Chapter 3 - Blood on the White Marble
By week three, our routine had morphed into a quiet, intense war of wills.
Every day was a battle. I pushed Massimo until sweat drenched his shirt, forcing him through passive range-of-motion drills, electrical muscle stimulation, and grueling core stabilization exercises. He cursed me in smooth, violent Italian, but he never told me to stop. In fact, he demanded more.
"Again," he growled, his face pale with exertion as he held himself upright on the parallel bars in his private gym, his thick arms trembling under the weight of his entire upper body.
"That's twenty reps, Massimo," I said, standing right beside him with my hands hovered near his hips, ready to catch him if his strength gave out. "Your neural pathways need rest to recover."
"I don't care about rest," he snapped, his dark hair plastered to his forehead. "My family is eating itself alive while I sit in this damned chair. My underbosses think I'm weak. Dominic Rossi is moving on our eastern docks."
"If you blow out your lower lumbar nerves today, Rossi won't even need to fight you," I retorted, placing my hands firmly on his chest. "Sit down. Now."
He glared at me, but the sheer physical exhaustion won out. He let himself drop into the leather chair behind him, chest heaving. I grabbed a white towel and handed it to him, but instead of taking it, he caught my wrist, pulling me down slightly until I was eye-level with him.
"You don't back down, do you?" he murmured, his gaze dropping to my lips before rising back to my eyes.
"Not when I'm right," I said, my heart taking an extra beat at his sudden proximity.
Before he could answer, the frosted glass doors of the gymnasium shattered into a million exploding shards.
CRACK! CRACK! CRACK!
The sharp, deafening thunder of suppressed gunfire ripped through the room. Glass rained down like diamond dust.
"DOWN!" Massimo roared.
In a split second, despite his paralyzed legs, Massimo grabbed the collar of my scrubs and dragged me down across his lap, rolling his wheelchair back behind the reinforced steel body of the leg press machine. He threw his massive frame over mine, completely shielding my body with his own.
Outside the gym, shout and heavy boots echoed down the hallway, followed by the deep, chaotic booms of shotgun blasts.
"Massimo!" I gasped, my face pressed against the warmth of his chest, my hands clutching his shoulders. "What is that?!"
"An intrusion," he said, his voice dropping into an eerily calm, terrifying register. He reached under his leather chair cushion and pulled out a heavy silver 9mm handgun I hadn't known was there. He flicked the safety off with a soft click.
The door swung open, and a gunman dressed in black tactical gear stepped through, raising a submachine gun.
Massimo didn't hesitate. He raised his arm, fired twice, and the intruder collapsed onto the white marble floor with a heavy, final thud. Blood pooled instantly across the pristine tile.
I let out a ragged breath, my body trembling violently.
Massimo brought his hand to the side of my face, his calloused thumb wiping a tiny drop of sweat from my temple. "Look at me, Tessa," he commanded softly, using my first name for the very first time. "Look at my eyes."
I forced myself to stare at him, drowning out the shouting guards outside.
"I won't let them touch you," he swore, his voice a low, fierce vow that vibrated through my chest. "You're safe with me."
Ten minutes later, the estate guards cleared the building. Three hitmen hired by the Rossi family had breached the outer perimeter, taking advantage of a gap in the security shift.
As the guards dragged the bodies away, Massimo’s younger brother, Dante, rushed into the gym, holding a blood-stained pistol. Dante was slick, handsome, and always wore a smile that didn't reach his eyes.
"Massimo! Are you alright?" Dante yelled, looking around the gym before his gaze landed on me, still sitting on the floor beside Massimo's chair, my hands bloody from sweeping glass off my knees.
"The perimeter was compromised, Dante," Massimo said, his eyes narrowing into cold slits. "How did four armed men get past the front gate without a silent alarm?"
"We're looking into it," Dante said quickly, his eyes darting to me. "Maybe the nurse left a side door unlocked? She goes back and forth to her car every evening."
My head snapped up. "What? I haven't left the main wing since yesterday!"
Massimo didn't even look at his brother. He aimed the heavy silver pistol directly at Dante’s chest.
"If you ever accuse Tessa again to cover your own security failures, Dante," Massimo said, his tone icy enough to freeze fire, "I won't care that we share the same blood. Get out of my sight and fix the gate."
Dante went pale, swallowed hard, and backed out of the room without another word.
May you like
When we were alone again, I looked up at Massimo, my chest tight. "He tried to frame me."
"He tried to shift the blame," Massimo corrected, reaching down and pulling me up into his arms, setting me gently onto his lap. "Because he knows if anything happens to you, I will burn this entire city to the ground."
