The Shy Waitress Greeted the Mafia Boss’s Father in Perfect Sicilian—The Room Went Silent The old man insulted me in a language nobody at his table understood.

"Dante!" I screamed in the dark hallway.

The elevator doors pinged open. Emergency lights flickered on.

Dante stumbled out of the vault room. The black ledger was still clutched in his left hand.

His right hand was pressed hard against his side. Dark red blood was seeping through his fingers, staining his sweater.

He had been shot.

"Get in," Dante grunted, shoving me into the elevator and slamming his bloody hand against the basement button.

The doors closed just as Salvatore’s guards burst into the hall.

We descended rapidly. Dante leaned against the steel wall, breathing heavily, his face turning pale.

"You took a bullet for me," I whispered, my hands hovering over his bleeding side, terrified to hurt him worse.

"He was going to kill you," Dante gasped, his eyes locking onto mine. "I couldn't let him. I wouldn't let him."

We reached the underground parking garage. Dante’s private security detail was waiting.

Seeing their boss bleeding, they instantly drew weapons.

"Drive," Dante ordered, tossing the ledger into the back of a black SUV. "Safe house. Not the estate."

"Leo is at the estate!" I panicked, grabbing his good arm.

"My mother is with Leo," Dante coughed, wincing in pain. "She hates my father more than anyone. Salvatore won't touch the boy while she breathes. We need to disappear."

We sped through the city, losing Salvatore's men in the morning traffic.

Forty minutes later, we pulled into a dilapidated, abandoned warehouse on the edge of the docks.

Inside, it was a high-tech fortress.

Dante collapsed onto a leather sofa in the command room.

I grabbed the med-kit his head of security, Marco, handed me.

My hands shook violently as I cut Dante’s sweater away. The bullet had grazed his ribs, tearing through the flesh but missing the vital organs.

"It hurts," Dante managed a weak smile as I poured antiseptic over the wound.

"It's supposed to," I said sharply, though tears were streaming down my face. "You lied to me. For seven months."

Dante caught my wrist with his bloody hand.

"I lied about knowing your grandfather," Dante admitted, his dark eyes incredibly vulnerable. "I lied about why I gave you the best tables. But I never lied about how I felt when I looked at you."

I froze, the bloody gauze in my hand.

"You were the bravest, most beautiful thing in that restaurant," Dante whispered. "I fell in love with you, Nora. Long before my father ever told me about the ledger."

My breath hitched.

"You can't love me," I said, a tear slipping down my cheek. "Your family destroyed mine."

"And I will destroy my family for you," Dante promised, his grip tightening. "I will dismantle my father's empire. I will hand the ledger to the feds myself. I will clear your grandfather's name, and I will make sure Leo never has to run."

He let go of my wrist and touched my cheek.

"Let me fix this. Let me earn you."

Before I could answer, the heavy steel doors of the warehouse violently rattled.

Marco ran into the room, his face pale.

"Boss," Marco said tightly. "They found us."

I looked at the security monitors.

Outside, five black SUVs had surrounded the warehouse.

Standing in the rain, holding an umbrella and a suppressed pistol, was Paul.