Crossfire

**[Ace's POV]**
The warehouse loomed ahead like a concrete tomb. I could see the faint glow of lights through the grimy windows on the second floor. They were in there. Sofia. Jaxon. My entire world compressed into one dilapidated building that smelled of rust and old violence.
"Ace." Ice's voice crackled through my earpiece. "We've got eyes on three hostiles on the roof. Snipers. Two more at the loading bay entrance."
"Heat signatures inside?" I checked my Glock for the third time, the familiar weight grounding me.
"Multiple. At least eight, but the readings are scattered. Could be more." Dante's voice joined in. "This is a trap. You know that, right?"
Of course it was a trap. Gabriel wanted me to walk in there, wanted me emotional and reckless. The old Ace—the one who'd existed before Sofia—would have sent in a team, calculated the odds, minimized casualties. That Ace would have treated this like any other tactical operation.
But that Ace had never had anything to lose.
"I'm going in." I stepped out of the SUV, my team forming up behind me. Twenty men, armed to the teeth. Not enough if Gabriel had the place rigged, but it would have to do.
"At least let us clear the perimeter first," Ice urged.
"No time. Jaxon missed his last feeding. Sofia's probably—" I stopped, my jaw clenching. I couldn't think about what Sofia was going through. Couldn't think about my son crying for food, for comfort, for his parents. If I let myself feel it, I'd lose the cold focus keeping me functional.
My phone buzzed. Gabriel again. I answered on speaker.
"Ace! I'm so glad you could make it." His voice was cheerful, like we were meeting for drinks. "I can see you out there. Twenty men. Very impressive. Very... excessive."
"Let them go, Gabriel. This is between us."
"Oh, but where's the fun in that?" A pause. "I'm going to make this simple. You come in, alone, unarmed. I'll let you see them. Maybe even hold your son one last time before you die."
Every muscle in my body tensed. "If you've hurt them—"
"They're fine. Well, Sofia has a sprained ankle from her escape attempt—did I mention your wife is remarkably resourceful? But other than that, they're perfectly healthy. For now."
Ice shook his head violently, mouthing "Don't."
I ignored him. "I'm coming in. But if there's so much as a scratch on either of them when I get there, the deal's off. I'll burn this whole place down with you in it."
"Noted. Oh, and Ace? I wasn't kidding about the unarmed part. I've got a gun pointed at Sofia's head right now. Any weapons on you when you walk through that door, and I pull the trigger. Understood?"
The line went dead.
I started removing my weapons. Glock, backup piece, ankle gun, the knife Sofia had given me. Each one felt like losing a piece of armor, leaving myself exposed.
"You can't go in there naked," Dante protested. "It's suicide."
"Then it's suicide." I handed Ice my last gun. "Give me five minutes. If you don't hear from me, come in loud. Burn the place if you have to, just get them out."
Ice grabbed my arm. "Ace. Brother. Think about this."
I met his eyes. "I am thinking. I'm thinking about my wife and son in there with a psychopath who wants to hurt them to hurt me. I'm thinking about Jaxon's heart stopping in that NICU, and how I promised I'd never let anything happen to him again. I'm thinking—" My voice cracked, just slightly. "I'm thinking I can't lose them. So yeah, I'm walking in there. Because that's what you do when you love someone more than your own life."
I pulled away and started toward the loading bay entrance. Each step felt surreal, like walking through water. The two guards at the door patted me down, thorough and professional. When they were satisfied I was clean, one of them keyed a radio.
"He's clear."
The loading bay door rolled up with a screech of protesting metal. Inside was darkness punctuated by harsh fluorescent lights. And standing in the center of that light, holding a gun casually at his side, was Gabriel.
Behind him, maybe thirty feet back, I could see them.
Sofia sat on the floor, Jaxon cradled against her chest. Even from here, I could see she was feeding him, her body curled protectively around our son. Her face was pale, a bruise darkening her cheekbone, and the way she held her left foot suggested Dante's intel about the sprained ankle was accurate.
But she was alive. They both were.
Our eyes met across the warehouse, and the relief that crashed through me was almost painful in its intensity. Sofia's expression crumpled for just a moment—fear, hope, love, all flickering across her face before she schooled it back to careful neutrality.
"Touching, isn't it?" Gabriel's voice pulled my attention back to him. "The happy family. I almost hate to break it up."
