Forever, Amore

19.

Leo's P.O.V

I was nervous. For the first time ever, I was nervous. I never felt anything but positive emotions when out on mission. But I was truly terrified right now. I was terrified that something was going to happen to Monroe.

She has had training on combat. Not to mention she surprised me when it came to interrogating her father. She was ruthless. So I'm just praying to whoever will listen that she will surprise me and kick ass.

We both walked down the stairwell cautiously. We made it to the ninth floor when I glanced down and saw five men running towards the door we were stood next to. Immediately, I grabbed Roe's arm to stop her and silently gestured to the door we were stood in front of. We stood next to it so, when they entered, we wouldn't be seen right away, giving us the advantage.

The door flew open and the five men entered, dressed head to toe in black armed with machine guns. Me and Monroe instantly opened fire, killing all five of them. I was honestly shocked. Shocked because Monroe killed three of them. She killed more of them than I did.

She stood with a proud smile plastered on her face, making me smile at her. My amusement was quickly cut short by the sound of lots of feet charging up the stairs towards us. Grabbing her arm, I dragged both of us into the ninth floor, knowing that we couldn't go down the stairs anymore.

I pulled us both into a janitors closet and gave Monroe the tablet whilst I pulled out my phone. "Send back up." I whispered down the line to Noah. "It was a trap. He's working with them too. He sold us out to get redemption from them. But hurry up, I'm not about to let the bastard hurt her."

I hung up the phone to see a panicked Monroe looking back at me. Her finger pointed to the door, indicating they were on the other side of the door. Signing back to her, I told her to aim her gun at the door and be silent. Looking round, I noticed a vent on the wall behind some boxes. Silently moving them, I opened the vent and told Monroe to crawl in. Covering it back up, I entered myself and we crawled not knowing exactly where it would end up.

After what honestly felt like an hour, we found a secluded staircase below us. So we climbed out and ran down to the second floor when we were stopped by the sound of the safety turning off a gun. I turned to see a guy I recognised. He was one of the best men in their mafia. But he was making a fatal error.

He was wasting time.

He raised his gun mockingly at me and the sound of bullets echoed through the stairwell. I watched as his body fell to the ground as pain courses through my forearm.

That bastard shot me!

But I didn't shoot him..I turned to see Monroe's gun raised still as she slipped her tights off quickly and tied them above my wound tightly. "We need to get you out of here." She whispered, dragging me down to the bottom of the stairwell.

As soon as we opened the door into the lobby, carnage filled our vision. Loads of my men were fighting against the German Mafia as the enemies were falling like flies. Noah and Kat came running over, still shooting at people. "You good, brother?" Noah asked me as I nodded my head. His glance turned to Monroe. "Quick thinking, Tesoro."

She smiled proudly as all four of us charged through the lobby, firing at all the Germans. They were dropping rapidly, clearly less powerful than our men. Monroe had made many of those kills as well, making her so goddamn sexy right now.

Always bad timing but damn..the things that woman does to me.

Once they were all dead, we all left and got into our vehicles, speeding away. Monroe and I got in a black SUV with Noah and Kat. "What the fuck happened? How did it end up like that?" Kat questioned as Monroe scoffed. "He's a snake. Took from Hans, needed to get back into his good books, set us up so they could track us down and kill us. Pretty simple to be honest."

I chuckled at her bluntness. "If it wasn't for this one, we would probably be dead. Monroe was the one who figured it out quick enough. And not to mention how badass she was." I stated, running my fingers through her hair. "Guess I had a good teacher"

Pulling up at the strip again, Monroe and I decided to take the jet back to Manhattan. The mission royally fucked up so going home was the best option. Once I got stitched up by the medic, we boarded the plane and took off, heading back.

I watched as Monroe took some morphine before slowly sitting back down, clearly still in pain. "You alright, amore?" And she just nodded at me. "Are you?"

That made me laugh. I'd been shot so many times, I was honestly used to the pain. "I'm fine, amore. Don't worry about it, just a scratch."

She curled up into my body as I stroked her hair. The comfortable silence we sat in allowed me to think about some things. About how well she handled herself with such little training. How she was the smartest person i know. Not even Kat would be able to figure out James's game plan that quick. She pays attention to detail which makes her the best soldier.

Not only is this woman skilled, but she made me a better fighter. She gave me something to fight for. When she is by my side, I'm not careless anymore because I'm fighting for the both of us. By my side, I feel we are invincible. And that's why I had to do it. I had to say it.

"Join us."

She gasped and sat upright, looking at me serious. "Join us, amore. Join me. You're one of the best I've seen with such little training. You are insanely intelligent. You make me better by giving me something to fight hard for, knowing you're next to me fighting for your life too. Plus, like you said, you're family now. So make it official. Join my mafia."