There were promises, and there were promises. It was hard keeping them, even to a man like Kiel. The only sound in the room was the whispers between Gin and Kit and the grumbles both women made as the world sounded like it was unraveling below us. My father’s business was violent. Sometimes that violence carried over, made noises I couldn’t help but overhear in late-night hours when he thought I was sleeping. I was used to violent noises. But none of them had ever scared me like the ones I heard just then.

None of them had ever threatened my husband.

“I can’t just sit here wondering and waiting,” Gin said. The woman’s face was pale, her expression tight. She kept popping her knuckles, a nervous habit that got under my skin. “This is total bullshit,” she said, getting up from the bed to dart toward the door for the third time. “I can’t…”

“You wanna get shot?” I asked her, dropping any pretense of being friendly to either of these women. They might be family or close to it to Kiel, but that didn’t mean I had to play nice just because they were scared. “Or worse, you wanna distract your man so that he glances at you and drops his guard? Easy way for those bastards to get the upper hand.”

“No. Of course not,” Kit said, her voice soothing, matching the way she squeezed her friend’s hand. Gin tossed me a glance then shook her head.

“This is bad, I know.” The women frowned at me, and I hurried to correct myself. I might not have to play nice, but there was no need to get them all worked up and itching to throw open the door and dart right into the middle of whatever was happening downstairs. “I know rough men. I can tell when one can handle himself. Those three will have no problems…”

The telltale rip of a bullet shot through the quiet below and cut off whatever bullshit I was planning to say. Damn the danger. Damn the promises I’d made to Kiel. We three spared one glance at each other then clamored for the door, struggling to open it.

The noise had started up again, and from our vantage point, we spotted the small crowd downstairs. Vinnie gestured with a gun like a maniac, pointing it at Kane as he moved to Dale, who was bent over on the floor, clutching his side.

“Back up, stronzo,” Vinnie told Kane.

“He’s down. I have to—”

“You have to do nothing. Move away…”

Behind me, Kit and Gin struggled, trying to maneuver away from me to get to their men, but I managed to keep them back. “Hold on,” I whispered, my heart thundering against my ribs. “He’s got a gun.”

“Dale…” Gin started, leaning against me. I felt her hot tears on my back as she gripped my arm. “Oh God, please…”

“Move. Now,” Vinnie tried again, twisting his gun to angle it at Kiel. I stopped breathing as he sidestepped, going toward his brother and their downed friend.

“Dale?” Kane called, focus still on a shaking Vinnie.

“I’m…good,” the man wheezed, but his breath was labored. The pain he felt was evident in the low breath he released. When Dale leaned back, rolling to his back and slumping on the floor, blood spilling from his side, I couldn’t keep Gin back. She gasped, bringing the attention of the men right up at her.

Vinnie’s mouth hardened, and a smug, pleased smile broke across his face. “Bella,” he said, laughing as he pointed the gun right at Kiel’s chest. “Come here.” When I didn’t move, the man narrowed his eyes, moving his top lip in a curl. He stepped forward, pushing the gun right over Kiel’s heart. “Now, bella.”

“Cara,” Kiel warned, face set hard.

I came down the stairs, holding a hand up when Gin tried scrambling around me to get at Dale.

“Careful,” Vinnie told her, nodding for both her and Kit to stay back. “I will take Cara, sì, back to her papa.”

“Like hell,” Kiel said, flinching when Vinnie’s gun moved, twisting into his chest. He stepped forward, sticking his chest out. “Do it,” he taunted, face screwed up in a snarl. “Because it’s only over my dead fucking body that you’ll take my wife back to New York.”

“Kiel, no,” I cried. My heart was beating so fast now that I got light-headed.

“Understood,” Vinnie said.

My focus was on Vinnie’s finger curled around the trigger and the slow-motion movement of him squeezing it. The scream left my mouth. I curled my hands over my ears just as Kiel slapped Vinnie’s hand away and the gun fired just over my husband’s head.

Everything happened in beats, like what I saw came out in slow, jarring segments, a paradox of stillness and rapid-fire movements. Vinnie stumbled back as Kiel grabbed his collar, pulling him near the door and the balcony beyond it. Gin escaped the stairs and ran straight for Dale, wailing out an awful noise that was more growl than scream. Kane launched himself at Kit, arms outstretched as he went for her just as the half-conscious asshole near the island came to, observed the chaos around him, then scrambled to his feet, charging right at Kane. He slammed into the big man, knocking him to the floor, and Kane released a loud rush of air from his chest as he fell on top of the coffee table, splintering the wood.

I didn’t know Gin and Kit well. They were practically strangers I’d been forced upon like a stray puppy in an at-capacity kennel because of our circumstance. But each of us was scared. Each of us terrified of what happened around us to the men we loved.

