Chapter 8 - What Luca Was Willing to Lose
I screamed my mother’s name.
Luca was already moving.
He jumped into the nearest SUV.
I climbed into the passenger seat.
“No.”
“Drive.”
“Rosalie—”
“That is my mother.”
He swore and hit the accelerator.
Gabriel followed with two guards.
Chicago blurred past us.
Marcus’s SUV headed south.
Luca called police contacts, traffic-control contacts, people whose job descriptions I probably did not want explained.
Then Marcus called him.
Luca answered through the car speakers.
“Stop the car.”
Marcus laughed.
“Still giving orders.”
“Let Lucia go.”
“Bring me Gabriel and the ledger.”
My mother’s voice sounded faintly in the background.
“Rosie, don’t—”
The line went dead.
I stared ahead.
“Where is he going?”
Luca’s expression was grim.
“The warehouse.”
Of course.
Everything returned to where it started.
The abandoned building stood near the river.
Fire had destroyed half of it 14 years earlier.
Marcus waited inside.
So did Bruno.
That was the final betrayal.
Marcus had never abandoned Bruno.
He had entered Luca’s organization years earlier and risen slowly until he controlled security.
The perfect position.
My mother sat tied to a chair.
Bruno stood behind her.
Marcus held a gun.
Gabriel entered beside us.
Bianca had followed despite being ordered not to.
The moment Bruno saw her, his smile changed.
“Still beautiful.”
Bianca’s face filled with disgust.
“You should have stayed dead.”
“You never meant that.”
“I meant it every day.”
Gabriel stepped forward.
“Let Lucia go.”
Bruno looked at his son.
“My heir.”
“I own a bookstore.”
“You are a Vericio.”
“No. I’m Gabriel.”
Something about that simple answer seemed to enrage Bruno.
He aimed at him.
Luca stepped between them.
“No.”
Bruno laughed.
“You would die for him?”
“He’s family.”
“You don’t even know him.”
“Apparently that has never stopped this family from ruining people’s lives.”
I looked at Luca.
For the first time, I saw the difference between him and the men who had raised him.
He was not fearless.
He was tired of fear being the family language.
Bruno demanded the evidence.
I held the metal case.
“You want this?”
“Yes.”
“Then release my mother.”
“Bring it here.”
I walked.
Luca caught my wrist.
“No.”
“I know.”
“What?”
“I know what I’m doing.”
I did not.
But sometimes courage was merely terror that had run out of alternatives.
I carried the case toward Bruno.
Marcus moved toward me.
When he reached for it, I dropped it.
Papers exploded across the floor.
Marcus instinctively looked down.
My mother kicked him.
Hard.
The chair tipped.
Luca moved.
Gunfire erupted.
Bianca pulled Gabriel behind a concrete pillar.
I crawled toward my mother.
Marcus grabbed my ankle.
I kicked.
He dragged me backward.
Then Luca hit him.
The two men crashed into the floor.
Bruno raised his gun.
At Luca.
I saw it before anyone else.
“Luca!”
He turned.
The shot fired.
Luca staggered.
Everything stopped.
He looked down.
Blood spread across his shirt.
Again.
“No.”
I reached him as his knees hit the floor.
Bruno ran.
Gabriel chased him.
Sirens sounded outside.
Luca’s hands were cold.
“No, no, no.”
He looked at me.
“Rosalie.”
“Don’t talk.”
“You always tell me that.”
“I have literally never told you that.”
“Feels like you have.”
“You’re not funny.”
His lips moved.
“I made you smile.”
“You’ve been shot.”
“Again.”
I pressed both hands against the wound.
“Stay with me.”
His eyes began closing.
“Luca.”
They opened.
“Why?”
“What?”
“Why did you help me that night?”
Tears blurred my vision.
“You were hurt.”
“That’s still your answer?”
“Yes.”
He smiled weakly.
“Terrible survival instincts.”
“Luca.”
His hand found mine.
“If I don’t—”
“Don’t.”
“Rosalie.”
“You are not dying in front of me.”
His breathing weakened.
“Bossy maid.”
“Arrogant criminal.”
That made him smile.
Then his eyes closed.
“Luca!”
Paramedics entered.
They pulled me away.
I fought them until my mother wrapped both arms around me.
Luca disappeared through the warehouse doors on a stretcher.
Outside, police had Bruno in custody.
Gabriel stood beside Bianca.
Marcus was handcuffed.
Everything my father had tried to expose was finally in the hands of federal investigators.
The nightmare should have felt finished.
It did not.
Because an ambulance was carrying Luca away.
May you like
And suddenly I understood the part that frightened me most.
Somewhere between antiseptic, gunfire, family secrets, and terrible jokes, the man I had been warned to fear had become the man I could not bear to lose.
