Chapter 33 The ride to the Council chambers is tense, sirens wailing as our convoy races through the city. Sofia sits rigid beside me, monitoring radio chatter about Viktor's ongoing presentation. "How long has he been speaking?" she asks Marco through comms. "Ninety minutes," comes the reply. "The DeLucas are holding their ground, but some of the smaller families are starting to waver. Viktor's evidence is...compelling." "It would be," Sofia mutters, jaw tight. "Lorenzo's been building it for years." I catch her hand, squeezing once. "We'll make it." "We have to." Her eyes are fierce, determined. "Whatever it takes." Behind us, Lorenzo and James are secured in the second vehicle under heavy guard-zip-tied, bleeding, but alive to face justice. I made sure of that personally. The Council building looms ahead, its classical columns lit against the night sky. Through the tall windows, I can see the packed chamber, Viktor commanding attention at the podium while Council members lean forward, absorbed by his presentation. "Ready?" I ask as our vehicles screech to a halt. Sofia checks her concealed weapons one final time. "Let's go save my family." The Council chamber erupts into chaos as we burst through the main doors. Viktor stands at the podium, interrupted mid-speech about the Renaldi family's supposed crimes, financial records and surveillance photos displayed on screens behind him. His face when he sees Sofia-alive, free, and very much not the broken victim he expected-drains of color. "Impossible," he breathes, gripping the podium. "The warehouse-Lorenzo confirmed⁠-" "Lorenzo lied." Sofia's voice carries across the chamber with measured calm. "Just like he's been lying to all of you for thirty-five years." We move in perfect coordination, Sofia beside me as Marco's team secures the exits and herds the panicking Council members to safety. Every movement flows together like we've been partners our entire lives. "The evidence against your family is irrefutable!" Viktor recovers quickly, gesturing at the damning displays behind him. "Financial crimes, unauthorized operations, systematic⁠-" "Is fake," Sofia interrupts, pulling out a data drive and holding it up for all to see. "Unlike the proof of what you and Lorenzo have really been doing. The auction houses. The trafficking network. The systematic campaign to frame multiple families." She tosses the drive onto the Council table where it lands with a small click that somehow echoes through the suddenly silent chamber. Viktor's remaining security detail-hidden throughout the chamber-choose that moment to reveal themselves. The ancient chamber transforms into a war zone as muzzle flashes strobe from behind marble columns, ornate balconies, and concealed positions throughout the hall. I return fire automatically, taking down the shooter positioned behind the eastern columns while Sofia drops another emerging from behind the Council seats. Bullets spark off marble, sending stone chips flying like shrapnel. The beautiful stained-glass windows shatter in cascades of colored light, raining down on cowering Council members. Everything's chaos. Sofia's somewhere to my left-I hope. "Sofia!" I shout over the gunfire. "You okay?" A bullet sparks off the pillar next to my head. Shit. I fire back, but I have no idea if I'm hitting anything. It's a deadly ballet, perfectly synchronized. Everything we've trained for, everything we've survived, distilled into this moment. "Marco, movement on your left!" Sofia calls out, spotting a threat emerging from a concealed doorway. He spins toward the danger, weapon rising, but Viktor's sniper-positioned in the upper gallery with a clear sight line-fires first. The shot echoes through the chamber with sickening finality. Marco's body jerks as the bullet tears through his chest, just left of center mass. For a split second, he stands frozen, looking down at the spreading crimson stain across his white shirt with something like surprise. Then his knees buckle and he collapses, hitting the marble floor with a sound that cuts through all the gunfire. "Marco!" Sofia's scream tears from her throat, raw and animalistic. It's not just fear-it's the sound of something breaking inside her. She breaks from our formation without hesitation, sprinting across open ground toward her fallen brother as bullets whine past her head. Terror like I've never felt before slams into my chest. Not for myself, but for watching her run through that deadly crossfire, watching her throw herself down beside Marco's motionless form. Blood is everywhere-soaking through his shirt, pooling on the pristine marble, staining Sofia's hands as she presses them frantically against the wound. "No, no, no," she chants desperately, applying pressure while checking his pulse with shaking fingers. "You don't get to leave me. Not like this. Not ever." Marco's breathing is shallow, labored. Each exhale produces a small bubble of blood at the corner of his mouth. His eyes flutter, unfocused, skin going pale from blood loss. I lay down heavy covering fire, emptying clip after clip to keep Viktor's men pinned while Sofia works. But I can see the panic building in her movements, the way her training is warring with pure terror. This isn't just any casualty-this is her brother, her protector, the man whom she looks up to. "Stay with me, big brother," she pleads, her voice breaking. Blood seeps between her fingers despite her pressure. "Don't you dare leave me. We just got through all this. We just⁠-" Her voice cracks into sobs, but she doesn't stop working. Checking vitals, adjusting pressure, trying everything she knows while bullets fly overhead. The sight of her like that-desperate, terrified, covered in her brother's blood-makes something primal and violent rise in my chest. The kind of rage that makes men do stupid, heroic things. The kind that makes them burn the world down for the people they love. "Behind you!" I shout as James appears in the upper gallery, weapon trained directly on Sofia's crouched form. He must have broken free during the convoy's arrival-blood seeps through his shirt where Sofia cut him, but his aim is steady. "You really should have stayed in your cage, princess," he