WHEN THE TWINS SCREAMED AT 3 A.M...

The garden was the only part of the Caruso estate that didn't feel like a mausoleum.

Surrounded by high, ivy-covered stone walls, it was a lush sanctuary of weeping willows, blooming hydrangeas, and a small, stone-paved courtyard where a fountain bubbled gently. High-resolution security cameras were hidden among the trees, their small red lights blinking silently, but Elise tried her best to ignore them.

Maisie and Rosie were running around the courtyard with small wooden buckets, searching for earthworms after the night’s rain. Their bright yellow rain boots made satisfying splat sounds against the wet cobblestones.

Elise sat on a wrought-iron bench, watching them carefully while sketching small animals in a leather-bound notebook.

"You're very good with them," a voice said.

Elise looked up, startled. Marco was standing near the arched stone entrance of the garden, holding a paper cup of coffee. Without his brutal demeanor, he looked like an exhausted grandfather.

"Thank you, Marco," Elise said, offering him a polite smile. "They're good kids. They're just lonely."

Marco walked over and sat on the far end of the bench, his joints popping slightly as he eased down. "Lonely isn't the half of it, Miss Navarro. They're terrified. Ever since Mrs. Caruso died... this place turned into a tomb. Reed built walls around himself, and then he built walls around them."

"How did she die?" Elise asked gently, knowing she was stepping onto dangerous ground. "If you don't mind me asking."

Marco stared at the fountain, his eyes dark with old memories. "Car bomb. Three years ago. It wasn't meant for her. It was meant for Reed. A rival family—the Morettis—were trying to take over the North Side turf. Reed was supposed to drive that car to a meeting. Kate took it to run an errand for the babies' nursery."

Elise felt a cold knot form in her stomach. "My God."

"Reed spent six months wiping the Moretti family off the map," Marco continued, his voice flat, devoid of emotion. "Every single one of them. He took total control of the city, built an empire out of pure revenge. But when the dust settled, he realized he had built a kingdom for a family that was half-gone. He doesn't know how to look at those girls without seeing Kate's face. It breaks him every single day."

Elise looked at the twins, who were currently giggling as Rosie showed Maisie a particularly fat worm. "So he pushes them away to protect himself."

"And to protect them," Marco added. "In our world, weakness is a death sentence. If our enemies see that Reed cares about something, they'll use it to bleed him. He thinks if he stays cold, if he keeps them at a distance, nobody can hurt them."

"That's not living," Elise said fiercely. "That's just waiting to die."

Marco looked at her, a strange, respecting light in his old eyes. "You've got a lot of fight in you, kid. Reminds me of Kate, honestly. She didn't care about the guns or the money either. She just wanted a home."

Before Elise could reply, a sudden, sharp crack echoed through the air.

It wasn't lightning. It was the distinct, high-pitched snap of a suppressed rifle shot.

A second later, the stone fountain in the center of the garden exploded, sending shards of marble and water flying into the air.

Maisie screamed.

"DOWN!" Marco roared, his old body moving with terrifying speed. He yanked a heavy semi-automatic pistol from beneath his coat and tackled Elise and the girls behind the solid stone bench just as a hail of bullets ripped through the air, shredding the hydrangeas and shattering the garden lamps.

Elise didn't think. Instinct took over. She wrapped her body entirely around Maisie and Rosie, shielding them with her own torso, pressing their faces hard against her chest as dust, glass, and leaves rained down around them.

"Stay down! Don't move!" Marco shouted into a walkie-talkie on his shoulder. "Code Red! Code Red at the east garden! We have snipers on the ridge! Sec-!"

His radio was cut off as a bullet tore through his shoulder, forcing him back against the wall with a grunt of pain. Blood instantly soaked through his gray suit jacket.

"Marco!" Elise cried out.

"I'm fine! Keep them covered!" Marco gritted out through clenched teeth, raising his pistol with his left hand and firing blindly over the bench toward the high perimeter wall.

The screaming of the girls was deafening, terrified, sharp, and hopeless. Maisie was clawing at Elise’s sweater, her small body trembling violently.

Then, the heavy oak doors leading from the house to the garden burst open with explosive force.

Reed Caruso strode out into the kill zone.

He wore no body armor, no helmet. In his hands was an automatic rifle, his face twisted into a mask of pure, demonic fury. He didn't take cover. He stood in the open, bringing the rifle to his shoulder and opening fire with lethal, terrifying precision toward the trees beyond the wall.

"COVER THE WEST FLANK!" Reed roared, his voice cutting through the gunfire as a dozen heavily armed guards poured into the garden behind him, returning fire with massive force.

Within thirty seconds, the shooting stopped, replaced by the heavy hum of distant sirens and the smell of ozone and gunpowder.

Reed tossed the empty rifle to a guard and sprinted toward the stone bench. His suit was covered in dirt, his eyes wide and frantic as he dropped to his knees in front of Elise and the girls.

"Are they hit? Are they hit?!" he demanded, his hands hovering over his daughters, trembling with a frantic, uncharacteristic desperation.

"They're okay, they're okay!" Elise panted, her face flushed, her own arms shaking as she slowly unshielded the girls. "I kept them covered. They aren't hurt!"

Reed reached out, pulling both tiny girls into his broad chest, crushing them against his suit, burying his face in their soft hair. "God... thank God," he breathed, his voice cracking, entirely stripped of the cold mafia boss persona.

Maisie sobbed, her arms wrapping around her father's neck, while Rosie buried her face in his shoulder.

Reed raised his eyes, looking directly at Elise.

She was bleeding. A piece of flying stone had grazed her temple, sending a thin trickle of crimson down her cheek. But her eyes were clear, fierce, and entirely focused on making sure the children were safe.

Reed looked at the blood on her face, then at his safe, breathing daughters. Something shattered inside him—a wall that had stood for three long, lonely years.

He reached out a gloved hand, his long fingers gently touching the side of her face, his thumb softly brushing away the blood from her temple.

"You saved them," Reed whispered, his pale gray eyes burning with an emotion so intense, so raw, that Elise felt her breath catch in her throat.