Chapter 41
I watch Luca, my chest tight with nerves, as he slips out of the safe room. The door clicks shut behind him, and I hear an ominous lock further away. It’s the false door being closed, sealing me in here, hiding me from the mayhem that is about to take place. The seconds stretch into what feels like hours. My heart beats too loudly in my ears as I stay frozen in place, waiting. I need him to be okay—I need him to survive this so we can all be together.
If he thinks I won’t come out of this room when he needs help, he’s sadly mistaken.
The silence in the room feels suffocating, the weight of everything about to unfold pressing down on me, making my heart thump in my chest and sweat roll down my back.
The screen of small grids shows me the feeds from all the security cameras. I watch the shadows moving toward the house, the assassins closing in like a swarm. They’re calm, controlled—trained to kill without a sound. It’s impossible to tell how many there are.
They move as one, flowing toward us with deadly precision. A few are already inside, creeping through the hallways like ghosts. They’re professionals, probably just like the men Luca has faced before. But he’s alone, and that makes my stomach coil with dread.
I glance at the lightbulb in the corner behind me: still red.
A wave of heat crawls up my spine when I catch sight of Luca standing in the shadows just outside the room, his back against the wall, knife in hand, so still I nearly miss him. The gleam of the blade catches the low light from the hallway. His posture is tense, but his movements are controlled and ready. He’s a predator, waiting for the first of his prey to get close enough.
This is the quiet stillness of a man who knows he’s untouchable, who’s ready to tear through anything that stands in his way.
I watch as he shifts, silently putting the long knife away and retrieving something else—too small for me to identify. Four attackers come into the room from four different locations, all of them just as silent as Luca. One opens the front door; another climbs in through a window they’ve quietly opened. Two come from opposite hallways.
None of them are aware Luca is watching. Waiting.
In a flash, he moves his arms, then goes still again, melting back into the darkness.
It’s a motion so practiced it could be a dance—fluid but deadly. Every step is calculated, every movement precise. It’s as if the whole house holds its breath, frozen in time, the tension thickening the air.
The silence in the house is broken only by the softest thuds as their bodies fall to the floor. No struggle, no noise. They just drop without a sound, their blood pooling beneath them.
I can’t breathe, my throat tightening at the sudden violence. I want to look away, but I can’t. I have to watch.
Something dark moves on another screen. It’s Luca. He’s already left that room and is moving through the house he knows so well. His eyes stay fixed on the next target, a deadly calm taking over him. Another attacker comes into view. Another quick slash of his blade. Another body.
I sit frozen in the safe room, my heart racing, my hands shaking as I watch him. There’s no hesitation in him. No mercy.
He rounds a doorway into a room. An arm shoots out with a blade aimed for his throat. He grabs the wrist, bending it with a sickening crunch. Luca’s blade disappears into the attacker’s chest twice, as fast as a cobra striking.
Luca pulls his gun, the silencer making the bullets whisper across the room as he shoots two attackers climbing in through the room’s windows.
Someone from the hallway lands a punch to Luca’s lower back. He bends with the pain for only a second before turning and slicing the throat of his victim. The body falls, and the now-familiar dark pool of blood seeps across the floor. Luca is careful not to step in it as he moves on.
They aren’t trying to kill him. They’re trying to capture him.
That awareness is more terrifying than the swarm of attackers. Because catching him will end in torture—likely long and painful before he’s graced with death. And likely with me at his side.
My stomach coils, bile rising in my throat. I nearly puke and grab the small trash can under the desk, but it subsides.
My breath catches in my throat as I glance at the red lightbulb again, still glowing steadily in crimson blood—just like the blood being spilled all over the house.
Enzo and Jax are still at the murder barn, unaware of the hell breaking loose here. They don’t know Luca needs help. They don’t know the entire house is crawling with enemies.
Desperation claws at my chest, but I fight it. I can’t panic. I have to focus. I have to stay calm. But how can I? Luca is out there, alone, and I’m here—watching him fight, unable to do anything but clutch my fucking spatula.
I glance back at the security monitor, my gaze locking on Nico, still staring at the same camera, his eyes fixed on the screen, completely detached. If I didn’t know better, I’d think he was watching the whole thing like it was some kind of sick game. His face is masked, giving nothing away.
