Chapter 12 - A Mother’s Hospital Room and an Unexpected Guardian
Shouts and gunfire shattered the darkness.
Muzzle flashes lit up the warehouse like strobe lights.
“Kill him! Kill him!” Victor’s panicked voice screamed through the blackness.
Before anyone could acquire a target, the sound of breaking glass echoed from the high skylights above.
Marco and a dozen elite Moretti tactical operators descended on ropes, their suppressed rifles firing with lethal, mechanical precision.
The Bellini mercenaries were cut down before they could form a defensive line.
I felt strong arms wrap around my shoulders, lifting me effortlessly from the floor.
A familiar scent of rain and tobacco surrounded me.
“I have you,” Luca’s voice whispered in my ear.
A combat knife sliced through my zip-ties in a single second.
Luca pulled me behind a stack of steel shipping crates, shielding my body with his own as bullets ricocheted off the metal above us.
“Are you hurt?” he asked, his hands cupping my face in the darkness, his thumbs gently wiping away the blood on my cheek.
“I’m okay,” I gasped, clutching his coat. “Dr. Adler! They have Dr. Adler!”
“Marco’s already on him,” Luca said.
Within three minutes, the gunfire stopped.
Emergency backup lights flickered on, bathing the warehouse in a dull amber glow.
All twelve Bellini mercenaries lay disarmed or dead on the ground.
Dante Bellini was pinned to the floor by Marco’s boot, his weapon thrown twenty feet away.
Victor Bellini was on his knees, clutching a shoulder wound, coughing blood onto the concrete.
Vanessa was backed against a rusted shipping container, her hands raised in terror, her immaculate coat covered in dust and soot.
Dr. Adler was being untied by two Moretti guards, completely unharmed.
Luca stood up slowly, taking my hand and pulling me gently to my feet.
He didn't let go of my hand as he walked over to where Victor knelt.
Victor looked up, his face gray with shock.
“Luca... please... for the old days... for your father...”
“My father gave you thirty years of honor,” Luca said, looking down at the broken man. “And you repaid him with poison.”
Luca looked at Marco.
“Call the federal task force. Hand over the medical records, the customs manifests, and the financial ledgers. Let Victor and his sons spend the rest of their lives in a maximum-security penitentiary watching their name be erased from this city.”
Vanessa fell to her knees, sobbing uncontrollably.
“Luca! Please! I loved you! I did it for us!”
Luca looked down at her with pure indifference.
“You didn't love me, Vanessa. You loved the throne. And you destroyed yourself trying to steal it.”
May you like
He turned his back on them.
“Take them away,” Luca ordered.
