Chapter 176
"Can you let Eva go?" Isabella continued, her tone carrying a cautious plea, "She hasn't hurt me, really. She's helped me a lot. If it weren't for her, I might have already..."
She didn't finish, but her meaning was clear enough.
She was pleading for the person who had taken her hostage.
Vitale's brows instantly furrowed, his gaze sharp as a blade.
Let go of someone from Thorn of Justice?
A core member who was involved in kidnapping Isabella and might have even directly harmed her?
Absolutely not!
This was a matter of principle, and also a matter of revenge.
Everyone who hurt Isabella must pay the price.
But Vitale looked into Isabella's pleading eyes and saw the gun pressed against her temple, ready to fire at any moment.
Reason told him that provoking Eva was too risky. Isabella's life was hanging by a thread.
He couldn't take that chance.
Any potential threat to Isabella had to be handled with her absolute safety as the top priority.
A cold murderous intent and an overwhelming love clashed fiercely in Vitale's chest.
He forcefully closed his eyes for a moment. When he opened them again, the redness in his gaze seemed to fade slightly, replaced by a deeper, colder calculation.
He raised a hand and rubbed his throbbing temples hard, as if trying to suppress a severe headache and the storm of emotions inside him.
Then, he turned to Victor beside him, his voice regaining some calm but carrying an undeniable command, "Victor."
"Boss?" Victor responded immediately, his eyes alert.
"Pull everyone back," Vitale said, his voice not loud but clear enough to reach the entire encirclement.
Victor froze, almost thinking he had misheard.
He turned to Vitale in shock, his eyes full of disbelief, "Vitale, what did you say? Pull back? This..."
But when he saw the seemingly calm expression on Vitale's face, with a terrifying ruthlessness and icy determination lurking deep in his eyes, Victor understood instantly.
Vitale wasn't really letting her go.
He was just using a more dangerous, more aggressive approach to ensure Isabella's absolute safety.
First, meet the kidnapper's demands to remove the immediate deadly threat. As for what comes after...
Victor didn't hesitate anymore. He took a deep breath, raised his hand sharply, and made a clear, firm gesture to the men around them.
Disengage. Pull back.
Though equally confused, the well-trained men followed orders without question.
They moved quickly and silently, lowering their weapons and rising from their hidden or semi-hidden positions. Like a receding tide, they swiftly retreated behind Vitale and Victor, regrouping while still maintaining high alertness, their eyes locked on Eva and Isabella.
The encirclement was instantly lifted, leaving the clearing in the woods empty except for Eva holding Isabella hostage, facing off against Vitale's side.
Vitale looked at Eva, his eyes devoid of any warmth, filled only with cold scrutiny and suppressed rage, "I've pulled my people back. Now, give me back mine."
Eva gripped her gun tightly, her heart pounding from the earlier tension and the sudden success of her demands.
But she didn't let her guard down.
Vitale's compromise came too easily, which only made her more uneasy.
"I'm getting in the car first," Eva said, her voice still hard. She slightly tilted her chin toward an off-road vehicle parked not far from the edge of the clearing, "Once I'm safely in the car and the engine is running, I'll naturally return her to you."
"You—!" The anger in Vitale's eyes flared up again in an instant.
This kind of overreaching demand, this familiar tactic of escalating threats step by step...
He took a fierce step forward, his voice distorted with extreme rage as he pointed at Eva and growled, "Did you learn this trick from Marco? This is something my late father taught him."
"Used to deal with enemies and control subordinates, and now you're using it against me?"
Hearing the source of her tactic exposed, a flicker of emotion flashed through Eva's eyes, but it was quickly replaced by deeper wariness.
She didn't know if Vitale was telling the truth, but Marco's methods were indeed calculated and manipulative.
Vitale's men behind him, hearing his furious roar, almost simultaneously raised their weapons again.
A dozen black gun barrels were once more aimed directly at Eva.
The tension in the air, which had just slightly eased, instantly tightened to the breaking point.
Eva was also thoroughly provoked—or rather, driven by fear and desperation to take a reckless gamble.
She stopped talking. The gun pressed against Isabella's temple didn't budge, while her other hand suddenly shot out, clamping down on Isabella's slender neck like a vice.
Caught off guard, Isabella's breath was cut off instantly.
Her face quickly turned red from lack of oxygen, her hands weakly clawing at Eva's wrist, strange sounds escaping her throat.
A crisp, cold metallic click echoed.
Eva decisively flicked the safety off her gun with her thumb, chambering a round.
In the silent woods, that sound was like the knock of death itself.
Vitale's pupils contracted sharply.
He saw Isabella struggling in pain, saw the madness in Eva's eyes that screamed a willingness to die together.
All his reason, all his calculations, all his anger shattered in that moment, crushed by the sight of Isabella's suffocating agony.
"Stop!" Vitale let out a hoarse roar, raising his hand sharply and shouting at his men behind him, "Lower your guns! Put them down!"
His men exchanged glances, but under Vitale's murderous glare, they had no choice but to slowly lower their weapons once again.
