His Tesoro: An Arranged Marriage Age Gap Mafia Romance (Empire of Royals Book 1)
His Tesoro: Chapter 67

A strangled sound left me as the breath was knocked from my lungs and something hard landed on my legs. I blinked through the dust filling the room and saw a large chunk of concrete from the blown-apart wall pinning me to the ground. I could wiggle my toes so I didn’t think anything was broken, but I couldn’t move from underneath it.

I turned my head, desperate to catch a glimpse of Sofiya. I shuddered in relief when I saw her about ten feet away, covered in dust but seemingly unharmed.

“Sofiya, love, are you alright?”

She coughed and wiped her face with her sleeve. “I’m okay. Are you?”

“Yes, just stuck here.”

She nodded and tried to push herself up to a standing position, but fell back to the floor.

I winced as her knees hit the ground. “Be careful,” I growled.

She rolled her eyes. “Still bossy as ever.” She chewed her lip as she looked at the large hole in the wall. “Who set off the explosion?”

Before I could answer, there was a loud shout. At first, all I could see through the gaping hole was a flash of green and blue from the outside. But then Rustik appeared, surrounded by his men.

I locked eyes with Sofiya. “Run!” I mouthed.

I tried to move the concrete off my legs but couldn’t shift it. I grew more frantic as my wife moved closer to where I was instead of across the room to the exit. She positioned herself behind a twisted metal beam that must have fallen from the ceiling. There was a gun in her hands, and I realized she meant to stay and fight.

“Tesoro, no, you can’t do this. Get out of here,” I hissed.

She ignored me and peered around the chunk of rubble, the gun held tightly in her hand. Fuck, why hadn’t I taught her to shoot? I felt around for my gun, but all I could feel were bits of rock and glass. It had flown from my hands in the explosion, so now I was minutes away from death, and so was my wife.

Rustik’s men shouted as they navigated the piles of rubble. The rattle of gunshots filled the room as one of his guards took aim at me. The cement blocks around me deflected most of the bullets, but then a line of fire burst through my thigh and I knew I’d been hit.

I gazed back at Sofiya. She would be the last thing I saw before I died. I drank her in greedily, memorizing the way she brushed her tangled hair out of her face, the determined set of her jaw, the steady way her hands wrapped around the gun. Her determination was contagious, and it filled my chest. I refused to believe my tesoro would die today. As the life bled out of my body, I would trust that she would make it. Reinforcements would arrive in time for her if only she would run.

“Sofiya, please, run, hide. Don’t do this, please.” I was the Bratva’s intended target, not her. Rustik would gain nothing by killing his daughter, but if she stayed, she could become collateral damage.

Sofiya ignored me and aimed her gun before pressing the trigger and firing off shot after shot. Bullets pinged off the metal beam she was hiding behind, but she didn’t flinch. Her shots looked effortless, and while I didn’t turn my head to see if any of them landed, my breath caught at how magnificent she looked.

Screams joined the smell of gunpowder and blood in the air. With each beat of my heart, I prayed to a God I didn’t believe in that Sofiya would be spared.

My ears rang as all grew silent. A look of pure rage transformed Sofiya’s face. She tried to push to her feet, but her strength failed her. “Rustik!” she screamed. “Come back and face me, you coward! Coward!” She screamed something in Russian and then let out a string of curses.

My heart was beating so fast I thought it would explode with terror. Any moment now, I would see the light leaving my wife’s eyes, knowing it was all my fault.

There was a thud of fading footsteps, the sound of crunching rubble, and then silence. Confusion filled me. Where were the other men? I broke my promise to not look away from Sofiya and painfully turned my head towards the opening in the wall. Bodies littered the ground, blood soaking the ruined floor.

They were all dead.

“I told you I could shoot.” Sofiya met my gaze with a cocky tilt to her head before slowly pointing her gun at me. “You’re the one who doubted me.”

My lips parted. Had she really taken all of them out? A dozen men on her own? She was a better shot than me, than any of my men.

“God, tesoro, you’ve never looked so beautiful.” I smiled as I eyed the barrel of the gun. “Are you going to kill me now? I deserve it.”

“I haven’t decided yet,” she said. Then her eyes flitted to the blood pooling under my leg, and her lip started trembling. “No,” she gasped.

“It’s okay.” My body was growing cold and numb, and I knew I didn’t have long before the blood loss forced me unconscious. “I can go now, knowing you’ll be okay.”

“No,” she repeated, shaking her head as her voice hitched. She lowered the gun to the floor and started crawling towards me.

“Tesoro, no,” I begged. I tried to move, tried to do anything to stop her, but my limbs weren’t responding. “Sofiya, please, stop.”

Shattered bits of glass littered the ground and my perfect, precious wife was dragging herself through it to get to me.

“I thought you were just stuck,” she said as she reached me. “I didn’t see…” A tear escaped her eye and it broke my heart. I had enough strength to brush my fingers against her arm and it was like heaven, just to feel her again for the last time.

“I’m so sorry,” I said. “I’m so sorry for hurting you and for failing to protect you. You are so precious. I love you so much.” My words came out slurred.

Her hands landed on my thigh, keeping pressure on the wound, but I could barely feel them.

“I swear to God, Matteo, you will not die on me.” Tears dripped down her cheeks and I wanted to kiss them away. I hadn’t truly recognized what a treasure she was until it was too late.

“After all the shit of these past few days, I will never forgive you if you leave us alone,” she snarled. She stripped off her shirt and used it to keep pressure on my wound. “You have to be here for me.” Her voice broke as she added, “And the baby.”

Her words floated to me through the air, landing softly on my mind as I faded from the world.