Chapter 10 - The Stolen Heirloom and the Shadows in the Nursery
I took the stairs three at a time, ignoring the searing pain shooting through my freshly healed ankle.
The heavy oak door to the nursery was hanging off its hinges, splintered by a tactical breaching charge. Cold rain and freezing wind whipped through the shattered bay window, blowing white curtains across the room like ghosts.
The crib was empty.
Emma’s plush rabbit lay on the floor, trampled beneath muddy boot prints.
"No... no, no, no!" I fell to my knees, clutching the stuffed animal against my chest, let out a gut-wrenching, feral scream of absolute agony. "EMMA!"
Luca burst into the room behind me, his weapon raised, followed by Dante.
Luca took one look at the empty room, and a terrifying change came over him. The cold, calculated mafia Don vanished. In his place was a creature of pure, apocalyptic wrath.
He walked over to the shattered window, looking down at the cliffside. A grappling hook and tactical ropes dangled over the edge toward a waiting speedboat on the sound below.
Luca picked up a two-way radio from his vest.
"All harbor interceptors," Luca said, his voice terrifyingly calm, stripped of all humanity. "Weapons free. Authorize lethal force on all unidentified vessels leaving the sound. If anyone harms that little girl, burn this entire city to the ground."
Luca turned back to me. He knelt down in the mud and broken glass, taking my tear-streaked face in his hands.
"Look at me, Ava."
"She’s gone..." I sobbed, my chest heaving with suffocating pain. "Jake has her... he’s going to kill her..."
"Jake does not have the courage to kill her," Luca said, his dark eyes blazing with an unholy fire. "She is his only bargaining chip. He took her to Pier 42. He wants me to trade the docks for her life."
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Luca leaned in, pressing his forehead against mine.
"I swear to you on my father’s grave, on my mother’s soul, and on the blood in my veins: I will bring our daughter home. And I will make Jake Martinez beg for death."
