Chapter Nine: The Ambush

The drones appeared three days after Giovanni kissed her.

Small, dark shapes against the November sky. Circling the property perimeter like mechanical vultures.

Lauren spotted the first one from Luca’s nursery window while changing his diaper. Watched it hover near the eastern tree line before disappearing.

Giovanni’s security team moved immediately.

Within an hour, the property went into lockdown. Additional guards materialized from somewhere, positioning themselves at strategic points she hadn’t even known existed.

The house transformed from fortress to bunker in the time it took her to feed Luca lunch.

“They’re testing our response times.” Giovanni explained that evening.

They stood in his security office. A room she’d only glimpsed before. Watching feeds from forty-seven cameras positioned throughout the estate.

“Mapping weak points. Calculating how many men we have, where they’re stationed.”

“The cartel?”

“Who else?”

He zoomed in on footage from the north gate. Enhanced the image until she could see tire tracks in the mud.

“They’ve been quiet for weeks. I should have known that meant they were planning something.”

Luca sat in a portable playpen they’d brought down. Stacking blocks with intense concentration. Almost ten months old now. He’d mastered walking and was working on running, much to everyone’s anxiety.

He had no concept of the danger surrounding him. No understanding that men with guns watched his every outdoor appearance through scopes and surveillance equipment.

“What happens now?”

“Now I meet with them. Face to face. Neutral territory. Try to negotiate before this escalates into open war.”

Giovanni’s jaw clenched. The muscle jumping in a way she’d learned meant he was calculating odds. Running scenarios.

“The meeting is set for next week.”

“That’s insane. You just said they’re mapping the property. This could be a trap.”

“It’s definitely a trap. The question is whether I can turn it to my advantage.”

Over the next week, Lauren watched Giovanni prepare with the same meticulous attention he’d once applied to legitimate business deals.

He met with his most trusted people. Men whose names she was learning. Whose faces had become familiar.

They spoke in Italian sometimes. Rapid exchanges she couldn’t follow but understood were about strategy and contingencies. About who to trust if everything went wrong.

She threw herself into helping the only way she could.

Giovanni’s import businesses were legitimate fronts. But they still required legal compliance. Contracts that would hold up under federal scrutiny.

She reviewed every document. Flagged potential vulnerabilities. Suggested language that would protect his interests without crossing into obviously illegal territory.

“You’re good at this.” Giovanni said one night. They were in his study, surrounded by papers. Luca asleep in his portable crib near the fireplace. “Better than the lawyers I’ve been paying premium rates for years.”

“Because I actually care about keeping you out of prison.”

“Do you?”

He looked up from the contract he’d been reading. His dark eyes catching the lamplight.

“Care about keeping me out of prison?”

The question felt loaded with more than he was asking.

She met his gaze. Refused to look away. Even though her heart hammered against her ribs.

“I care about Luca having his father. The rest is complicated.”

“Everything with us has always been complicated.”

He wasn’t wrong.

Since that kiss, they’d been dancing around each other. Carefully maintaining distance while the air between them stayed charged with tension.

She’d catch him watching her when he thought she wasn’t looking. He’d find excuses to brush past her in hallways. His hand landing on her lower back in that possessive way that made her breath catch.

But they hadn’t crossed that line again. Not with so much uncertainty. Not with the cartel circling and Agent Reed waiting for information she still hadn’t figured out how to provide without destroying everything.

Speaking of which, Reed had been persistent. Three encrypted messages in the past week alone. Each more urgent than the last.

The FBI knew about the upcoming meeting. They wanted details. Location. Timing. Anything that would let them set up their own surveillance.

She’d been stalling. Claiming she didn’t have access to that information.

It was partly true. Giovanni kept the specifics close. Sharing only what she needed to know.

But she could have asked. Could have used the trust he was rebuilding with her to extract what Reed wanted.

She just couldn’t bring herself to do it.

“I’ve been thinking.” Giovanni said, pulling her from her spiral. “About what happens if the meeting goes badly.”

“Don’t. Lauren, we have to be realistic.”

“These men want me dead or weakened. They want access to my territory, my operations. The only thing stopping them from making a move is uncertainty about how my organization would respond to my death.”

“Then don’t give them the chance.”

“I have to end this. I can’t raise Luca in a war zone. Can’t have you both living behind walls and cameras forever.”

He stood. Crossed to where she sat. Crouched down so they were eye level.

“But if something happens to me, I need to know you and Luca will be protected.”

“Nothing’s going to happen to you.”

“Maybe not. Probably not. But I didn’t survive this long by failing to plan for worst-case scenarios.”

He pulled a folder from his desk drawer. Handed it to her.

Legal documents. Full custody to her. Trust fund for Luca. Access to accounts that would keep her comfortable for the rest of her life. Instructions for his second-in-command about her protection.

Her hands shook as she opened the folder. Saw her name on page after page of legal text.

He’d thought of everything. Anticipated every possibility except the one where she couldn’t imagine him gone.

“Giovanni. You don’t have to do this now.”

“Yes, I do. Tomorrow I meet with the cartel’s leadership. Tomorrow I walk into a situation where I’m outnumbered and relying on honor among thieves to keep me breathing. Tonight I make sure my son is protected. No matter what.”

Luca stirred in his crib. Making the small sounds that meant he’d wake soon.

Giovanni went to him automatically. Lifted him with the gentle competence that still caught her off guard.

Their son blinked sleepily. Then smiled at his father with such pure joy it cracked something open in her chest.

“Hey, troublemaker. Did we wake you?” Giovanni swayed slightly. That unconscious rhythm. “Your mama and I are just talking about boring grown-up stuff. Nothing for you to worry about.”

But she was worried.

Terrified, actually.

The thought of Luca growing up without his father. Of Giovanni walking into danger tomorrow and not walking back out.

It made it hard to breathe.

“Stay.” She heard herself say. “Tonight. Stay with us.”

Giovanni’s eyes found hers over Luca’s head.

“Lauren—”

“I don’t want to be alone tonight. I don’t want you to be alone. Whatever happens tomorrow, tonight we should be together.”

He nodded slowly. Something raw and vulnerable crossing his face before he controlled it.

“Okay.”

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