Vitale took a deep breath, as if it drained every ounce of strength from his body, his chest heaving violently.
He stared at Eva, his gaze incredibly complex.
There was rage, murderous intent, and humiliation, but in the end, it all turned into an absolute compromise for Isabella's safety.
"Fine," Vitale forced the word out through gritted teeth, his voice hoarse, "Do as she says."
Eva looked at Vitale, seeing him forced to yield for Isabella's sake. Her heart was a mix of emotions, but mostly relief at escaping and a cold, mocking satisfaction.
She released her grip on Isabella's neck.
Isabella immediately coughed and gasped for air, though the gun at her temple still didn't move.
"Didn't expect..." Eva muttered under her breath, as if speaking to Isabella, or perhaps to herself, "that the weak spot of Vitale, the mafia boss, really is this woman named Isabella."
She didn't hesitate any longer. Dragging the still-coughing Isabella, she cautiously backed toward the off-road vehicle step by step.
Vitale's gaze followed her like a shadow, unyielding. His fists clenched tightly at his sides, nails digging into his palms until blood seeped out.
Finally, Eva reached the vehicle.
She quickly yanked the door open, shoved Isabella inside with force, and swiftly slid into the driver's seat herself.
The engine roared to life with a low growl, starting up fast.
But then, something unexpected happened!
In the split second Eva's body was fully inside the car, her eyes hardened. Her wrist flicked sharply, and the gun wasn't aimed at Isabella, who was slumped in the passenger seat, but through the window, directly at Vitale, who was staring intently from a short distance away.
Her movement was lightning-fast, driven by an almost instinctive intent to eliminate the biggest threat.
"Vitale, watch out!" Isabella caught Eva's action out of the corner of her eye. Her heart nearly stopped as she screamed in panic.
Almost at the same moment Eva turned the gun, Vitale sensed the danger.
But he didn't dodge. His first instinct was to look at Isabella inside the car.
Just as Eva pulled the trigger, Isabella—who had been pushed into the passenger seat without a seatbelt—summoned a burst of strength from nowhere. She sprang up from the seat and, without a second thought, lunged toward the driver's side, trying to shield Vitale from the bullet with her frail body.
"Isabella! No!" Vitale's eyes widened in horror as he let out an earth-shaking roar.
Time seemed to stretch endlessly, slowing down.
Vitale charged forward, his goal not to dodge or counterattack, but to reach Isabella.
The gunshot rang out.
The bullet shattered the window, sending a spray of glass fragments flying.
Almost at the same time, Vitale slammed into the partially open car door, his long arm reaching out. At the last possible moment, he pulled the lunging Isabella into his embrace with force.
Then, using his momentum and control over his body, he spun sharply to the side with Isabella in his arms.
The bullet didn't hit a vital spot on Vitale, but it grazed the outside of his left arm with brutal force.
Fabric tore, flesh opened, and a deep, bone-visible gash appeared instantly, blood spurting out.
Vitale let out a muffled grunt, a burning pain shooting through his arm, but his grip on Isabella didn't loosen for a second. If anything, it tightened, his broad back completely shielding her.
At almost the same moment Eva fired, Victor—who had been watching her closely with his finger already on the trigger—flashed a cold glint in his eyes and fired without hesitation.
His aim was deadly accurate.
The bullet passed through the broken window and struck Eva's right shoulder, the one holding the gun.
Eva screamed in pain, the gun flying out of her hand. Her shoulder was instantly soaked in blood, and the impact forced her body to slump over the steering wheel.
The intense pain and panic made her lose the last shred of reason. Her foot slammed on the gas, her injured hand barely gripping the wheel. The off-road vehicle screeched with the sound of tires grinding against the ground, lurching forward and swerving erratically down a bumpy path in the woods.
"Eva," Isabella, held tightly in Vitale's arms, saw through his shoulder as Eva was shot and drove off in escape.
She also saw the horrifying wound on Vitale's arm, blood dripping everywhere.
Her mind went blank, overwhelmed by sheer fear and worry.
Vitale held Isabella, staggering to steady himself. Ignoring the searing pain in his arm, he immediately looked down to check on her in his embrace, "Baby, are you okay? Are you hurt? Did the glass cut you? Talk to me! Look at me!"
Isabella trembled in his arms, tears streaming down her face as she shook her head frantically, "I'm fine, I'm fine, Vitale, your arm..."
Just then, a deafening explosion—far more terrifying than any gunshot—erupted from the direction where the off-road vehicle had fled.
It was followed by a towering blaze and thick, rolling smoke.
The shockwave from the blast even made the trees around them tremble, sending a flock of birds scattering in panic.
The color drained completely from Isabella's face.
She struggled slightly out of Vitale's hold, looking toward the direction of the explosion, her eyes filled with disbelief, shock, and fear.
That car... it exploded?
Eva was inside.
"No, no, please no!"
Isabella let out a piercing, heart-wrenching scream, as if it came from the depths of her soul.
Her body went limp, her vision darkened, and she fainted, collapsing into Vitale's blood-stained arms.