Dale was down and bloody, and Gin didn’t seem able to do more than shake and make weak attempts at comforting him. Kit was screaming at her downed man as some asshole pummeled him, and I could only stare, breath held, as Kiel traded punches with Vinnie out on the balcony.

It took the briefest glance between the three of us before we moved, but there was a clarity in that moment that made me almost believe in some cosmic surge that moved between women. Our men were threatened. We were scared, but none of us seemed able to cower under a table or behind closed doors waiting for a rescue.

Kit moved in time with me, and Gin followed. The bastard beating on Kane stood up straight, ready to deliver another punch, then stopped short as we came at him. There were cuts and scrapes all over his face, and his left eye was swollen shut. But shock was easy to make out, even on a bruised and bloody face like his.

Kane groaned on the floor, and we toppled the bastard, Kit getting the most traction as she jumped on his back and started beating her fists against his head. I followed, clawing at the bastard’s neck just as Gin clamored around his front, driving her knee up into his crotch.

“Fuck!” he cried, trying and failing to cover his head as we beat, slapped, and clawed over every free inch of skin we found. It went on forever, the sounds of his loud cries getting louder and more desperate the more we beat on him. He called out names we didn’t know, men I guessed had come along for the attack, but only Vinnie was still moving, and his attention was taken up by Kiel. “Get off…oh! God!” the bastard cried as he went to his knees, giving up fighting us off and settling for burying his face against the area rug covered in the splinters of the coffee table.

“You got him,” Kane wheezed, pushing off the floor, sounding proud as he pulled Kit away from the downed asshole. “Baby, come on.” She climbed off him, and Gin retreated to Dale as I got to my feet, watching Kiel and Vinnie on the balcony. Kane stood behind me, moving his large hand to my shoulder as if to stop me from disrupting the fight. “He’ll be okay. Trust me.”

I didn’t have Kane’s confidence in Kiel, but then, I’d only heard from Johnny how the Kiel I’d betrayed five years ago hadn’t been much of a fighter when they’d cornered him.

This Kiel, however, was scary.

“That all you got, motherfucker?” he yelled at Vinnie when the man landed one solid punch against Kiel’s chin. They both staggered, but Vinnie was the one struggling to stand upright. He was bulky and strong, but Kiel was stronger.

“Fuck you!” Vinnie screamed, wiping blood from his nose as he charged at Kiel, managing to knock him to his knees and against the firepit near the center of the balcony.

“Wrong answer,” Kiel said, rolling to his side to grab the metal fire poker leaning against the railing. He had it in his grip, turning it before Vinnie noticed it, and Kiel brought the metal poker down against Vinnie’s knee, then right at his ankle. Two loud, crunching strikes against his body and the bastard went down, grabbing his fresh injury as Kiel got to his feet.

Kane let me go as I rushed toward the door, watching Kiel stand over the man, that poker still gripped in his massive fist. He watched Vinnie wailing and panting on the floor, and something moved across his face—rage and anger and likely a lot of hatred.

It reminded me of how my father’s men looked after coming back from appointments I knew were code for family “business.” Violence slipped into the shadows of their eyes, and it hung around them like fog.

That had started to creep into Kiel’s features, and the sight of it scared me. He wasn’t one of my father’s brutal guards. He was talented. Kiel was intelligent, and he was mine. He was nothing like the men I’d been around my entire life. It was why I loved him.

That fist gripped the poker tighter, and Kiel moved his hand, like he was considering smashing Vinnie’s face in just to make sure the asshole never came after us again. But when I stepped onto the balcony and caught Kiel’s attention, he glanced at me. He blinked, lashes fanning quick, as though just that rapid action was enough to pull that haze of violence from his head.

“Amore mio,” I said, my voice sounding thick with the tears I forced down my throat. He nodded, glancing once at Vinnie, who was barely conscious, before Kiel threw the poker over the railing and darted toward me, engulfing me in his large arms.

“Baby,” he whispered with a relieved breath before he held my face between his hands. Kiel ignored Kane as he came out onto the balcony to hustle Vinnie inside. I didn’t care what the big man did to him. The only thing that held my attention was the warmth of Kiel’s hands against my cheeks and the taste of his mouth when he kissed me. “I told you to stay in that room.” I could only shrug, having no excuses that would keep him from complaining. “You’re the most stubborn woman I’ve ever known.”

“But you still love me?” I asked, inhaling the scent of his skin as he held me.

“I damn well do, goddess.” Then Kiel kissed me long and slow like our world hadn’t just been toppled. Like there was no one else on the planet but me and my beautiful husband.