“Touch that dog with the stun gun and you may kill the man underneath him.” Every head in the great hall turned toward me. The guy holding the weapon looked annoyed. “Who the hell are you?”

We moved under the shadow of the woodpile toward the rear cellar doors. The wind howled through the pine trees, drowning out the sound of our boots in the deep snow.

Danny efficiently neutralized the guard posted at the rear porch with a silent sleeper hold, lowering him into a snowbank. Stefano pulled an iron key from his pocket—an old key from when he owned the property—and unlocked the heavy wooden storm doors leading down into the cellar.

We slipped inside, cold darkness swallowing us. The air smelled of damp earth, firewood, and dried herbs.

Above our heads, heavy footsteps creaked across the floorboards.

"He's in the main room," Danny whispered, checking his night-vision scope. "I count five men. Carmine is near the fireplace."

Stefano turned to me, gripping my shoulders gently. "You stay here in the cellar with Danny's secondary guard. Do not come upstairs until I come back for you."

"Stefano—"

"Alice," he interrupted, his dark eyes fierce. "Trust me."

He kissed my forehead—a quick, burning press of his lips that sent a jolt straight to my core—then turned and headed up the narrow wooden stairs with Nero right at his heel.

Five seconds later, chaos erupted upstairs.

A loud wooden crash echoed as Stefano kicked the cellar door open. Gunfire shattered the quiet of the night—deafening, sharp cracks of handguns followed by shouting in French and Italian.

Nero’s terrifying, guttural roar echoed through the floorboards above my head, followed by a man screaming in sheer agony as eighty pounds of muscle threw him against the wall.

"Stay here!" the guard standing next to me commanded, drawing his pistol.

"Like hell I will!" I snapped, grabbing my heavy medical kit.

I ran up the cellar stairs.

The main room of the cabin was a scene of absolute violence. Two mercenaries lay unconscious on the hardwood floor, neutralized by Danny and Stefano. Nero had a third man pinned against the stone hearth, his jaw locked around the man's tactical vest.

In the center of the room, Carmine stood backing away toward the front door, a heavy Colt .45 shaking in his hands.

Stefano stood ten feet away. His parka was open, his right hand holding his weapon steady, but a deep red stain was spreading rapidly across the left side of his cream cashmere sweater. His internal stitches had torn during the breach. He was bleeding heavily.

"Get back, Stefano!" Carmine shrieked, his eyes wild with desperation. "I built half of this family! You were nothing before your father died! I took the money because I earned it!"

"You stole from working men, Carmine," Stefano said, his voice cold, though his knees buckled slightly from blood loss. "And you tried to poison me in a hospital bed."

Carmine’s eyes flicked past Stefano and caught me standing near the cellar door.

A sick, twisted grin spread across Carmine’s face. "The nurse. The little hero."

Before anyone could react, Carmine swung his gun away from Stefano and pointed it directly at my chest.

"NO!" Stefano screamed.

Stefano didn't raise his gun. He threw his own body across the room, placing himself directly between Carmine's barrel and me.

BANG!

A gunshot exploded inside the room.

Stefano gasped as the bullet struck him near his right shoulder. He hit the floor with a heavy thud, gasping for air, snow and blood staining the rug beneath him.

Carmine raised the gun to finish Stefano off.

"NERO! KILL!" I shrieked with every ounce of air in my lungs.

Nero didn't hesitate. The massive mastiff launched himself across the room like a cannonball, his heavy jaws slamming into Carmine’s chest. The gun flew from Carmine’s hand, spinning across the floor, as the mob boss slammed hard against the stone wall, Nero's teeth inches from his jugular, holding him down with crushing weight.

Danny rushed forward, kicking the gun away and securing Carmine in steel handcuffs.

I dropped to my knees beside Stefano, my hands flying into my medical kit.

"Stefano! Stay with me!" I sobbed, tears spilling over my cheeks as I ripped open his sweater. The gunshot wound near his shoulder was bleeding, but worse, his abdominal incision had completely re-opened from the physical exertion.

"Alice..." Stefano rasped, his eyes struggling to focus on my face. His hand rose weakly, his gloved fingers touching my cheek. "Are... are you okay?"

"You idiot!" I cried, applying heavy trauma dressings to both wounds, pressing down with all my weight. "You took another bullet for me!"