The Mafia Boss Watched His Dead Fiancée Walk Into Her Own Funeral... Until the Woman With Her Face Revealed Who Had Really Put Her in the Casket

The silence in the study was absolute, save for the rhythmic crash of lake waves against the concrete seawall outside.

Gabriel slowly released his grip on Vincenzo’s lapels, letting the enforcer slide down a few inches before shoving him back onto his heels. Vincenzo straightened his ruined suit jacket with trembling hands, glaring with pure, unadulterated venom.

"You think getting the flash drive saves you?" Gabriel asked quietly, pulling a handkerchief from his pocket to wipe imaginary dirt from his hands. "You just signed your brother's death warrant."

"Dante is expecting me," Vincenzo spat, backing toward the door with his guards flanking him. "If I'm not out of this county by midnight, federal prosecutors get every financial ledger from here to Zurich. You touch us, Gabriel, and you burn with us."

They backed out of the room, the heavy oak doors slamming shut behind them with a definitive thud.

I turned to Gabriel, my heart pounding against my ribs like a caged animal. "He's leading us into an ambush."

"Obviously," Gabriel replied, walking over to the desk and picking up his Sig Sauer pistol, checking the magazine with practiced ease. "Dante wants to draw me out of this estate. He thinks if he lures me to the 4th Street warehouse, he can wipe out the Donatelli leadership in one clean strike."

"Then we don't go," I said, stepping in front of him. "We let the feds handle it. We give them the evidence we already have."

Gabriel looked down at me, his gray eyes softening just a fraction. "Federal judges can be bought, Lauren. Police departments can be bribed. The only justice my city understands is written in blood and finalized in lead. Your sister died because she thought she could fight these monsters with a camera. I am going to finish what she started."

"And what about me?" I demanded. "Am I just supposed to sit here in this glass cage while you walk into a slaughterhouse?"

Gabriel reached out, his warm, calloused fingers gripping my chin, forcing me to look him in the eye.

"You are going to help me," he said.