I rounded the corner of the hallway with my gun drawn, ready for anything, my military training coming back like muscle memory. The sound of gunshots had a tendency to cause me flashbacks, but I suppressed all of that and pushed it far into the back of my mind.

I pushed away all my feelings for Gabby, because they made me vulnerable.

I pushed away all my fear of never seeing her again, because that made me weak.

I pushed away thoughts of Maggie, thoughts of my Ma, the club, my own mortality…because all of those things only served to incapacitate me.

I was a soldier, with only one thing on my mind. Survival.

When I rounded the corner, I saw Leo and another man by the front door. Leo had a gun pointed at a woman’s head and another man was pointing his gun at Romeo. As far as I could see, nobody was bleeding.

“Don’t make me fucking shoot you,” Leo’s man growled, his finger on the trigger, his gun pointed straight at Romeo’s heart. Romeo didn’t flinch, his gun pointed steadily at the man.

“Don’t shoot!” I yelled as I rounded the corner, my gun pointed right at Leo’s head.

Like Romeo, he wasn’t fazed either, in fact, a slow smile spread across his face, tightening the wrinkles around his eyes. He looked almost exactly how I remembered him from the day at the carnival. A little more grey hair around his temples, but he was still strong, still almost youthful.

“Who are you?” he asked, his voice calm as a rippling stream. He had a reputation for being unflappable, and apparently, it was true. He pushed the woman to the ground, and she crawled away into the corner looking frightened as a child as she began sobbing loudly. Bella ran over to her and pulled her into her arms.

“It’s alright, shh, don’t cry…,” she whispered.

“Shut the fuck up!” Leo yelled, before turning back to me. “Now, again. Who are you?”

“My name is Dante.”

“You look familiar,” he said, his eyes looking me up and down. “You Santoro’s boy? The one that went into the service?”

“Yeah,” I muttered, wincing at the mention of my dead beat father.

“I knew your old man. Good guy. Hard worker.”

“He was a piece of shit,” I growled. “Left my mom all alone to raise me and my sister.”

“Yeah, yeah, I remember that, too. Ran off with Cynthia from Yonkers, right?”

“Yep,” I snarled. “Like I said, a real piece of shit.”

“You’re the one from Otto’s,” he said, nodding slowly. “The one who took my Gabriella.”

“I didn’t take her,” I replied. “I saved her.”

“You also caused her to be in the middle of a huge bar brawl.”

“That wasn’t my fault,” I replied.

“Cut the bullshit. Where the fuck is my daughter, Santoro?” he asked, waving his gun at me.

“She’s safe.”

“Yeah? Safe, huh?” he said, “Is that so? Where is she safe at, Dante? In your bedroom back there?” he asked, gesturing behind me with his gun, taking a step in the direction of my bedroom.

“Don’t move, Mr. Loprinzi,” I stepped in front of him again.

“Look, Santoro, I don’t want no trouble,” he said, peering into my eyes. “I came to get my daughter, that’s all. If I go home empty handed, it’ll upset my wife. And I don’t like to upset my wife. You can understand that, right?” he asked, taking another step towards me.

“I said, don’t move, Mr. Loprinzi,” I extended my arm, my gun pointing right at his face as he closed the distance between us.

“What are you going to do, Santoro?” he asked, shrugging.

“Please don’t make me shoot you, Mr. Loprinzi.” I blocked his way. I wasn’t about to let him near Gabby. I didn’t know what my plan was. I didn’t have a fucking plan. I was hoping my guys would get here before any of this went down, and now here I was in a fucking stand off with Loprinzi, the most feared mafia Boss in the country and trying to keep him from his daughter. I wasn’t even sure why anymore.

“How about you just answer some questions for me, then? Eh?” He was inches from me now and I took a deep breath, doing my best to calm my racing mind. I had to figure out a way out of this and I needed to buy some time to do that.

“I’ll answer your questions, but don’t come any closer,” I said, taking a step back.

“Okay, fine, fine, Dante. It’s all good!” he said, holding up his hands, with a smile. “Relax! We’re all friends here.”

“What’s your question?” I asked, my face drawn tightly. I wasn’t about to fall for his friendly banter. I knew he’d rather shoot me than ask questions, and I knew he’d probably shoot me eventually, but I figured my only chance at surviving this confrontation was putting off the violence until my guys arrived.

“Tell me Dante,” he said slowly, his smile turning to a sneer. “What’s a man like you want with my daughter, huh? You’re from two different worlds. Probably don’t have nuttin’ in common, you know?”