I don’t trust this. Why is he just standing there?
Looking away, I turn my attention back to the feed, my eyes searching for Luca.
He’s crouched in the corner of his office—the very one where we ate pasta only hours ago.
Four attackers are closing in on him, and he has no way out except through them.
Two of them come in first, and Luca hurls our lunch bowls at them like frisbees. Each shallow bowl strikes them in the throat. They double over, clutching their necks and gasping.
With two fluid pulls of his trigger, Luca drops the two attackers behind them. Then the two choking join the pile of bodies collecting on the floor.
Luca steps over them casually, checking his gun and loading a new clip.
He looks into one of the cameras, and my heart stops as my fingers reach for the screen. He winks, giving me a small smirk before continuing his hunt.
Bodies drop in his wake as he moves with quiet precision through the farmhouse, which now looks more like a slaughterhouse. There must be no fewer than two dozen bodies strewn across the house.
He’s making his way across the living room when he stops—just freezes, his gaze focused as if listening intently. And I see why as I look at the other cameras. Six more are headed for him, and he’s out in the open.
They come in firing, and Luca is forced to jump behind a sofa. He rises just enough to kill three with efficient shots to the center of their foreheads.
One falls with Luca’s knife sticking out of his chest, its last beat taking place around his blade before it stops forever.
The last two attackers come at him from both sides, forcing a two-on-one fight. Luca holds his own, taking some hits but dodging most and landing even more on both of them.
I can see Luca’s face—focused and determined—as he fights back with raw power. His fists fly, his body moving with deadly precision. He’s a force of nature, too dangerous to stop.
“He’s Jason Bourne,” I whisper at the screen as he snaps the neck of one attacker before capturing the other in a chokehold.
Luca’s legs wrap around the man while his arms squeeze the life out of his body. The man claws at Luca’s arm, trying to break free.
Luca moves so quickly it takes me a second to process what happened. He reaches into the man’s eye socket, yanks out his eyeball, and shoves it down his throat as the man tries to scream.
“Spat, did you see that shit?” I mutter. It’s disgusting—but also, a flex.
I take another look at the red light… still fucking red and I’m scared to turn on those screens. Afraid I’ll see a different reason why Enzo and Jax aren’t coming. A vision of them lying dead on the cement floor with Marco tied to his chair flashes in my mind and I brace my hands on the desk to steady myself.
They’ll be fine. I’m sure there is a reason they aren’t coming. They are just having too much fun taking fingers from Marco. Maybe Jax is putting on a little puppet show with them. Or Enzo is making Marco eat them…
Jesus Delaney.
I’m going insane here and it’s only been a few minutes but that doesn’t seem like it would be a stretch given what Luca just did.
As I’m thinking through a plan to get out of here and make a run for the murder-barn, I panic when I see the screen Nico had been filling is now empty. He’s finally joining the fight and I rake my eyes over the screens until I see him.
I wish I had just kept thinking about finger puppet shows.
Pure terror runs down my body when I see Nico standing at the double ovens. His fingers running over the seams and cracks. He knows the panic room is here. He knows Luca is in the house fighting, so that means he knows I’m in here. Alone .
I stick my spatula through one of my holster’s belts loops and pull one of the two guns strapped to my legs. I check it again, just like Jax showed me.
I find Luca again on the screens. He’s surrounded by several men and is holding a gun in each hand. “Come on baby.” I whisper, then I look back at Nico.
He’s found the hidden seam of the door and draws a knife. My heart rate skyrockets as I prepare myself for some company.
Nico jams his knife between the thin line, and a shriek pierces the air. The sound is deafening, making my heart lurch in my chest. I immediately cover my ears, wincing, the noise too much to handle.
But then, in an instant, the entire house goes into an automatic lockdown. Thick metal doors, hidden and almost invisible when not activated, slam down with a force that vibrates through the walls. The windows, too, are sealed shut in an instant. They drop down like heavy, impenetrable walls of iron, blocking all access to the outside.
One intruder making his way through one of the windows was slices cleanly in half. One leg, one arm, his torso and head lay in a bloody heap on the floor. That means his other leg, arm and ass are in a pile on the porch.
