Trial by Fire

Trial by Fire

Aria's POV

I woke up to the sound of yelling.
My head felt like someone had hit it with a hammer, and my mouth tasted like metal. The gas from Roberto's attack was still making me dizzy, but I forced myself to sit up.
We were in some kind of building. Through the smoke, I could see Marco, Luca, Dmitri, and Kai tied to chairs nearby. They were all asleep, blood trickling from cuts on their faces.
But the shouting wasn't coming from them.
"Please, I don't know anything!" a young person cried out.
Sofia. Marco's twelve-year-old sister.
I crawled toward the sound, staying low behind stacked boxes. In the middle of the warehouse, Roberto stood over Sofia, who was tied to a chair. Vincent was nowhere to be seen, but three armed guys watched the exits.
"Where did your brother hide the Castellano documents?" Roberto ordered, slapping Sofia across the face.
"I don't know what you're talking about!" Sofia sobbed.
"Wrong answer."
Roberto raised his hand to hit her again, and something inside me snapped.
I'd never hurt anyone in my life. I'd barely been in a real fight before these last few weeks. But watching this grown man abuse a child made me see red.
I grabbed a piece of broken metal from the floor and crept closer.
"Please," Sofia begged. "I just want to go home."
"You're never going home," Roberto said bitterly. "Vincent wants you dead, and I always give Vincent what he wants."
He pulled out a gun and pointed it at Sofia's head.
I didn't think. I just moved.
The metal pipe caught Roberto in the back of his head with a wet cracking sound. He stumbled forward, the gun flying from his hands.
"Sofia, close your eyes!" I shouted.
Roberto spun around, blood running down his face. "You little—"
He lunged at me, and we crashed to the floor. He was bigger and stronger, but I was desperate. We rolled across the concrete, fighting for control.
"You killed my son!" he screamed, trying to wrap his hands around my throat.
I kneed him in the stomach and broke free, rushing toward the gun he'd dropped. My fingers closed around it just as Roberto grabbed my ankle.
"I should have let Vincent kill you years ago," he growled, dragging me back.
The gun was heavier than I expected. My hands were shaking so badly I could barely hold it.
"Let me go," I warned.
Roberto laughed. "You won't shoot me. You're not a killer."
He was right. I wasn't a killer. I was a college student who taught dance to kids on weekends. I'd never even stepped on a bug on purpose.
But when Roberto pulled out a knife and started moving toward Sofia again, everything changed.
"Stay away from her," I said, raising the gun.
"Or what? You'll shoot an old man?"
"Yes."
The word came out harder than I expected. Roberto must have heard something in my voice because he stopped moving.
"You don't have it in you," he said, but he sounded less certain.
"Try me."
For a moment, we stared at each other. Then Roberto smiled that cold smile and raised the knife toward Sofia's throat.
I pulled the gun.
The gunshot was impossibly loud in the enclosed room. Roberto fell backward, a red stain spreading across his chest.
Sofia screamed. I dropped the gun like it was on fire, my whole body shaking.
Roberto wasn't moving. Blood pooled underneath him, dark and spreading.
I'd killed him.
I'd actually killed someone.
My knees gave out, and I fell to the floor. Everything felt strange, like I was watching someone else's life happen.
"Aria!" Marco's words cut through the ringing in my ears.
The guys were waking up, pushing against their ropes. Kai had somehow gotten one hand free and was working on the others.
"Sofia, are you hurt?" I asked, my voice sounding strange and far away.
"No," she whispered. "You saved me."
But I didn't feel like a hero. I felt sick and empty and wrong.
Dmitri broke free first and ran to me. "Hey, look at me. Look at me."
His ice-blue eyes were gentle as he cupped my face in his hands. "You did what you had to do."
"I killed him." The words came out as a whisper.
"You protected family," Kai said quietly, kneeling beside us. "That's what we do."
Marco freed Sofia and pulled her into a protective hug before coming over to me. "Are you hurt?"
I shook my head, but everything felt broken inside.
"The first time is always the hardest," Luca said softly. "But it gets easier."
"I don't want it to get easier," I said, tears streaming down my face. "I don't want to be someone who kills people."
"You're not," Marco said strongly. "You're someone who protects the people she loves. There's a difference."
They formed a circle around me, these four scary men who'd become my world. Dmitri held my hands to stop them from shaking. Kai spoke quietly about honor and important choices. Luca told me stories about his first time, how Marco had held him afterward. Marco just stayed close, solid and comforting.
Slowly, the shaking stopped. The sick feeling didn't go away, but it became doable.
"We need to move," Kai said finally. "Roberto's men will come looking for him."
"Where's Vincent?" I asked, suddenly remembering why we were here.
"Gone," Dmitri said, checking Roberto's phone. "But he left a message."
He showed me the screen. A text from Vincent: The Commission meeting has been changed. Tonight. Pier 19. Come alone, or watch your great-grandfather die on live television.
"Tonight?" Marco said. "That's impossible. We're not ready."
"And he wants me alone again," I said, standing on shaky legs.
"Not happening," all four men said at once.
"But if I don't go—"
"We'll figure out another way," Luca said firmly.
That's when Sofia spoke up from where she'd been quietly watching us. "There's something you should know about Great-Uncle Antonio."
We all turned to look at her.
"He's not just Vincent's prisoner," she said, her young voice deadly serious. "According to family papers, he's been working with Vincent for the last five years. The whole kidnapping thing? It's fake."
The building went silent except for the sound of my heart breaking.
"What are you saying?" I whispered.
"I'm saying your great-grandfather has been helping Vincent hunt you this whole time."