Chapter 143 Breaking point
Third Person POV
Gavin was halfway to the door when he heard the click. The unmistakable sound of a gun being cocked.
He stopped and turned around slowly.
Sophia stood ten feet behind him, with a pistol in her shaking hands. Pointed directly at his chest.
“Just who the hell do you think you are, Gavin?” Her voice was shrill and hysterical. Nothing like the composed woman she always pretended to be.
her eyes were wild.
Unhinged.
“You think you’re better than us?” she continued. The gun wavered but stayed trained on him. “Who are you to take away centuries of work? You belong to us! To this family! To ME!”
Gavin’s expression didn’t change. He just stood there, calm, watching her fall apart.
“Get back here,” Sophia demanded. “Right now. Or I’ll order Melissa dead this very second.”
She pulled out her phone with her free hand. Thumb hovering over the screen.
“You think you’ve won?” Her laugh was manic. “We have your weakness. One call and she dies. You’ll never even see her body.”
Gavin’s eyes flicked between the gun and the phone.
Behind Sophia, Giovanni Moretti stood. His face was cold and furious.
“Seize them,” he ordered his men. “Gavin and his dog. Take them both.”
A dozen armed men moved forward. Surrounding Gavin and Kane.
Kane shifted into a fighting stance. “Sir?”
“Do it,” Gavin said quietly.
And all hell broke loose.
Kane moved first; he grabbed the nearest guard’s weapon, and twisted it from his grip, before he drove his elbow into the man’s throat. The guard went down choking.
Gavin was already moving. His fist connected with another guard’s jaw with a crack that echoed through the hall. The man dropped like a stone.
Two more rushed him. Gavin ducked under the first one’s swing, drove his knee into the second one’s gut, then spun and delivered a devastating uppercut that sent the first man flying backward into a marble column.
Kane had three men on him. He fought like he was inhuman. He broke one’s nose with his palm. Dislocated another’s shoulder with a quick twist. Swept the third’s legs out from under him and stomped on his knee with a sickening crunch.
The man’s scream was cut short when Kane’s fist connected with his temple.
More guards poured in from side doors.
Dmitri was shouting orders from across the hall. “Stop them! Don’t let them reach the door! Kill them if you have to!”
Gavin caught a guard’s punch mid-swing, twisted the arm until he heard the snap of bone, then used the man’s momentum to throw him into two others approaching from the left.
They went down in a tangle of limbs.
Another guard came at him with a baton. Gavin sidestepped, caught the weapon, yanked it free, and drove it into the man’s solar plexus. The guard folded.
A punch landed on Gavin’s jaw. His head snapped to the side. Blood appeared at the corner of his mouth.
He touched it. Looked at the blood on his fingers.
Then smiled. At that moment it was like the glimpse of the old Gavin was back. When he was Zeus' enforcer and bathed in blood.
The guard who’d hit him actually took a step back.
Gavin destroyed him with a three-hit combination that left the man unconscious before he hit the marble floor.
Kane was a whirlwind of violence. But he looked like he was dancing a very deadly dance and each movement left a body at his wake.
Four men down around him already. Two more engaging.
He broke one’s jaw with a spinning elbow. Caught the other in a chokehold and squeezed until the man went limp.
Dropped him without ceremony.
“ENOUGH!”
Zeus’s voice was weaker now but it still carried authority.
Everyone froze for a moment.
The old man was standing near his throne. Swaying. With one hand pressed to his chest. The other gripping the armrest for support.
His face was gray. His lips had a blue tinge. Death was close. Everyone could see it.
“Stop this,” he gasped. His breathing was labored. Wet-sounding. “All of you. This is…”
He stumbled.
Guards rushed toward him but they were too far away.
Zeus fell.
His body hit the marble floor hard. The crack of his skull against stone echoed through the suddenly silent hall.
Blood pooled beneath his white hair. Spreading across the pristine marble in a dark halo.
His chest rose once. Twice.
Then stopped.
“God father!” Sophia’s scream was piercing. “FATHER!”
For a moment, the entire hall held its breath.
Lord Zeus. The man who’d ruled the Five Families for four decades. The man who’d seemed invincible despite the cancer eating him alive.
Was dead on the floor of his own throne room.