“I was just protecting Gabby, Mr. Loprinzi. That’s all.”

“That’s all, huh? Come on, now. A strong, virile man like yourself. You sure you weren’t, well, you know…enjoying her company?”

I cringed, and took another step back from him. I needed space. Room to move. Room to think.

“She’s an adult,” I replied, instantly regretting my answer which was basically a confirmation that I had indeed been enjoying his daughter’s company, as he so eloquently and creepily put it.

“That’s true, she is,” he said. “She still has a knack for getting herself in trouble, though. Did she ever tell you about the time she and Bella snuck out of the house when they were fifteen and went to try to get into one of my clubs in Manhattan? The bouncers recognized them once they jumped up on the bar and all the guys started trying to grope them.”

“No, she didn’t tell me about that.”

“Of course she didn’t. Because you just met her, right? You’ve spent, what? One day with her? Two? And yet here you are, putting your ass on the line for a girl you just met.” He whistled, then chuckled again. “Does this mean it’s love, Dante?”

“We didn’t just meet. I met her a long time ago.”

“Oh, yeah? I had no idea! Tell me about it,” he said, with feigned interest.

The words flew out of my mouth before I could stop them. I didn’t like Loprinzi, in fact, I thought he was an arrogant asshole and I wanted to put him in his place somehow, but I hadn’t meant to do it this way.

“I met her the night you killed Paulie Paradiso in the tent at the 101st Street block party. I saved her from your stray fuckin’ bullets, Loprinzi. If it wasn’t for me, you would have killed your little girl when she was five years old.”

“What!” he exclaimed, his eyes filled with disbelief. “What are you saying? That can’t be true!”

The man standing next to him jumped at the mention of Paradiso and his eyes widened in shock. Slowly, he turned to look at Loprinzi questioningly.

“That was YOU, Dante?!” Bella exclaimed from the corner. “She told me all about that! You were like her fuckin’ knight in shinin’ armor! Oh, my gawd! How romantic!” she gushed.

I rolled my eyes, shaking my head. Of course Gabby told her, I thought. Just because Gabby said she hadn’t told anyone didn’t mean she didn’t tell her best friend.

“Boss?” Leo’s guy asked, his head cocked, his gun still pointing at Romeo. “What is he talking about? Why is he saying you shot my old man?”

The room filled with tension so thick you’d need a chainsaw to cut through it.

Leo looked shocked, his eyes wide as he turned to the man.

“Rizzo, we’ll talk about this later. Now isn’t the time, son.” I glanced at his hands and saw they were shaking. Earlier I thought he looked youthful, but suddenly his age was showing. His eyes looked tired, worried - and guilty.

“I want to talk about it now, Boss,” Rizzo said, turning the gun on Leo. We all watched in awe as Leo’s man turned on him.

“Rizzo, for fuck’s sake, what the fuck are you doing?” Leo turned his head, his gun still pointed at my chest.

“Did you kill my father?” Rizzo demanded, his voice shaking. “Is that why you took me under your wing? Because you felt guilty about it?”

“Rizzo, I —,” Leo began.

“Is it true, you fuckin’ asshole?” Rizzo yelled, his eyes wild, filling with tears.

“Rizzo, goddammit, not now!” Loprinzi yelled, his eyes darting back and forth between me and Rizzo.

We were in a standoff and nobody was budging. Rizzo’s gun was shaking wildly, his voice becoming shrill and hysterical.

“My Ma, Leo! Do you know what my father’s murder did to my Ma? To our family? All these years, you said you were taking care of us because that’s what my father would have wanted. How could you do that, Leo?” Rizzo screamed. “You murdered him! In cold blood!”

“Rizzo, fuck off! We’re here to save Gabby now, not deal with this bullshit. Dante’s fuckin’ lying, for fuck’s sake. Pull your shit together!”

“No,” he muttered, shaking his head. “No, I don’t believe you. I saw your face when he said it. I saw the guilt in your eyes. It’s true, isn’t it?”

Leo shook his head, and took a deep breath, before taking his gun off of me and turning it on Rizzo.

“Yeah, it’s true, you little shit. And if you don’t fucking chill the fuck out, I’m going to shoot you, too!” Leo sneered.

Rizzo’s eyes widened in shock.

“You bastard,” he whispered, as he released the safety on the gun, the clicking sound of it echoing in the room.

We’d all frozen, holding our breath as we watched the intense scene play out in front of us. I was sure Rizzo was going to shoot him, if Leo didn’t shoot him first. They stared at each other, a tense contest of wills.

