Ray burst through the gate of the Russo estate in an SUV and skidded to a stop out front as guards rushed to block the entrance.

"You vile little punk. Floyd, Samuel, get your asses out here right now!" Ray yelled at them as his men filed in all around him, with dozens of cars parked at the front, and more coming in.

The guards looked at each other and backed away from the daunting army approaching them.

"If you don't release my granddaughter and underboss in the next five minutes, we're storming in to find them ourselves." Ray looked to Ran. "Lead a few around back."

"Sir!" Ran headed off.

"Are we really going to wait that long?" Herald, one of his capos, asked him. "Doesn't that give him time to do something to them?"

"Have you seen the army we brought? They'd be fools to do anything other than bring them out here in their present condition." Ray kept his eyes on the entrance, gritting his teeth. Something caught his attention out of the corner of his eye. Floyd in the second-floor window.

Floyd noticed him staring, and his eyes widened. He waved his hands around, hoping Ray would understand that it wasn't his idea. Unable to take his gaze any longer, Floyd sat down and hid.

"Time's up." Ray pointed his gun at the nearest guard. "Go find my granddaughter!" he commanded his men.

The guard reached for his gun, and Ray shot him in the chest.

His men yelled as they charged forward. The guards who had been standing around in confusion were easily overthrown and tied up.

The front doors burst open, and shots fired into their army. Some of them returned fire right away, others moved to cover first, but all of them were ready for the fight.

Ray kept his eyes peeled for Samuel. "Not going to come out?" Ray sighed. "I guess I'll have to come to you." A dark glint in his eyes, he stalked into the mansion past both his and enemy men who stayed out of his way. The few who tried were swiftly deatl with and were lucky if they survived.

A man on a mission, his eyes went straight to one of Samuel's upper capos. He'd seen them together a number of times. "You!" Ray rushed towards him and slammed him into the wall. "Where's my granddaughter? Where's Samuel?"

"I'd never tell you." The man spit at him. "Ah!" he yelped in pain as Ray smacked him across the face with his gun.

Ray pressed his gun against the man's shoulder, ready to pull the trigger. "Let's try this again, you little punk. Your only hope of self-preservation is to tell me where he is. If you don't, I'm going to make your life a living hell. Starting with your shoulder."

"No need; I'm right here." Samuel showed up in the door to the hallway.

Ray turned, dragging Samuel's capo with him. "Where is my granddaughter?!" Ray growled. No matter how much he wanted to stay calm, his blood was boiling too much to keep it in.

Samuel laughed. "Might want to tone it down, old man, or you'll give yourself a heart attack."

Ray took a deep breath and pointed his gun at Samuel, figuring his capo wasn't enough leverage. "How about we stop with this silly fight, and you give me my granddaughter back before this turns into a real bloodbath?"

Samuel laughed. "But a bloodbath is exactly what I want! And you are the expert, aren't you?"

"Tch... I'm not that person anymore."

"Well, that is a shame. I suppose I'll get rid of you now and take over your area."

"You think my family will fall apart without me? They know what to do—"

"Even if your underboss is gone, too?" Samuel pouted as he tipped his head, mocking Ray.

"What have you done to him?"

Samuel shrugged. "Does it matter? You won't live long enough to find out. I will tell you this, though, that pretty little granddaughter of yours is already mine, and she will be the key to taking over your family, since you already made her your heiress. What's yours will soon be all mine." He burst out laughing.

Bang.

A shot whizzed by Samuel, grazing his face. Blood dripped down from the cut, and he licked it.

"You started it!" Samuel cheered and shot at Ray, hitting his own man.

"You're insane! Don't you care at all about your own men?" Ray kept a hold of the man as he coughed up blood. Ray whistled to grab the attention of the men around them. "Your so-called boss doesn't give a damn about any of you, so you might want to re-think fighting my family because of him."

"What are all of you stopping for? You know why I'm doing this. You know the end goal. Fight with your life!" Samuel shot his capo again, and then he turned towards one of his other men nearby. "Shoot at Ray, or I'll shoot you."

You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

Thwack!

Samuel was hit in the back of the head and slumped forward. Floyd stood behind him, heaving as he held a metal bat. "Everyone... stop fighting!" Floyd commanded them. Most of them listened, hoping to be relieved of their confusion.

Ray held up his hand, and his men backed off.

Floyd's eyes swept through the room at the mess of blood, bodies, and the artwork from their lobby. "Take your injured and leave," Floyd said to Ray before turning to one of his men. "Put Samuel in a cell."

"What?" His eyes widened. "But—"

"No buts. He put our whole family in danger. I don't care if he's our current leader; he had no right to cause this kind of trouble in our home. He did all of this, knowing it would bring a bigger, stronger family here to fight. As the second son of the family, I'm taking control, because he's unfit to. If you have any objections..." Floyd's gaze swept past his men.

"Then you'll have to deal with me," Ray said in a low growl, sending chills down their spines, and released the dead capo. "Now, where is my granddaughter?" Floyd swallowed hard and tried to stand tall. "Grace, along with your underboss, should be escaping out the back right now, so long as they didn't run into any trouble."

"Out back?" Ray let out a deep sigh. "I sure hope they're okay. I expect your brother to take responsibility for this mess." Ray turned and walked away.

"Responsibility? Him? I'll be lucky if I can manage to wrangle this family together..." Floyd mumbled.

"Locked..." Grace grumbled and aimed at the door with her gun.