"Let them go." I kept my voice level, though every instinct screamed to run to them. "You have me. That's what you wanted."
"What I wanted," Gabriel said slowly, circling me like a predator, "was for you to understand. To feel what I felt growing up. The helplessness. The rage. The knowledge that someone else had everything that should have been yours."
"I didn't know you existed. None of this is my fault."
"Isn't it?" He stopped in front of me, close enough that I could see the family resemblance clearly. Same nose, same jaw, same fucking curse of Kai Hernandez's blood. "You got to be the heir. The chosen one. While I was hidden away like a dirty secret because my mother was just some servant Kai raped at a party."---
**[Sofia's POV]**
I watched Ace standing there, weaponless and vulnerable, facing down Gabriel. Every maternal instinct screamed at me to run, to take Jaxon and flee while Gabriel was distracted. But I knew that's what Gabriel wanted. The moment I moved, he'd use it as an excuse to hurt Ace.
Jaxon had finished feeding and was starting to doze against my shoulder, blissfully unaware of the danger surrounding us. I held him close, one hand supporting his head, the other ready to grab the gun I'd hidden under my thigh. I'd taken it from the unconscious guard earlier, the one I'd hit with the metal pipe. Gabriel's men hadn't thought to check me when they'd dragged me upstairs.
Stupid. Men always underestimated women in crisis.
"Kai's crimes aren't mine to answer for," Ace was saying, his voice that particular tone of forced calm I'd learned meant he was barely holding it together. "But you want someone to pay? Fine. I'm here. Let Sofia and Jaxon walk out, and you can do whatever you want to me."
"No!" The word burst out before I could stop it.
Both men's heads snapped toward me. Gabriel's smile widened. "Ah, the wife objects. How romantic."
"Sofia." Ace's voice was gentle, but I heard the warning underneath. *Stay quiet. Stay safe.* "It's okay."
"It's not okay!" I struggled to my feet, pain shooting through my ankle, careful to keep Jaxon stable against my shoulder. "I'm not leaving you here, Ace. We're a family. We leave together or not at all."
"How noble," Gabriel commented. "But also stupid. I'm offering you a way out, Sofia. Most women would take it."
"I'm not most women." I met his eyes, letting him see the steel underneath. "And if you knew anything about the Diaz family, you'd know we don't run from fights."
Gabriel's expression shifted, something like respect flickering there. "Raul's sister. The one who put a knife in him to save Ace. I'd almost forgotten." He looked between us. "This is quite the love story. The mafia princess and the cold-blooded killer. Does he know, Sofia? Does he know about all the bodies I've found? The trail of death following him since he was nine years old?"
"I know exactly who he is." My voice didn't waver. "And I love him anyway."
I saw something break in Ace's expression—just for a second, his iron control slipping to show the raw emotion underneath. Love. Fear. Determination.
"Enough." Gabriel raised his gun, pointing it at Ace. "Here's what's going to happen. Ace, you're going to kneel. Hands behind your head. Sofia, you're going to watch your husband die. Then I'm going to take Jaxon—"
"The fuck you are." The gun was in my hand before I'd consciously decided to move, trained on Gabriel's head.
The warehouse exploded into motion. Gabriel's men raised their weapons, shouting. Ace lunged forward, trying to reach me. Gabriel spun, his gun now pointed at Jaxon.
"Everyone STOP!" Gabriel's roar echoed off the concrete walls.
We all froze. Mexican standoff didn't even begin to cover it.
"Sofia," Gabriel said softly, "put the gun down. Or I shoot the baby."
My hand trembled. Jaxon stirred against my shoulder, making a small sound of protest at the tension in my body.
"You won't." I forced confidence into my voice. "You said yourself, he's leverage. You kill him, you lose your only advantage."
"Maybe. Or maybe I'm just crazy enough not to care." Gabriel's finger moved to the trigger. "Test me if you want. See if you're willing to bet your son's life on your read of my psychology."
"Sofia." Ace's voice was hoarse. "Baby, please. Put it down."
I looked at him—really looked at him. The man who'd terrified me when we first met. Who'd become my protector, my lover, my husband. The father of my child. I saw the desperation in his eyes, the silent plea.
*Trust me,* his expression said. *I'll get us out of this.*
But how could he, when he was unarmed and outnumbered?