Sophia’s attention snapped back to Gavin. Her face was a mask of grief and rage. Tears and running makeup streaking down her cheeks.
“You killed him,” she whispered. “You killed him!”
“He was already dead,” Gavin said. His voice was flat.
“YOU KILLED HIM!”
Her hand tightened on the gun she was still holding.
The barrel swung toward Gavin.
“Sophia, don’t…” Giovanni started to move toward her.
She fired. The sound was deafening.
The bullet caught Gavin in the left shoulder. And tore through muscle and tissue with devastating force.
Pain exploded white-hot through his entire body.
He grunted. Stumbled back a step. His hand went to his shoulder.
Blood. Lots of blood was already soaking through his white dress shirt. It was hot and wet against his fingers.
But he was still standing.
He looked up at Sophia. His face had gone pale but his eyes were burning with cold fury.
“That was a mistake,” he said quietly.
Then chaos erupted again.
The remaining guards, seeing Zeus dead and their new king shot, didn’t know whose orders to follow. Some moved toward Gavin. Others toward Sophia. Others just stood frozen.
Gavin’s eyes swept the hall.
Looking for one person.
Stephan.
Where was Stephan?
His twin was nowhere to be seen.
Which meant…
Melissa.
“KANE!” Gavin’s voice tore from his soul. Raw. Desperate. Commanding. “GO AND GET MELISSA!”
Kane was across the hall, surrounded by three more guards. He looked up at Gavin’s shout.
Saw the blood spreading across Gavin’s shoulder.
Saw his face and understood immediately.
For one second…just one…worry flashed across Kane’s usually impassive features.
Then he nodded.
And became a demon.
He broke the first guard’s nose with his forehead. Drove his knee into the second’s groin with devastating force. Caught the third’s head and slammed it into the marble column with a crack.
All three went down.
Kane ran.
Straight through the chaos. Dodging guards. Vaulting over fallen bodies. Moving with singular purpose toward the north wing.
Toward Melissa.
Two guards tried to block his path.
He didn’t slow down. Just lowered his shoulder and went through them like they weren’t there.
They hit the floor hard.
Kane disappeared through a side door.
Gavin turned his attention back to the immediate threats.
His wounded shoulder was screaming. Blood running down his arm now. Dripping from his fingers onto the marble.
Each movement sent fresh waves of agony through his body.
He ignored it.
A guard rushed him from the left. Gavin caught the man’s arm with his good hand, used his momentum against him, and threw him into the wall. The guard’s head bounced off marble and he went down.
Another came from the right. Gavin spun…mistake, his shoulder shrieked in protest…and drove his elbow into the man’s temple.
Down.
Dmitri Volkov was shouting something in Russian. Ordering his men to kill Gavin. To stop Kane.
Too late for both.
Giovanni Moretti had pulled out his own weapon. Was aiming it at Gavin with steady hands.
“You’ve destroyed everything,” Giovanni said. His voice was deadly calm. “Centuries of work. Generations of power. All gone because of your arrogance.”
“No,” Gavin said. Blood was dripping steadily from his shoulder now. His vision was starting to blur at the edges. “All gone because of your crimes.”
“Same thing.”
Giovanni’s finger tightened on the trigger.
A guard tackled him from the side.
The shot went wide. Hit a chandelier. Crystal rained down across the hall.
Gavin didn’t wait to see what happened next.
He ran.
Toward the same door Kane had gone through. Toward the north wing.
Toward Melissa.
Guards tried to stop him. He fought through them. His good arm doing most of the work. His wounded shoulder useless now. Just pain and blood and weakness.
But he kept moving.
Had to keep moving.
Had to get to her before Stephan…
Behind him, the hall dissolved into complete chaos.
The Five Families turning on each other. Guards fighting guards. Alliances shattering. The empire eating itself alive.
Zeus was dead.
The king was bleeding.
And the kingdom was burning.
Gavin burst through the door into a corridor. Stumbled. Caught himself against the wall.
Left a bloody handprint on the white paint.
His vision was graying. Blood loss catching up with him.
He pushed off the wall. Kept going.
Down the corridor. Toward the medical wing. Toward where they’d be keeping Melissa.
Where Stephan would have gone.