I freeze for a moment, breath caught in my throat. The house is sealed tight, trapping us inside. No one can get in. That’s the relief, the only bright side. But it also means no one can get out. We’re locked in here with Nico and the rest of the men who came to kill us.
It takes Luca all of two seconds to drop every attacker in the room but not before one of them gets a shot off and I pray it didn’t hit him. Luca is a storm rushing out of the room, heading for Nico.
I look for buttons, desperate to stop the blaring alarm and finally find a flashing one. Pressing it, the deafening shrieking ends, leaving my ears ringing.
Luca’s former dorm-mate, now enemy seems to know Luca is coming for him. He abandons the hidden entrance to the safe room and points a gun at the stairwell he knows Luca will be coming down.
Except he doesn’t.
I hold my breath, waiting, unable to find Luca on the monitors.
Just as worry chokes me, dreading the worse has happened, a body comes crashing from the ceiling above Nico who turns his gun up, firing a shot into the body that crashes on top of him. But it was just a member of his own crew, no longer alive thanks to the man dropping from the ceiling next like death coming to claim his next soul.
Luca doesn’t waste a second, aiming his gun and shooting Nico. He lands a shot in the shoulder because Nico rolled out of the way, avoiding a bullet to the brain.
Luca brings his gun down, striking Nico in the face but Nico kicks Luca’s hand, sending the gun flying across the room and Luca stumbling to the side.
It’s enough time for Nico to get up and for Luca to arm himself with another gun. Nico is on the retreat as Luca opens fire until the clip is empty. A new gun is in his hand, and he keeps firing, pushing Nico further into the house and away from the safe room.
My hands are shaking and another glance at the red light ends all resolve. I punch the other screen and bring it to life, seeing what is taking place in the murder barn.
“Fuck me in the ass,” I groan when I see Enzo and Jax holding their own against their own horde of attackers.
“It’s about time you came out from behind your screens, Nic,” Luca calls out, tossing his empty gun to the ground. His hands move casually into his pockets, but I know he’s putting on the brass knuckles.
“You may as well have blasted a homing beacon, Luca. After six years of chasing, it took no effort at all to track you down today.” Nico snorts a laugh, removing his mask. A long scar runs the length of his face, from the center of his forehead down his left cheek to his jaw.
Movement on two of the monitors pulls my attention. A masked attacker is sneaking up behind Luca. I need to do something. But Nico is facing the safe room door. If I open it, he’ll see me in an instant.
“Odd, it’s almost like I meant to draw a rat out of a sewer,” Luca spits on the floor. “And here you are.”
His gaze darkens as he takes his hands out of his pockets. Nico spots the brass knuckles.
“Can’t fight me like a man?” Nico taunts.
“I’m not the one who overcompensated by bringing every armed guard I could throw a coin at,” Luca replies, circling him.
I can’t tell if he’s drawing Nico somewhere specific or if they’re about to turn the house into a UFC octagon. Either way, Luca and Nico have always been near equals in everything they do. I steel myself, knowing Luca is about to take a few hits.
“You come to my home for my girl. You should have stayed behind your screens, because you’re not leaving here alive,” Luca speaks calmly, as if they’re comparing hacking techniques. “You’ll swallow every one of your teeth and drown in your own blood right here.”
Luca widens his stance, raising his fists. With one hand, he motions twice, telling Nico to bring it on. “So, let’s go.”
Nico moves as fast as Luca, flicking a blade across the room. I gasp, my hands flying to my mouth as the two lions collide.
I look at each of the screens. Enzo and Jax are still knee-deep in attackers, but they’re holding their ground. Movement on another screen catches my eye. There are still assailants inside the house.
I take note of their positions—six in total—and with a deep breath, I open the drawer next to me.
Screwing a silencer onto the tip of my handgun, I check it once more, adding two extra clips to my pockets. My hands are shaking, and I struggle to steady them.
If these guys go after Luca, it’ll be Nico and all of them against him. I have to help. I can’t leave him out there alone, sitting in here and watching him get killed when I can do something about it.
All right, Delaney. You can do this. You’re a stone-cold killer.
I take a deep breath and release it. You’re a bad bitch with a spatula.
I grip the door handle, inhaling deeply one last time before opening it.