That's when I heard it. A tiny click. So small most people would have missed it. But I'd spent months training with Ace, learning to recognize the sounds of different weapons.
Safety clicking off. And it hadn't come from Gabriel.
I looked up and saw him. Ice, barely visible in the rafters above, a sniper rifle trained on Gabriel's head. Dante on the opposite side, another rifle. They'd gotten in somehow, were in position.
Ace had never planned to come in alone. He'd just made Gabriel think he had.
The question was: could they take the shot without Gabriel pulling his trigger first?
"Five seconds, Sofia," Gabriel warned. "Then I decide for you."
Jaxon whimpered. My baby. My perfect, innocent baby who didn't deserve any of this.
I thought about what Ace had taught me about mafia negotiations. *Sometimes the best move is the one they don't see coming.*
I lowered the gun slowly, bending to place it on the ground. "Okay. You win. Just... please don't hurt him."
Gabriel relaxed slightly. Fatal mistake.
Because I didn't stand back up. Instead, I rolled sideways, clutching Jaxon to my chest, moving us out of Gabriel's line of fire.
The warehouse erupted.
Gunfire exploded from every direction. Ice and Dante from above. Ace's team crashing through windows. Gabriel's men returning fire.
I curled around Jaxon, my body the only shield he had, my hand pressed over his ear to muffle the sound. I felt something hot zip past my shoulder—a bullet, too close. I scrambled toward the nearest cover, a stack of wooden crates, my ankle screaming in protest.
Through the chaos, I saw Ace. He'd closed the distance to Gabriel during the confusion, and now they were locked in combat. Hand to hand, brutal and vicious.
"Stay down!" Someone grabbed me—Ice, pulling me further behind the crates. "We've got you covered!"
"Ace—" I started.
"Is doing what he does best." Ice chambered another round. "Trust him."
I watched my husband fight. Every move was precise, efficient, deadly. This was the Ace the world feared. Not the gentle man who read to our son, or the vulnerable one who held me through nightmares. This was the monster Kai had created.
And I'd never been more grateful for that monster.
Gabriel was good—I had to give him that. He matched Ace blow for blow, the two of them locked in a brutal dance. But Gabriel had one disadvantage: he was fighting for revenge.
Ace was fighting for love.
The difference showed.
Ace swept Gabriel's leg, sending him crashing to the concrete. Before Gabriel could recover, Ace was on him, fists raining down with methodical precision. Each impact echoed through the warehouse, punctuating the still-firing guns around us.
"Ace!" I screamed as Gabriel managed to grab a piece of broken rebar, swinging it at Ace's head.
Ace dodged, but not quite fast enough. The metal caught his temple, and blood sprayed. He stumbled back, dazed.
Gabriel lunged forward, the rebar raised for another strike—
The shot rang out, impossibly loud.
Gabriel jerked, a red bloom spreading across his shoulder. He spun, searching for the shooter.
Ice lowered his rifle, already chambering another round. "Nobody touches my family."
*[Ace's POV]**
The world was tilting, blood running down the side of my face from where the rebar had connected. But I couldn't stop. Wouldn't stop. Not until Gabriel was down and my family was safe.
I tackled him before he could recover from Ice's shot, driving him back into the concrete. My hands found his throat, squeezing. Years of rage—at Kai, at this whole fucked up legacy, at anyone who dared threaten what I loved—poured into that grip.
Gabriel clawed at my hands, choking, his face turning red. But I didn't let go.
"You came after my family," I growled. "My wife. My son. You made the last mistake of your pathetic life."
His eyes were bulging now, his struggles weakening. It would be so easy. Just a little more pressure, a few more seconds, and he'd be gone. Another body in the endless pile. Another problem solved with violence.
"Ace." Sofia's voice cut through the red haze. Quiet, gentle, but it reached me anyway. "Ace, stop."
I didn't loosen my grip. Couldn't. "He tried to kill you. He threatened Jaxon."
"I know." She was closer now. I could hear Jaxon making small sounds, probably disturbed by all the chaos. "But you're not him. You're not Kai. You don't have to kill him."
"He deserves to die."
Maybe." Her hand touched my shoulder, warm and real. "But we deserve better than watching you become what you hate. Jaxon deserves a father who chose mercy when he could have chosen violence."
My hands trembled. Gabriel had gone still beneath me, unconscious or close to it. Around us, the gunfire had stopped. Ice and Dante had Gabriel's remaining men secured.
