Chapter 7 - THE CONFRONTATION IN THE CABIN
He reached her in three massive strides.
He didn't look at the black case. He didn't look at her gun. He dropped to his knees in the freezing snow, his hands—shaking, warm, and desperate—reaching out to frame her pale, blood-stained face.
"You're hit," he breathed, his voice cracking with an emotion she had never heard from him in seven years of marriage. "God, Vivien... you're hit."
"Don't touch me," she spat, struggling to raise the gun to his chest. Her hands were shivering so violently she could barely hold the grip. "Step back, Matteo. I’ll kill you. I swear to God I’ll shoot you."
Matteo didn't move back. Instead, he leaned forward, pressing his forehead directly against the barrel of her revolver.
"Then pull it," he whispered, his grey eyes burning with a dark, painful intensity. "Pull the trigger, Viv. If you're going to leave me, if you're going to tear down everything I built, do it yourself. Shoot me."
Vivien stared at him. The man who had commanded two hundred murderers with a nod of his head was kneeling in the snow, weeping, his life resting completely on her trembling index finger.
Her finger tightened on the trigger. Her heart thundered in her chest.
Shoot him, a voice inside her shouted. End it.
But as she looked into his eyes, she saw no arrogance. No vanity. No Don Vescari. She saw only Matteo—the man who had held her hand in the hospital when her father died, the man she had loved before the blood and money had turned him into a monster.
Her arm collapsed. The gun dropped into the snow.
Matteo didn't hesitate. He scooped her up into his arms, carrying her easily against his chest, and ran toward the idling pickup truck where Paul Torrino was holding the passenger door open.
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"We have to go!" Paul yelled, firing a warning burst into the trees. "Camillo’s main strike team is ten minutes behind us!"
Matteo slid into the back seat, holding Vivien tight against his chest, wrapping his heavy cashmere coat around her shivering body. "Drive!" he roared at Paul. "To the lake house! Move!"
