Chapter 1 - THE NIGHT THE GUNS CAME
The first bullet shattered the window.
The second tore through the coffee machine.
The third struck the wall inches from Isabelle Stanton's head.
She screamed.
A tray crashed to the floor as the Starlight Diner erupted into chaos. Customers dove beneath tables. Glass exploded across the linoleum. Outside, black SUVs screeched to a stop beneath the flickering neon sign.
Isabelle froze.
Her hands instinctively wrapped around her seven-month pregnant stomach.
Then someone grabbed her.
She expected another attacker.
Instead, a powerful arm wrapped around her waist and dragged her violently beneath the counter.
"Stay down!"
The man's voice was low, controlled, absolute.
Vincent Moretti.
Isabelle had never heard his name before that night.
But she would never forget his face.
He crouched over her as bullets tore through the diner.
His charcoal suit was already dusted with plaster. One hand held a pistol. The other remained firmly against the floor beside Isabelle's head, shielding her from flying debris.
"Are you hurt?"
Isabelle could barely speak.
"My baby..."
Vincent's eyes immediately dropped toward her stomach.
"Did they hit you?"
"I don't know."
Another gunshot cracked.
Vincent rose.
"Stay here."
"No!"
She grabbed his sleeve.
"I can't—"
He looked down at her.
For the first time, his expression changed.
Not fear.
Something darker.
Recognition.
Five years earlier, Vincent had watched his pregnant wife die in a bombing intended for him.
He had buried two bodies that day.
Since then, pregnant women had become the one thing he could not look at without remembering blood.
"You're coming with me."
He pulled Isabelle upright.
She stumbled.
Pain suddenly ripped through her abdomen.
She gasped and folded forward.
Vincent caught her before she hit the floor.
"What's wrong?"
"It hurts."
Her voice shook.
"Something is wrong."
His face hardened.
"Dominic!"
A man appeared through the kitchen doorway.
"Boss!"
"Get the car."
"The rear exit is clear."
"Then move."
Vincent lifted Isabelle into his arms.
She protested weakly.
"I can walk."
"No."
"You don't know me."
"I don't need to."
He carried her through the kitchen as gunfire continued behind them.
The cook was hiding beneath a table.
A waitress cried in the pantry.
Vincent kicked open the rear door.
Rain crashed over them.
An armored black SUV waited in the alley.
Dominic opened the rear door.
"Get her inside!"
Vincent placed Isabelle carefully on the seat and climbed in beside her.
The vehicle accelerated.
Isabelle gripped the leather seat as another contraction seized her.
Vincent watched her face.
"How far along?"
"Seven months."
"Have you had complications?"
"No."
"Then why are you bleeding?"
Isabelle looked down.
A thin red stain had appeared beneath her dress.
Her face went white.
"I don't know."
Vincent's voice became dangerously calm.
"Drive faster."
Dominic glanced at him in the mirror.
"We're already doing ninety."
"Then make it one hundred."
The Moretti estate was forty minutes outside Chicago.
They reached it in eighteen.
Vincent carried Isabelle through the underground medical entrance.
Dr. Harrison was waiting.
"Put her here."
Vincent lowered her onto the bed.
The doctor immediately began examining her.
"Blood pressure is dropping."
Isabelle reached for Vincent's hand without thinking.
He froze.
Nobody touched Vincent Moretti without permission.
Yet he allowed her fingers to close around his.
"Please," she whispered. "Don't let my baby die."
Something inside him cracked.
He looked away.
The ultrasound machine came alive.
Dr. Harrison moved the probe across Isabelle's abdomen.
Silence.
Then the machine filled the room with a rapid heartbeat.
Isabelle began crying.
"My baby?"
"Heartbeat is strong."
Vincent exhaled.
He hadn't realized he'd been holding his breath.
Dr. Harrison continued examining the screen.
Then his expression changed.
"Wait."
Vincent noticed immediately.
"What?"
The doctor zoomed in.
His eyebrows pulled together.
"That's unusual."
Isabelle's tears stopped.
"What?"
Dr. Harrison looked at her.
"How certain are you about your pregnancy dates?"
"Why?"
"Because the measurements don't match."
Vincent stepped closer.
"What are you saying?"
Dr. Harrison studied the screen again.
"There is something else."
He moved the probe.
A second heartbeat appeared.
Isabelle stared at the monitor.
Her lips parted.
"That's impossible."
Vincent looked from the screen to her.
"You're having twins?"
Dr. Harrison shook his head.
"No."
The room went silent.
"There's only one fetus."
He pointed toward the screen.
"But there are two distinct blood-flow patterns."
Vincent's expression hardened.
"What does that mean?"
Dr. Harrison hesitated.
"It means we need more testing."
Isabelle suddenly remembered something.
A hospital visit three months earlier.
A doctor who had insisted everything was normal.
A blood test she'd never understood.
And an envelope she had been too frightened to open.
Before she could explain, the estate's alarm sounded.
Dominic rushed inside.
"Boss."
Vincent turned.
"What?"
"We found one of the attackers."
"Alive?"
"Yes."
Dominic's jaw tightened.
"He has something that belongs to the waitress."
Vincent looked at Isabelle.
"What?"
Dominic placed a small silver pendant on the table.
Isabelle immediately recognized it.
Her mother's necklace.
The necklace Isabelle had believed was stolen three years earlier.
She stared at it in horror.
"Where did he get that?"
Dominic answered quietly.
"He said the Falcone family sent a message."
Vincent's eyes narrowed.
"What message?"
Dominic looked toward Isabelle.
"They said..."
May you like
He paused.
"...the baby belongs to them."
