The gunshot split the night.

A flash. An echo. Shouts exploding into the air.

Bella dropped to the pavement instinctively, palms scraping asphalt. Her scream tangled with engines revving and men cursing.

“Hold your fire!” Mateo’s roar cut through the madness. “Hold your damn fire!”

But Marino soldiers had already raised their weapons, ready to unload.

“Stand down!” Dante barked, his voice cracking like a whip.

The street teetered on the edge again like the bullet had only pulled the pin from a grenade.

Bella’s pulse rattled in her ears. She dragged herself upright, heart pounding. “Who who fired?”

No one answered.

Dante’s hand was suddenly at her elbow, steadying her. Too steady, too calm. “Relax, bella. If it had hit you, you’d know.”

Her voice shook with fury. “This isn’t a joke!”

“Nothing about you is a joke.” His gaze flicked to her scraped palms, his thumb brushing too close. “Except maybe how you keep throwing yourself in front of bullets.”

Mateo stormed closer, gun still drawn. “Get your hands off her!”

“Try and make me,” Dante shot back.

“I will ”

“Both of you, stop!” Bella screamed, shoving between them again. “You don’t even care who almost died?!”

The men hesitated. Just a fraction.

Then one of the Alvarez soldiers dragged someone forward a Marino grunt with a smoking pistol still clutched in his hand.

“Caught him,” the soldier growled.

The Marino thug spat blood onto the pavement, laughing through his split lip. “Trigger finger slipped. Happens.”

Dante’s eyes went dark. “I’ll deal with him myself.”

“No,” Mateo snapped. “He shot first. He’s ours.”

“Funny,” Dante sneered. “Last I checked, he wears my crest.”

Bella’s stomach dropped. Both families were seconds from tearing each other apart again this time with a scapegoat in the middle.

“Stop it!” she begged, voice cracking. “You’re arguing over who gets to kill him, when I just watched him almost shoot into a crowd!”

Her words hung in the air.

For once, neither man had a clever retort.

Dante finally broke the silence, his voice softer, more dangerous. “You’re right. Which means I’ll decide his punishment. Personally.”

He yanked the thug from Alvarez hands, dragging him forward by the collar.

“Dante,” Bella said quickly, catching his arm. “Don’t ”

He glanced down at her hand clutching him. And smirked. “What? Afraid I’ll get blood on your shoes?”

Her nails dug in. “Afraid you’ll prove my brother right about you.”

That landed. A flicker in his eyes anger, amusement, something else she couldn’t name.

He shoved the thug aside instead, snapping at his men. “Tie him up. He’ll keep.”

Then he looked at Bella again, deliberately ignoring Mateo. “You just saved his life, bella. Do you realize that?”

Her throat tightened. “I didn’t mean to.”

“Sure you did.” His grin returned, wicked. “Saints don’t bleed, right? But sinners like you? You’ll bleed for anyone.”

Mateo snapped. “That’s it ” He lunged, grabbing Bella’s arm, yanking her toward him. “We’re leaving. Now.”

Dante’s hand shot out, catching her other wrist.

She was caught between them, literally pulled in two directions her brother snarling, Dante smirking, their grips like shackles.

“Let her go,” Mateo growled.

“You first,” Dante purred.

Bella’s voice cracked with panic. “You’re going to rip my arms off!”

Neither man let go.

The tension spiraled tighter, tighter until headlights flared at the end of the block. A black SUV, tinted windows, barreling toward them.

Dante’s smirk vanished. “Shit.”

Mateo cursed. “Not mine.”

The SUV braked hard, doors flying open

Men in masks pouring out with assault rifles.

The first spray of bullets ripped the night open.

Glass shattered, headlights exploded, tires shrieked.

Bella screamed as sparks rained from the car beside her. Mateo yanked her down, dragging her against the asphalt. Dante was right there too, his grip steel on her other arm.

“Move!” Mateo barked.

“No cover!” Dante snapped back.

They both shoved at each other, both trying to pull her to their side while bullets carved the street like angry wasps.

Bella thrashed. “Let me go, you idiots!”

Another barrage sent chunks of concrete spraying. She coughed on dust, vision blurring.

Dante dragged her against the bumper of a black sedan, shielding her with his body. Mateo slammed in beside them, shoving at Dante’s shoulder.

“Get your filthy hands off her!” Mateo snarled.

Dante shot him a glare sharp enough to cut glass. “She’d already be dead if I had.”

“Don’t act like you give a damn!”

Bella shoved them both with what little space she had. “Shut up! Both of you! We’re under fire!”

As if to prove her point, another burst cracked the car windows above them, showering them in shards. Bella flinched, covering her head. Dante’s hand clamped protectively over her skull, forcing her down against his chest.

“Stay low, bella.” His voice was low, almost calm, like he was whispering in a church.

Her heart pounded against his suit. Too fast. Too close.

Mateo shoved Dante off her. “Don’t touch her!”

“Oh, for fuck’s sake,” Dante snapped, drawing his pistol with one hand while still shielding Bella with the other. “You’d rather argue than shoot back?”

Mateo whipped around the corner of the bumper and fired three rounds at the SUV. “I can do both!”

Bullets screamed back in answer, punching holes in the hood inches from Bella’s face. She clamped her hands over her ears, heart rattling like a trapped bird.

Dante leaned close, lips brushing her hairline as he aimed over her shoulder. “Look at this, bella. Your brother and I finally a team.”

“Go to hell,” she hissed.