calls down with cold satisfaction. "It'd have saved everyone a lot of trouble." Sofia doesn't even look up from Marco, just shifts her body to better shield him while maintaining pressure on his wound. She's choosing her brother's life over her own safety, and it's going to get her killed. Before I can get a clear shot, Lorenzo staggers into view beside him, clutching his wounded shoulder but still armed. His face is twisted with rage and madness, the careful mask of the family friend finally stripped away completely. "Enough!" Lorenzo's voice cracks with fury. "I will not be defeated by an ungrateful child! By the spoiled brat I helped raise!" More of Viktor's men emerge from concealed positions, sensing their chance to end this. The chamber fills with the deafening roar of automatic weapons as both sides unleash everything they have. I move like a man possessed, advancing through the hailstorm of bullets with single-minded determination. Every shot I fire is for Sofia, for Marco, for the family that took me in and made me whole. The marble columns around me explode under concentrated fire, filling the air with dust and debris. Sofia finally looks up from Marco, her face streaked with tears and blood, and for a moment our eyes meet across the chaos. In that look, I see everything-her fear, her determination, her absolute trust that I'll protect them both. "That's where you're wrong, Uncle." Her voice cuts through the gunfire, steady despite her tears. "You never raised me. You just taught me exactly what I never wanted to become." She draws her sidearm with one hand while keeping pressure on Marco's wound with the other, firing blind over her shoulder at James's position. It's an impossible shot, but somehow she clips him, sending him stumbling back with a curse. The battle reaches a fever pitch as a DeLuca backup sniper-positioned on the opposite balcony-finally gets a clear shot at James. The traitorous security chief crumples without another word, his weapon clattering to the marble floor below. Lorenzo spins toward the new threat, firing wildly, his wounded state making him clumsy. More of Viktor's men converge on our position, but they're fighting desperate people now. People with everything to lose. Sofia and I become something beyond human in that moment-a force of nature unleashed in marble halls. When Viktor himself tries to escape through a side exit, Sofia's shot takes him in the leg, sending him sprawling. My follow-up shot ensures he won't be running anywhere again. The remaining gunmen make their final push, emerging from cover in a coordinated assault. But they're facing Marco's men now-men who've been protecting the Renaldi family for decades, fighting not just for duty but for love. Lorenzo, desperate and bleeding, makes one final play-pulling a grenade from his jacket with his good hand, madness gleaming in his eyes. "If I can't have this family's empire," he snarls, "then no one can!" The explosion, when it comes, isn't from his grenade. It's from the flash-bang Marco's team throws through the upper windows. In the mayhem of blinding light and deafening noise, our people systematically take down Lorenzo's remaining forces. When the smoke clears and my vision returns, Lorenzo lies motionless on the gallery floor, brought down by the very chaos he tried to create. Viktor writhes on the ground, clutching his wounded leg, completely neutralized. Marco's still unconscious, still bleeding, but his chest rises and falls steadily. "We need medical!" Sofia's voice cracks as she maintains pressure on his wound. "Now!" Matteo DeLuca appears at our side, his expensive suit torn from the firefight, concern etched deep in his sharp face. "I've got people outside," he says tersely, already activating his comm device. "Medical team, emergency entry, Council chambers. Marco Renaldi down, GSW to the chest." Mario kneels beside Sofia, adding his pressure to the wound with practiced efficiency. "Marco has seen worse," he tells her, though his eyes are worried. "He's strong. Stubborn as hell, just like a certain Renaldi girl I know." "Already responding," comes the voice through Matteo's comm. "Paramedics entering the building now." I gather Sofia close as the medical team rushes in, letting her bury her face in my chest while they work on Marco. She's trembling-not with fear, but with the energy crash that follows mortal combat. "He'll be okay," I whisper into her hair, watching the paramedics efficiently stabilize Marco's condition. "You have to believe that he will be okay." But even as I say it, I can't shake the image of Sofia crouched over Marco's bleeding form, choosing his life over her own safety without hesitation. The way she looked so small and terrified and utterly determined to save him. It's a reminder, beyond any doubt, that I would do anything for this woman. Burn down the world, tear apart empires, face any enemy-anything to keep that kind of anguish from her face ever again. "Don't leave me," she says softly as they prepare to load Marco into the ambulance. Her hand finds mine, grip desperate. "Never," I promise, helping her into the back of the ambulance. "We face everything together now." But first, we turn to the Council-still assembled, still watching, having witnessed Viktor's conspiracy unfold in real time. "The evidence on that drive," Sofia says to the Council leader, her voice carrying despite her exhaustion, "contains everything. Lorenzo's communications with Viktor, the financial transfers, the systematic campaign to frame multiple families. All of it." The elderly man nods gravely. "We'll convene an emergency session to review everything. The Renaldi family's honor will be restored." Only then does Sofia allow herself to collapse into my arms as we race toward the hospital. As we follow the ambulance through the city streets, I hold her hand and pray to whoever's listening that we haven't traded one victory for an even greater loss. Because some prices are too high. Even for justice. In a romance-themed observation show, several participants undergo a series of interactions and conflicts filled with love, misunderstandings, and power struggles. In the end, one couple rises to over...