Chapter 8 - When the Masks Slip and the Confession in the Rain
Before I could turn and run, Marco lunged forward, grabbing my arm and slamming his hand over my mouth.
"Shut up!" he hissed, his eyes wild with desperation. "Shut up or I'll break your neck! I didn't want this, Ava! Moretti has my son! If I don't give them the access codes to the docks tonight, they're going to kill my boy!"
I bit down savagely on the meat of his palm.
Marco shrieked in pain, releasing his grip for a split second.
"LUCA!" I screamed at the top of my lungs. "DANTE!"
Marco lunged for me again, pulling a snub-nosed revolver from his waistband.
A deafening gunshot shattered the hallway.
Marco froze. A look of profound shock crossed his face as a neat red circle blossomed in the center of his chest. He collapsed backward onto the hardwood floor, the burner phone clattering away.
Standing at the end of the corridor was Luca.
He held a customized Sig Sauer, smoke curling lazily from the barrel. His eyes were completely black with rage, looking less like a man and more like the grim reaper himself.
Dante and three guards rushed in behind him, their weapons drawn.
"Secure the perimeter!" Luca roared, his voice echoing like thunder through the mansion. "Moretti knows the dock codes! Lockdown the entire estate! No one leaves, no one enters!"
Luca crossed the distance between us in two strides, dropping his weapon onto a nearby table and grabbing me by the shoulders. His hands were shaking—the first time I had ever seen the unflappable mafia don lose his composure.
"Did he touch you? Did he hurt you?" Luca demanded, his hands frantically checking my face, my neck, my arms for wounds.
"I'm fine... I'm fine," I stammered, trembling uncontrollably as I looked at Marco’s lifeless body on the floor. "He... he was talking to Jake. Moretti is hitting Pier 42 at four in the morning."
Luca pulled me hard against his chest, wrapping his powerful arms around me, burying his face in my hair. I could feel his heart hammering at an insane, terrifying speed.
"I have you," Luca whispered, his voice cracking with raw emotion. "I have you, Ava. You're safe."
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In that moment, standing over a dead traitor in a corridor filled with gunpowder smoke, the final wall between us crumbled. I wrapped my arms around his neck and clung to him, realizing with absolute certainty that I wasn't just safe with this dangerous man.
I was falling deeply, hopelessly in love with him.
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