Garden of Roses ✔️

Chapter 20

Dante

Everything was going fine. It was going smoothly and according to plan. And then she had to do something. She must've had silent alarms that notified her of our presence, and we didn't even know it.

As Camilla and I get closer to the house, I almost have a heart attack.

She is standing behind the couch and helping Alex from the other side of the room, not paying attention to what is happening behind her back. The woman with chestnut red/brown hair successfully dodges Bianca's knife and raises her gun to her head. Only then does she turn around. By the time she does so, it's already too late for her to do anything about it.

The part of a second it takes me to raise my gun and point it at the woman's head feels like an eternity. Luckily, the woman hesitates for a second, not pulling the trigger, which gives me the time to shoot her, without hesitating.

When her body falls to the ground, I finally let out a breath that made my lungs burn.

Okay, she's safe now. She's fine.

"Amore... I thought you could take care of yourself," I say, putting on a fake smile to seem nonchalant when in reality, the thought of her being killed by that woman knocked all the air out of my lungs.

She is completely unimpressed by my comment and doesn't give me much of a reaction.

I don't care. At least she's alive.

Camilla and I look around the destroyed spacious room to note the damage. At first, I see only the bodies of our enemies. They are all dead, and it makes me a little happy and proud at the moment. Not that I would ever tell them that.

Then, I notice the bodies of our people. A lot of them are dead, and much more of them than the enemies.

I see Alex on the floor, fighting for air while he practically chokes on blood. Carlo can barely stand. Every inch of his body is covered with cuts, and his left shoulder looks dislocated. Bianca seems almost fine, leaving out the gunshot wound in her arm that is bleeding extensively and a broken nose.

And her... her head is bleeding, and I can see the little shards of glass sticking out of her skin, letting her blood drip slowly down her arms and collarbone.

The scene before me forces me to completely lose it.

They won, they defeated Isabella's assassins. But at what cost? A lot of them are dead, and even more are heavily wounded.

I feel the rage in the pit of my stomach. It's starting to spread all over my body in waves like a wildfire. My fists and my jaw clench and every muscle in my body tenses as the fury radiates from my body.

"I want her brought to me. Now!"

Camilla isn't in a much better state than I am. She doesn't use her words, but she doesn't even have to. Her whole body is shaking, and I know exactly what is going through her head. She wants to skin Isabella alive, and I can't blame her.

"Lorenzo, bring the snipers," Camilla orders as if she's reading my mind.

"All of them?"

"Leave two of them to watch if she gets out," she replies with zero emotion in her voice.

"Understood," Lorenzo says and we hear him command the snipers to carefully get down from the trees and follow him. Camilla runs to Carlo to ask him if he's okay and pops his shoulder back in place. His face turns into an agonizing grimace. He lets out a painful hiss as she readjusts his bones.