His Mafia Prince
Chapter 268: Forever, For Always

Chapter 268: Forever, For Always

(SASHA)

People underestimate Tyler all the time, but they do so at their peril.

I’ve discovered that myself over the years. I made a lot of assumptions about my angel baby when we first met. When we were first married. Even these days, I forget just how ruthless he can be when necessary.

But Tyler reminds me now as he reappears, gun steady and well-aimed, and lets off three shots.

They would have been perfect, too, if his target hadn’t chosen that exact moment to take a step to the right. The guy keeps moving, stumbling in shock as the explosive noise echoes around the walls, and for a moment I think Tyler actually hit him.

But then he scrambles to his feet and bolts.

Tyler fires three more shots again, but he isn’t great with moving targets, never has been. And our enemy is already gone, vanished down the black tunnel on the other side. I can hear him running, the noise of his feet stumbling and smacking through the dark. He left his gun behind, and any light. They’ve been very confident, these two agents; one the muscle and one the mind. Brothers by blood as well as oaths, if I can believe their conversation while they still thought I was unconscious.

The muscle went to get food on the blond’s orders a while back. But now the blond could be going to get his brother’s help.

Tyler comes forward fast, but his eyes are still focused on where the guy ran off into the dark. "Shit," I hear him mutter under his breath. "Shit-fuck- shit—"

"Hey," I interrupt, soft as I can, but he jumps nevertheless, swinging the gun around wildly. "Hey," I say again, more firmly, and he rushes to me, collapsing to his knees, and drops the gun on the dirty ground.

"Oh, God, Sasha."

"I’m okay." I let him hug me, keeping watch on the direction the guy—the soon-to-be-dead guy, if I have anything to say about it—ran. I allow Tyler a moment of hugging, but then it’s time to move. "Baby, don’t leave the gun lying there on the ground like that. Keep it in your hand. Any second now that guy will realize it’s just you, alone." He lets me go, shivering as the adrenaline starts to really hit him, and picks it up, pointing it back towards the tunnel. "Keep an eye that way, but I need you to look around for a knife or something to cut through these zip ties."

"I have a knife," he blurts out. He fumbles said knife out of his thigh pockets and saws through the bonds on my wrists while I keep an eye on both tunnels. I rub my wrists as the restraints come free, and take the knife from him to free my ankles as well.

"Are you okay?" he asks when I’m done. "Baby, are you—"

I grab his shoulders. "I’m fine," I assure him. "Promise."

"Did they hurt you?"

I make to stand up and Tyler tries to assist, though he probably hinders more than helps. My feet and hands have pins and needles, and my head’s still a little sore, but nothing that won’t wear off soon. "I didn’t come around that long ago," I tell Tyler . "Maybe a half-hour."

Tyler looks so wild-eyed that I take his face in my hands, focus his attention on me. "Baby bird, listen. We’ll have time to worry later. Right now, we need to—"

There’s someone coming back down the tunnel, running fast, a light flashing against the walls. I push Tyler behind me and, just as Muscles reappears, I throw the knife straight at him.

It hits his throat, burying in to the hilt, and he drops like a stone, gargling and choking.

While he’s busy dying, I grab the gun that the blond left behind him, and both Tyler and I wait, aiming our weapons steadily at the tunnel, letting the sounds of dying echo around the chamber.

They cease soon enough. The blond doesn’t seem inclined to make a reappearance.

"We’re getting out of here," I murmur. "Now." Tyler nods, hard.

"So which way should we go, angel? Back from whence you came, or take our chances and run after the other guy? Eliminate the problem for once and for all?"

"Back my way," he whispers. "Come on, Sasha. I don’t want to mess around in here any longer than we have to. It’s creepy as fuck."

A large part of me wants to go after the blond, to show him what happens when you try to move against me, against my husband. Send him to hell along with his brother. But...

"Yes, perhaps the way you came would be best," I agree. I follow Tyler , both of us walking backwards towards the tunnel he came out of, and then quickly down it. But I hear no evidence that we’re being followed, and I suspect these two were working light, a tandem effort to help avoid attention from the authorities.

We arrive at a cave-in blocking the way, but Tyler shows me how to get past it. It’s a little easier for him, smaller and slighter than I am, but I welcome the feel of every scraping rock and branch as we squeeze through and into the blackness beyond.

All these little discomforts remind me that I am alive.

Once we’re through, I put my hand on his arm and stop him for a moment. "How?"

He knows what I mean. "Our wedding rings."

I only ever put that tracker in mine to make it seem fair for Tyler. I never really thought the app would be any use other than for me finding him.

Tyler puts his phone flashlight on, and I let him. It’s not like we need to worry about being spotted. If the blond has taken a direct overground route to the other exit and is waiting for us there, we’ll know it soon enough.

After another ten minutes of careful walking, I murmur, "You came all the way through here alone?"

"Of course," he says, reaching back to grab my hand and squeezing it before letting go. "You think I would ever let anyone take you from me? No fucking way."

I’m delighted to be alive, but I can’t imagine what it must have been like for Tyler making his way through these claustrophobic tunnels, with no guarantee that he wouldn’t just come across my corpse. We’re coming to the exit now, and I can see the moonlight spilling in through the crumbling entrance.

I catch Tyler by the wrist and try to move him behind me, but he resists. "You got drugged," he hisses. "Let me go first."

"Angel, I’m a better shot than you are."

I can just make out his features in the dull, bleached light, and he looks annoyed. But then he sighs. "Yeah," he says. "I guess you are."

It’s all moot in the end. There’s no one waiting for us, although there are a few surprised homeless people who watch our emergence. We move quickly towards the sounds of the city again. Along the way I wipe the blond’s gun of my prints and dump it in a public trash can, and instruct Tyler to do the same. I considered keeping the weapons; Tyler and I already found out the Irish policy on revenge killings after we eliminated Murphy and his son. I’m pretty sure that blond is not going to forgive and forget my killing of his brother.

And he seemed the vicious type. I suspect he’s going to make this personal.

But weapons are easy enough to come by, and I don’t want to chance getting stopped with a gun on my person. I’m already planning our next steps, thinking of how to get out of Rome, where to go next. A visit to my Uncle and his family is completely out of the question, now. But I still have business to deal with before we leave Italy altogether.

I flag down a taxi once we’re back into the busier part of the city. Holding Tyler close in the backseat, ignoring the driver completely, I kiss him deeply. "Uccellino, I’m so proud of you," I murmur afterward. "But we are going to need to talk about this."

"What’s there to talk about?" he asks softly. He grabs my face and kisses me back, hard. "I’ll always have your back, baby. Forever."

It’s true. Tyler showed me tonight, proved it for once and for all. He’s exactly like me: he will not let anyone stand between us, no matter the cost. Without his quick action tonight, things could have been so much worse. It almost scares me.

And it fills me with new levels of respect and reverence for the man I married.

I take up his hand in mine and kiss his wedding ring. "Forever. For always."

It’s time to move on together

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