The Mafia Boss Noticed His Maid Never Ate Dinner — What He Found in Her Bag Changed His Rules...

Smoke and dust filled the hallway as three armed men in black tactical gear burst into the apartment through the destroyed entryway.

I screamed, reacting instantly on pure motherly instinct. I scrambled off the couch, sprinting toward Mia's bedroom to block the hallway.

"Grab the girl!" a harsh voice barked through the smoke. "Moretti wants them both alive!"

Before the lead gunman could reach Mia's door, a heavy shadow dropped from the balcony window behind them.

It was Zo.

He didn't wait for his security team to go first. The second the building's silent perimeter alarm had been triggered at his estate, Zo had taken his personal high-speed vehicle, driving through red lights across Chicago to reach us himself.

Zo moved like a shadow of pure vengeance.

He disarmed the lead gunman with a lightning-fast wrist lock, slamming the man's head into the concrete wall with bone-shattering force. Before the second attacker could bring his rifle to bear, Zo drew a tactical sidearm from his shoulder holster, firing two quick shots that neutralised the threat instantly.

The third hitman turned toward me, raising his weapon in panic.

"NO!" I screamed, grabbing a heavy brass floor lamp from beside the wall and swinging it with everything I had, slamming it directly into the side of the gunman's face.

The man stumbled backward, dazed. Zo closed the distance instantly, delivering a final, crushing blow that dropped the attacker unconscious onto the ruined hardwood floor.

Silence fell over the apartment, thick with smoke, gunpowder, and heavy breathing.

"Mia!" I gasped, dropping the lamp and sprinting into her room.

Mia was huddled under her blankets, clutching her two-eared stuffed rabbit to her chest, trembling violently but completely unhurt thanks to her soundproof, reinforced door.

"Mommy!" she sobbed, throwing her small arms around my neck.

"I'm here, baby. I'm here. You're safe," I wept, kissing her forehead over and over.

Zo stepped into the bedroom doorway. His dark jacket was torn, his knuckles were bruised, and a small cut bled near his temple, but his eyes were completely focused on us.

He knelt on the floor beside us, his massive frame creating an impenetrable wall between us and the destruction in the living room.

"Are you hurt?" Zo asked, his voice shaking with a terrifying, rare panic. "Tessa, did they touch you?"

"We're okay," I sobbed, reaching out with one hand to touch his face, my fingers coming away with a smear of his blood. "Zo... you came for us."

"I will always come for you," Zo swore softly, leaning his forehead against mine as Mia reached out her small hand and wrapped her fingers around his thumb.

Dominic and a squad of twenty armed Rossi guards flooded the apartment seconds later, securing the floor and clearing the building.

Dominic stepped up to Zo, his face pale with adrenaline. "Boss! Moretti's main convoy is moving toward the docks right now. He thinks you're trapped here."