I looked over at Romeo and swelled with pride to see him on full alert. Even if the other guys weren’t here, I knew Romeo had my back no matter what. I caught his eye, made a slight movement with my chin to let him know I was going to take out Leo first and he nodded back.

I took a deep breath before striking and just as I started to move, the front door burst open.

I gasped as I watched the President of the Iron Godz barrel in with his gun pressed against Gabby’s temple.

She looked over at me apologetically.

“Gabby!” I called, my heart sinking.

“I’m so sorry,” she mouthed, shaking her head.

“Everyone drop the fucking guns or the girl gets it!” he bellowed.

Angelo Bandini, the infamous President of the Iron Godz MC. I knew exactly who he was.

He towered over everyone in the room, his heavily tattooed face the stuff of nightmares. His huge bald head topped a body the size of a bison. Scars littered his flesh - sharp cuts across his forehead, deep crevices left behind by bullet holes that had torn into his meaty forearms, and the ugly shiny skin that was the result of vicious burns stretched across his neck - and those were only the scars I could see.

His eyes were pure evil - no remnants of a human soul left behind in them.

Bella and the other lady screamed and burrowed into the corner, trying to hide behind my couch.

Fuck, I thought. Adrenaline was racing through my veins, and it felt like my heart was about to explode. But I wasn’t thinking about any of that. I was barely even aware of it.

Assess. Prepare. Strike.

I would deal with this just like every other battle I’d been faced with. Assess the situation, prepare myself for every possible scenario, and strike with confidence.

Assess the situation - this man had Gabby. I loved Gabby. I fucking loved Gabby. It was crazy, but since when does love make sense? This man was holding a gun to the one person I loved more than anything else in the whole world. Despite all the other threats in the room, this man was the biggest.

Prepare myself for every possible scenario - that included death. Gabby’s death. My death. Romeo’s death, Leo’s death, anyone else in the room. Death at Angelo’s hand, sure, that was a possibility, but I was confident I would be the one doing the killing. There was no way in hell that ape of a man could move faster than me. Only problem was he was closer to Gabby than I was. But losing Gabby was a scenario I was unable to accept, an outcome that I had no skills to contemplate. I’d lost one love already, I wasn’t about to lose another. So, I didn’t linger on that. All possible scenarios pointed to me killing Angelo, or Leo, or Rizzo, or even Gino.

Strike. I braced myself for the gunfire that I knew was about to explode in my home.

Everything seemed to move in slow motion.

Rizzo’s gun was still pointed at Leo; he seemed unaware Angelo had even burst into the room. His eyes were glued to Leo and he was shaking his head and muttering to himself.

Romeo, Leo and I turned our guns on Angelo.

“You’re outnumbered, Angelo. Put your gun down first,” I growled with anger.

“Fuck you!” he spat, digging the gun into Gabby’s temple. “Looks like a situation of quality over quantity here. I don’t think you’re going to shoot me while I have this pretty little girl in my arms. Especially when this is the girl you’ve all been looking for. She’s a hot commodity, isn’t she?”

“What do you want?” I barked.

“I want you to untie Gino first. And I’ll give you the girl back,” he sneered.

“That’s all?” I asked.

“Fuck no! I’ll give you the girl in exchange for you,” he said, pointing at me. “You killed one of my guys. In fact, you killed two of them. So, I’m taking you back to my clubhouse so my whole club can kill you together. We like to feast like that. It makes the revenge so much sweeter, you know?” he asked, a sick smile spreading across his hideous face. “But I don’t like killing women,” he snarled, pushing the gun into Gabby’s temple harder. “I hate seeing them cry, you know? It just kills me, all those endless tears, the sobbing, the whining…” he said sarcastically, putting the hand that wasn’t holding the gun over his heart. “So!” he barked. “I’ll just kill you to pay for both of them. Consider it a sort of buy one, get one free kind of deal. I’m feeling charitable today.”

“Okay,” I said, dropping my gun and holding my hands up.

“Dante, no!” Gabby cried.

“Shh! It’s okay, Gabby, I got this,” I said. “Let her go, Angelo.”

My eyes drifted over to Bear lying by the fireplace. He’d been on full alert this entire time, but he hadn’t moved an inch. His ears were sticking straight up and the muscles in his neck were straining.

Slowly, I took a step towards them, my hands up, nodding slowly.