He laughed under his breath and squeezed the trigger. The shot cracked so close her skin buzzed with it.

“Who the hell are they?” Mateo shouted, ducking down again.

Dante fired back, grim. “Not mine.”

“They sure as hell aren’t mine!”

Bella gasped. “So what, strangers with machine guns just decided to crash family night?!”

“Looks like it.” Dante grinned through the chaos, a feral glint in his eyes. “Guess we’re popular.”

Another round chewed through the car, sparks singeing the hem of Bella’s dress. She yelped and slapped at the smoke curling up her thigh.

Dante caught her wrist, smirking even in the madness. “Careful. I’m the only one allowed to set you on fire.”

“Are you insane?!” she shrieked.

“Probably.” He kissed the words like a confession, then popped up to unload another clip at the attackers.

Mateo’s fury nearly drowned out the gunfire. “You think this is funny?”

“I think it’s foreplay,” Dante shot back, ducking just as bullets screamed overhead.

Bella smacked his chest with both palms. “Stop flirting while we’re being shot at!”

He winked at her, maddeningly unbothered. “Multitasking.”

The SUV doors slammed shut. One masked man barked orders in a language Bella didn’t recognize. The gunfire shifted short, sharp bursts now, driving Alvarez and Marino men back into cover.

Mateo snarled. “They’re trying to box us in.”

“No,” Dante muttered, eyes narrowing as he peeked over the hood. “They’re trying to take something.”

Bella followed his gaze and froze.

A group of masked gunmen were hauling someone out of the shadows a Marino lieutenant, bound and gagged, shoved into the back of the SUV.

“Oh my God,” she breathed. “They’re kidnapping him.”

Dante’s voice was razor-sharp. “Not just him.”

Two more men were dragged one Alvarez soldier, one neutral-looking civilian in a torn suit.

“Shit.” Mateo’s knuckles whitened on his gun. “They’re taking hostages.”

The SUV engine roared, masked men piling back inside.

Dante’s grin turned feral. “Not if I stop them.”

He rose to his full height, ready to charge straight into the storm.

“Dante!” Bella’s scream tore from her throat.

He was already sprinting, dark suit cutting a stark figure in the blaze of headlights. Bullets sparked off the pavement around him, ricochets whining like angry bees.

“Idiot!” Mateo cursed, vaulting up from cover. He fired in bursts, trying to lay cover fire, teeth bared. “He’s going to get himself killed!”

Bella clutched at Mateo’s sleeve. “Stop him!”

“I’m trying!” Mateo yanked free, firing again. “Stay down, Bella!”

She couldn’t. Her body wouldn’t let her. Her heart was bolting after Dante, even as her brain screamed stay here. She scrambled upright, ignoring the glass slicing her palms, and bolted out from the car.

“Bella!” Mateo’s voice ripped through the chaos.

But she was already running.

Bullets whined past her ears. Her shoes slipped on broken glass, almost pitching her forward but Dante was just ahead, a wild streak of dark laughter in the storm.

He turned when he heard her, eyes flashing even as he ducked behind a smoking van. “What the hell are you doing?!”

She crashed into the metal beside him, chest heaving. “Stopping you from dying, you lunatic!”

His grin stretched, wicked even under fire. “You like me alive. Good to know.”

“Shut up!”

“Later.” He shoved a pistol into her hand, fingers curling over hers. His heat seared her even through the chaos. “Point, squeeze, don’t flinch.”

Her mouth dropped open. “I can’t shoot ”

“You’re Catholic, not pacifist. There’s a difference.”

She stared at the weapon, trembling, then at him. “If I kill someone ”

He leaned close, lips brushing her ear as another bullet sparked against the van. “Then welcome to the family, bella.”

The SUV roared louder, masked men shouting over one another as they shoved the captives deeper inside. One gunman spotted Dante and Bella crouched by the van, shouting orders in that same foreign tongue.

“Move!” Dante barked. He grabbed Bella’s waist, pulling her flat against him as he rolled them across the asphalt. The world spun metal slamming her back, his chest covering hers as bullets chewed the van above.

Her breath caught, his scent filling her nose gunpowder, cologne, sweat. Too close.

She shoved at him, face burning. “Get off me!”

“Tempting, but not the time.” He smirked, pushing off her just as Mateo came crashing in on the other side, gun blazing.

“Are you insane?!” Mateo roared, emptying his clip toward the SUV. “Dragging her into this?!”

“She followed me,” Dante shouted back, reloading without missing a beat. “Guess she prefers bad decisions.”

“I’ll kill you myself when this is over!”

“Get in line.”

Another scream ripped across the street one of the Alvarez soldiers going down in a spray of blood. Bella flinched, gun clattering from her hand.

Dante scooped it back up, shoving it into her grip again, forcing her fingers closed around it. “Hold it tighter.”

“I I can’t ”

“You can,” he growled, eyes locked to hers even as gunfire rained down. “You don’t freeze. Not you.”

Her throat tightened. His faith in her was terrifying and thrilling.

The SUV’s engine revved again. The masked men had almost piled inside, dragging the last hostage with them.

“Shit!” Mateo fired desperately, but the SUV began to lurch forward.

“They’re leaving,” Dante snapped. His hand clamped around Bella’s wrist again, tugging her hard. “Come on.”

“What?!” she gasped.

“We’re not letting them go!”

“You can’t be serious!”

He yanked her toward the SUV, a devil’s grin flashing as bullets screamed past. “Dead serious, bella. Either we stop them, or everyone in that car disappears forever.”