It was over. We'd won.
So why couldn't I let go?
"Look at me," Sofia whispered.
I did. She was standing right there, Jaxon in her arms, both of them alive and whole. My entire world, contained in this one woman and our tiny son.
"We're okay," she said softly. "We're safe. You saved us. Now come home."
Something inside me broke. Or maybe it healed. I released Gabriel, letting him slump unconscious to the floor. My hands were shaking as I stood, reaching for Sofia.
She came into my arms, careful not to crush Jaxon between us. I held them both, my face buried in her hair, feeling their heartbeats, solid and real and alive.
"I'm sorry," I breathed. "I'm so sorry. I should have protected you better. Should have—"
"Stop." Sofia pulled back just enough to look at me. "You did protect us. We're here, aren't we? All three of us."
Jaxon chose that moment to let out an indignant wail, as if reminding us he was, in fact, present and unimpressed with all the violence.
I laughed—actually laughed—and reached out to touch his tiny fist. "Hey, buddy. I know. This was scary, huh? But it's over now. We're going home."
"Boss?" Ice approached cautiously. "What do you want us to do with him?" He gestured to Gabriel's unconscious form.
I looked down at my half-brother. The man who shared my blood but none of my choices. Part of me still wanted him dead. But Sofia was right—that path only led to becoming my father.
"Secure him. Medical attention for the gunshot, then lock him in the basement at headquarters. We'll figure out what to do with him later." I turned to Ice. "And find out how he got to Terry. How he knew about Jaxon. I want every leak in our organization sealed."
"Already on it," Dante confirmed from across the warehouse.
I wrapped my arm around Sofia's waist, supporting her weight so she could keep pressure off her injured ankle. "Come on. Let's get you both checked out."
We made it three steps before Sofia swayed, her face going white.
"Sofia?" I caught her as her knees buckled. "Baby, talk to me."
"Just... adrenaline crash," she managed. But when I looked down, I saw it—blood soaking through her shirt near her shoulder.
"You're hit." My voice came out strangled. "Sofia, you're fucking shot."
"Oh." She looked down at the wound like she was just noticing it. "That... explains the burning feeling."
Ice was already on his radio, calling for our medical team. I lowered Sofia gently to the ground, careful not to jostle Jaxon. The baby was crying now, sensing his mother's distress.
"Stay with me," I commanded, pressing my hand to the wound. Blood seeped between my fingers. Too much blood. "Sofia, stay with me."
"Not planning to go anywhere." But her voice was getting weaker. "Ace... Jaxon..."
"I've got him. Ice, take him." I transferred our son to Ice's arms, ignoring his protests. Right now, I needed
both hands to keep Sofia alive.
"Medic's two minutes out," Dante reported.
Two minutes. Might as well be two hours with how fast she was bleeding.
"You don't get to die," I told Sofia fiercely. "Not after everything we've been through. Not after I just got you back. You hear me? You don't fucking get to leave me."
Her eyes were starting to lose focus. "Love you," she whispered. "Both... of you..."
"No. No goodbye. You're going to be fine. We're going to go home, and you're going to recover, and we're going to raise our son together like we planned." My voice cracked. "Sofia, please. I need you. Jaxon needs you. You can't—"
"Sir." A hand on my shoulder. The medic, finally. "Let us work."
I moved aside, watching as they cut away Sofia's shirt, packing the wound, starting an IV. Professional, efficient, practiced. But my wife's blood was still everywhere, and her eyes had closed, and I couldn't breathe—
"Ace." Ice appeared beside me, Jaxon still in his arms. Our son had stopped crying, was now just staring up at me with those big eyes that looked so much like Sofia's. "She's strong. She'll make it."
I took Jaxon back, holding him close. He was warm and solid and alive. Because of Sofia. She'd protected him through all of this, kept him safe even when Gabriel had a gun to his head.
"She has to make it," I said quietly. "She's the only reason any of this matters."
The medics loaded Sofia onto a gurney. I followed, Jaxon in my arms, unwilling to let either of them out of my sight ever again.
Behind us, Ice supervised securing Gabriel and the crime scene. But all I could focus on was Sofia's pale face, the steady drip of blood into the bag below her gurney, the weak but present pulse in her neck.
We'd won. We'd survived.
Now we just had to make sure victory didn't cost us everything anyway.