frightened. Adrian wanted him dead.”
“Which one gave the order?”
“Does it matter?”
“It matters to his daughter.”
Julian’s smile changed.
“Ah. Tessa.”
The way he said her name made Leo’s eyes colder.
“She really is beautiful. I understand why you’ve become distracted.”
“Careful.”
“There he is.”
Julian laughed.
“The famous Leo Rossi temper.”
“You’ve never seen my temper.”
Tessa heard enough.
She opened the van door.
Marco grabbed her arm.
“No.”
“He’ll kill Connor after he gets the card.”
“We know.”
“So your plan?”
“Wait.”
“For what?”
Marco pointed toward the warehouse roof.
Carlo’s men were moving into position.
Then everything went wrong.
Connor struck the man holding him.
The gun fired.
Leo lunged.
Gunfire exploded.
Tessa stopped thinking.
She ran.
Marco swore and followed.
Inside, smoke and shouting filled the warehouse.
Connor crawled behind a shipping container.
Tessa reached him.
“Tess?”
She wrapped herself around him.
Leo was fighting Julian near the loading platform.
Julian drew a knife.
Leo blocked his wrist.
They crashed against a railing.
Marco fired at two armed men approaching from the east side.
Then a shot came from above.
Leo jerked.
Tessa screamed.
He fell to one knee.
Julian raised the knife.
Tessa saw a fallen gun three feet away.
She grabbed it.
Her hands shook.
She had never fired one.
“Stop!”
Julian looked at her.
Then smiled.
“You won’t.”
Tessa aimed.
“Try me.”
Leo looked at her.
“Tessa, don’t.”
Julian laughed.
“Listen to him.”
Tessa’s finger tightened.
Leo spoke again.
“Don’t let him decide who you become.”
The words reached her.
She lowered the gun slightly.
Julian moved.
That was his mistake.
Leo drove his shoulder into him.
Marco reached them seconds later.
Julian was restrained.
Alive.
Tessa ran to Leo.
Blood covered his side.
“No.”
“It missed anything important.”
“You don’t know that.”
“I’ve been shot before.”
“That is not comforting.”
He smiled weakly.
She pressed her hands against the wound.
Again.
Just like the storage facility.
Only this time she was crying.
Leo touched her cheek.
“Tessa.”
“Don’t.”
“What?”
“Don’t say something dramatic.”
“I was going to tell you your hands are freezing.”
She laughed through tears.
Then she kissed him.
It was not elegant.
It was desperate and brief and born from the terror of nearly watching him die.
When she pulled away, both of them stared at each other.
Connor, sitting ten feet away, blinked.
“Did my sister just kiss the mafia boss?”
Marco glanced at him.
“Bad time.”
“Feels like a reasonable question.”
Leo laughed.
Then winced.
Police sirens approached.
Real police.
Federal agents followed.
Carlo had sent Daniel’s files to authorities the moment the operation began.
Julian’s network started collapsing before dawn.
Judges were arrested.
Detectives suspended.
Accounts frozen.
Adrian Bellini was captured attempting to cross into Canada.
Marco refused to visit him.
Connor underwent another surgery.
Leo spent two days in the hospital.
Tessa sat beside him the second night.
Neither mentioned the kiss.
Finally Leo said, “You regret it.”
“No.”
He looked at her.
“That sounded dangerously fast.”
“I regret that Connor saw it.”
Leo almost smiled.
Tessa became serious.
“What happens now?”
“To Julian?”
“To you.”
Leo looked toward the window.
“I don’t know.”
For his entire adult life, survival had been his only long-term plan.
Now the old network was collapsing.
Carlo was alive.
The truth was public.
And Tessa Mercer sat beside his hospital bed looking at him as though he might have a future beyond the name he inherited.
Then she asked the question he feared most.
“When this is over, who are you if you’re not the man everyone is afraid of?”
May you like
Leo looked at her.
For once, he had no answer.