“How could you?” Rizzo’s shrill voice broke through the tense silence. My eyes darted over to him, tears streaming down his face as he waved the gun at Leo, ignoring the other people in the room entirely, his focus completely on Leo.

“Rizzo, put the fucking gun down!” Leo growled again. “Now isn’t the time!”

“I don’t fucking care, Leo. I don’t care if your precious Gabriella dies. Maybe she should. Maybe she should pay for your mistakes, huh? For your savage, senseless violence? All this time, Leo. I was so loyal to you. Too fucking loyal! You deserve to die. My father didn’t.” He was shaking, his gun loose in his hand as he waved it around, his eyes wild with pain and rage.

Everyone had turned to watch, including Angelo. I turned slightly, making eye contact with Bear, and with a slight jerk of my chin, he made his move.

It was risky. He could have been shot. Gabby could have been shot. We all could have died.

But I did what any soldier would do. I assessed my situation and I used whatever tools I had at my disposal to their full capacity. My most valuable tool just happened to be covered in black fur and drooled obsessively. It was the sharp teeth that I was counting on.

Bear jumped up towards Angelo, his teeth sinking into his thick, scarred arm smoothly, the gun falling at his feet. Gabby ran towards me and I pushed her behind me quickly.

Angelo fell to the floor, flinging his arm wildly, attempting to release it from Bear’s mighty grip.

“Get him off,” he cried. As soon as his ass hit the floor, Bear jumped up on top of his chest, releasing his arm, but holding him down with the weight of his massive body, baring his teeth in his face with a savage, threatening growl.

I ran over and shoved my gun in his face.

“Don’t fuckin’ move!” I yelled, putting my boot on his chest.

The sound of a gunshot echoed through the cabin and Leo fell in a crumpled heap at Rizzo’s feet.

“Daddy!” Gabby cried, rushing to his side. Romeo grabbed Rizzo, pulling the gun from his shaking hand and pushing him away.

I looked down at Angelo, my gun resting on his forehead. His eyes were glued to Bear’s teeth that were millimeters from his nose.

“You fucked with the wrong club, asshole,” I said.

I turned to Bella on the floor to tell her to call an ambulance when my broken front door burst open once again.

“Everyone freeze!” a deep voice yelled, as dozens of cops rushed in, their guns drawn. “Hands in the air! Now!”

“Bear! Down!” I snapped my fingers, and Bear jumped off Angelo and laid at my side.

After that, everything happened so quickly.

The sound of guns hitting the floor was like a contagion. Rizzo dropped his, then Romeo, then me. Leo’s had fallen to his side when he was shot.

Gabby was crying as she tried to stop Leo’s bleeding. I watched helplessly, wanting so badly to take her into my arms, to tell her everything was going to be alright.

But I couldn’t. Because I had no idea if that was the case anymore. I didn’t believe it myself, so how could I tell her that? How could I give her some false sense of hope? I cursed myself, wishing I’d taken her far away before any of this had gone down.

I’d failed her.

The cuffs went on and I was shoved in the back of a police car. After a moment, an ambulance arrived and the paramedics loaded Leo into the back of it. I sighed with relief when I saw the cops let Gabby go with him in the ambulance and that they hadn’t cuffed her.

She looked at me one last time, her eyes full of sadness, as the paramedics closed the door behind her.

Maybe there was some hope left for her after all. She’d be alright, even without me. She’d survived this long under the protection of Leo Loprinzi. Maybe he could do a better job than I had.

The roar of approaching bikes sounded in my ear and I began laughing.

My backup had finally arrived.

Too little, too late, I thought, as Alonso, Italo, Bats, Angry Bobby and Gio all rode up, pulling off their helmets and looking around with bewilderment as they cut off their engines.

I shook my head and shrugged.

“What happened?” I heard Angry Bobby ask Romeo. Romeo, Bella and the lady I now recognized as the reporter, were huddled together on the porch, watching Angelo and Gino get thrown in the back of another cop car.

“Shit went down,” I heard Romeo explain, “and it went down really rough.”

It could have been rougher, I thought. At least Gabby was safe.

That was the only thing that mattered to me.

“Hey,” I yelled out to Romeo.

He ran over to me and I yelled at him through the glass.

“Give Bear a steak!” I said. “Tell him he’s a good boy.”

Romeo grinned and shook his head.

“Will do. And don’t worry, we’ll bail you out of jail as fast as we can.”

“Just take care of my dog,” I insisted.

“What about Gabby?” he asked.

I watched as the ambulance disappeared from view, taking Gabby away with it.

“She can take care of herself…”