"Wait..." Zain huffed, leaning on the couch behind her. "What if... it's a trap?"

"We don't have time to wait."

Bang, bang. She shot out the lock on the door and yanked it open.

Zain grabbed her wrist before she could leave the house first. "Let me..." With slow, sluggish steps, he left the house and looked around. "Ha... So, you came to help?" Everything went dark as Zain fell forward.

"Zain!" Grace rushed to try to catch him, but someone else already had. She looked up, and her eyes went wide. "Vincent? What are you doing here?"

Vincent smirked. "I came to help a damsel-in-distress, but I guess there isn't one here. You made it out of there somehow." Vincent nudged his head towards Zain, and Ran, along with one of his men, picked Zain up. His eyes focused in on her bruised cheek. "I'm sorry I didn't get here earlier." He lightly touched her cheek, and she flinched away from the sting.

"It's not your fault, but thank you for coming to save me."

"I still can't believe they did something so foolish." Vincent sighed, and her feet caught his eye. "What happened to your shoes?"

"Ah... I lost them. Technically, I hit Samuel with one of them." Grace looked away as she bit on the inside of her cheek.

"Ha... Such an amazing woman to stand up to that crazy man."

"Oh!" Grace gasped as Vincent swept her up into his arms. "W-what are you doing?"

"I don't have any spare shoes on hand, and I can't let you walk around without any; you'd injure your feet. Besides, after being kidnapped today, I think you could use a little pampering." Vincent walked away with her in his arms.

Grace wrapped her arms around his neck and let him carry her as she gazed over at Zain, who remained unconscious.

"Try not to worry so much. Your grandfather will make sure he gets the help he needs," Vincent assured her. "I'd offer our own doctors, but I'm sure yours are just as good."

"He's lost a lot of blood, though."

"From the looks of him, you already tried to stop the bleeding. If I'm not mistaken, that's part of your skirt wrapped around him."

"And it's soaked with blood, meaning I didn't do well enough trying to stop the bleeding."

"If you didn't try to help him, he'd probably be dead already."

"If it wasn't for me, he wouldn't have been here and gotten shot." Grace bit her lip.

"Is this one of those things you're going to keep blaming yourself for?" Vincent sighed. "You're too kind. Zain was injured doing his job. If it was you who got shot, can you imagine how bad he'd feel?"

"But I shouldn't have come here."

"He shouldn't have let you come here."

"But—"

"Playing the blame game will get you nowhere. If you want to blame someone for all of this, blame Samuel. From what I hear, all of this is because of him."

Grace frowned and trembled as she thought about it. "You know about Samuel's plans?"

Vincent stared at her for a moment and raised an eyebrow. "Are you suspecting me of something?"

"Well..." I guess he couldn't really be the person on the inside, since he's outside of the family.

"I suppose this incident will make you wearier of people, but no, I didn't have anything to do with it. Your grandfather called for more manpower from close by because there was no time to wait. Of course, I'd come to help when I found out you were in danger."

"Oh..." Grace nodded. "Thank you."

"Grace!" Ray came running around the side of the mansion, looking for her.

"Grandpa?" She looked between Vincent and Ray, running towards them. "Maybe you should put me down, anyway."

"Nonsense. I will not force a woman to walk on this gravelled terrain barefoot."

"So you'd let a man?"

"They have my sympathies, but no, I'm not going to carry a man around like this." Vincent chuckled and then stared into her eyes. "And it depends on the woman for if I'll carry her or get someone else to do it."

"Grace..." Ray huffed as he approached them. "Your cheek... I'll kill'em!"

"I'm okay, grandpa, but..." She looked over to where the people carrying Zain were.

Ray's eyes widened, and he stumbled over to him. He touched Zain's cheek. "Be careful with him as you put him in the car. I'll have the doctor waiting outside." He pulled out his cell phone to make a call.

"You can tell how much he cares about him," Vincent whispered to her. "I guess it's a good thing that he was given to the Bertolottiss."

"I kinda figured his home wasn't good if they were willing to give him over, but do you know how bad it was?" Grace asked.

"I was a teenager in the process of becoming the head of my family at that point, so I can't say I know too much. And I don't think this is something I should be talking to you about, anyway. If you want to know about his family, you'd best ask him when he gets better."

"I guess you're right."

"I've already lost this battle, haven't I?" Vincent stopped near the cars.

"What do you mean?"

"Still haven't noticed?" Vincent sighed, shaking his head. "I wish it meant I still had a chance, but something tells me I don't. I'll be blunt about things. I like you." Vincent gave her a wry smile.

"I like you, too. More than I expected to like a mafia member. No offence."

"None taken, but you're basically one now, too. And I don't think I'm talking about the same like as you are."

"Vincent, Grace," Ray called out to them and pointed at the open back door to his SUV. Ray got in and waved them over to join him.

Vincent set her down beside him and took a step back.

"Aren't you coming?" Ray asked.

"No, I think I should leave you and your family alone for the day. We can talk another time." Vincent took Grace's hand and kissed the back of it. "Until next time, cara mia. And Ray, make sure she has shoes on before she steps outside of the vehicle."

"Shoes?" Ray's eyes widened. "What happened to your shoes?"

Vincent gave them a slight bow and closed the door. He gave them a small wave as they drove off. He turned to Salem, his underboss. "There's still something going on that we don't know about, and I don't like it. Find out what the hell it is before there really is an all out war."

"Yes, sir."