“Stop Calling Me Your Girlfriend!” the Plus-Size Baker Snapped—So the Mafia Boss Came Back With No Excuse

The grace period was short. Don Carmine Castiglione, furious that his hitmen had failed, launched an all-out offensive against the Moretti syndicate. He targeted Gabriel’s shipping lines, his warehouses, and finally, made the fatal mistake of threatening Nonna Elena’s estate.

Gabriel was done playing defensive.

"Stay at the estate with Nonna," Gabriel commanded Mara as he strapped on his leather shoulder holster in her living room, his face hardened into an emotionless mask of war. "The house is a fortress. Marco will be with you."

Mara stood before him, fixing the collar of his dark coat. "You finish this today, Gabriel. No more threats hanging over our heads. No more hiding."

Gabriel cupped her face, pressing a hard, desperate kiss to her lips. "I will burn his world to the ground, Mara. And then I will come home to you."

While Gabriel led his men into a decisive strike against Castiglione's headquarters downtown, Carmine attempted one final, desperate play. Knowing Gabriel was away, Carmine sent a squad of four men to breach the rear gates of the Lake Forest estate, aiming to take Mara and Nonna Elena hostage.

They didn't reckon with the women inside.

When the intruders breached the glass conservatory, Nonna Elena met them in the hallway holding a vintage double-barreled shotgun, while Mara stood beside her holding a heavy copper frying pan and a gallon of industrial lye soap.

"In my day," Nonna Elena cackled, firing a shot over the lead gunman's head that shattered the glass chandelier above him, "invaders had the decency to knock!"

Mara threw the slippery lye soap across the marble floor, sending two hitmen sliding violently off their feet, crashing into a mahogany display case. Before the remaining men could recover, Marco and the inner guards ambushed them from the balconies above, ending the threat within ninety seconds.

When Gabriel arrived twenty minutes later, expecting a bloodbath, he found Nonna Elena sipping espresso and Mara calmly tying up the last unconscious hitman with heavy twine used for curing meats.