Chapter 25 Luca
LUCA
The phone shatters against the emergency room wall, exploding into pieces that scatter across the linoleum like shrapnel.
Romano has her.
The fake doctors, the fake nurses, the carefully orchestrated chaos—all of it designed to steal her right out from under me. While I stood here like an idiot waiting for updates that were never coming, she was being loaded into a car and driven to wherever the fuck he’s hiding.
“Boss,” Danny’s hand lands on my shoulder.
I shake him off violently. “Get everyone. Everyone. I want every man we have on the streets. I want eyes on every property Romano owns. I want—”
“Luca, we need to think about this strategically.”
“Strategically?” I whirl on him, and whatever he sees in my face makes him step back. “There’s nothing to think about. Romano has Gigi. She’s bleeding out somewhere while we stand here talking. So I’m going to find him, and I’m going to tear this entire fucking city apart until I do.”
“That’s exactly what he wants,” Danny tries to argue, but I’m beyond done listening to anyone.
“I don’t care what he wants!” I roar, ignoring the panicked looks on others’ faces. “Call everyone. Now. Or get the fuck out of my way.”
Danny’s face tightens, but he pulls out his phone. “I’ll make the calls. But Luca, you need to calm down. You’re not thinking clearly.”
I’m already walking away, my mind racing. Romano said I’d figure out where he took her. That I’m a smart man. But where? Where would he—
My phone rings and my heart drops. Is it Romano again?
I glance down and scowl when I see who it is. Viktor Torrino.
“What?” I snap, answering the phone.
“Luca. I heard what happened,” Viktor says. “I have resources that might help locate her.”
“Then use them. Now. I need to know every property Romano has access to. Every safe house, every bolt hole, every place he might have,” I order.
“I’m already working on it,” Viktor interrupts. “But Luca, you need to approach this with your head on straight. Romano’s baiting you. If you walk into whatever trap he’s set without backup, he will kill you.”
“I don’t care.” My hand clenches around the phone. “He has Gigi. She’s dying, Viktor. So either help me find her or get off the fucking phone.”
A pause. “Give me thirty minutes. I’ll have something for you.”
Thirty minutes? That’s thirty minutes Gigi doesn’t fucking have.
But I force myself to nod. “Thirty minutes,” I repeat. “Then I’m moving with or without information.”
I end the call and turn to find Danny watching me with concern that borders on fear.
“What?” I ask shortly, my mind already racing of places Gigi could be.
“The crew’s mobilizing,” he says quietly. “But you need to think about what you’re doing. If you go after Romano like this, if you tear apart the city looking for her—”
“Then I tear apart the city,” I finish flatly. “I don’t care about consequences, Danny. I don’t care about strategy or politics or what it costs. I’m getting her back.”
“Even if it starts a war?” His green eyes pierce mine.
I stare right back at him. I’ve made my decision. “Especially if it starts a war.”
And I’m going to bring the war straight to Romano.
The thirty minutes pass, and Viktor fails to find me information fast enough.
The first Romano soldier I find is leaving a bar on the South Side. Mid-level enforcer, maybe thirty years old. The fucker thinks he’s untouchable because he works for Salvatore.
He’s wrong.
I drag him into the alley behind the bar, my hands already moving before he can reach for his weapon. I break his nose first with a quick, efficient strike that sends blood streaming down his face and makes him scream.
“Where is Romano keeping her?” I demand.
The man wildly swings at me, and I duck it easily.
“I don’t—fuck—I don’t know what you’re—”
I break his kneecap with the heel of my boot. The scream that tears from him echoes off the brick walls, but I don’t care who hears. Let them come. I’ll deal with them too.
“Where is she?” I roar. This bastard has to know something, and I’m going to fucking make him talk.
“I swear, I don’t know about any girl!” the enforcer yelps as blood runs down his face.
The next kneecap. More screaming. I wait for it to subside before leaning close.
“Romano has my wife. She’s bleeding out somewhere while you waste my time with lies,” I hiss. “So I’m going to start breaking bones until you tell me where he keeps his safe houses. Every. Single. One.”
It takes four more broken bones before he talks. When he finally gives me three addresses, sobbing and begging, I leave him in that alley. I don’t kill him. He’s not worth the bullet.
The addresses are useless. They’re abandoned, empty, or occupied by people who genuinely don’t know anything. But each one leads to another soldier, another associate, another link in Romano’s chain.
And I break every single link I find.
The second guy tries to run. I catch him in a parking garage and slam his head against a concrete pillar hard enough to crack his skull. While he’s dazed and bleeding, I methodically break his fingers one by one, asking the same question between each snap.
“Where. Is. Romano. Keeping. Her?”
He gives me two more locations before passing out from the pain.
The third one pulls a knife. I take it from him and use it to carve a message into his chest. TELL ROMANO I’M COMING. I make sure he’s conscious for every cut.
Danny tries to slow me down after the fourth interrogation, when I’m standing over a Romano lieutenant with bolt cutters in my hand and the man’s severed fingers scattered on the warehouse floor.
“Boss, you need to stop.”
“I need to find her!” I drop the bolt cutters and grab Danny by his shirt, slamming him against the wall. “Every second I waste is another second she’s dying. So either help me or get the fuck out of my way!”
I release him and move to the next location on my list.
Three of Romano’s safe houses go up in flames. I don’t care who’s inside. Soldiers, accountants, innocent civilians in the wrong place at the wrong time. I torch them all and watch them burn while making calls to find the next target.
Two of his income streams get shut down permanently. Drug operations, illegal gambling, protection rackets. I destroy them, leaving bodies and warnings in my wake.
His soldiers start disappearing from the streets as my men hunt them down. Some talk. Most die. I don’t differentiate anymore.
By hour forty-eight, I’ve barely slept. My hands are covered in other people’s blood, my knuckles split and swollen, but I don’t stop. I can’t stop.
Danny forces water and food on me at one point, but I barely taste it. All I can think about is the clock ticking down. How many hours has it been since Romano called? How much blood has Gigi lost?
Is she even still alive?
When Viktor finally shows up in person at one of my remaining safe houses, I’m in the middle of interrogating another Romano associate. This one is tied to a chair with a blowtorch in my hand.
“Luca.” Viktor’s voice cuts through the man’s screaming. “We need to talk. Now.”
I don’t lower the blowtorch. “Unless you know where she is, you’re wasting my time.”
“What I know is that you’re tearing apart the entire city and making enemies faster than even I can smooth over.
” Viktor snarls, his narrow face drawn with anger.
“The Benedetto family is threatening retaliation for the warehouses you burned. The police are starting to ask questions I can’t answer.
You’re creating a shitstorm that will bury us all. ”
“I don’t care.” I return my attention to the man in the chair. “Where does Romano keep his high-value targets?” I growl.
The man’s face is red with pain and from the force of his screaming, slick with sweat. “I told you!” He cries. “I don’t—Fuck no please—please, I don’t know!”
The blowtorch gets closer.
“Marchetti!” Viktor’s voice cracks like a whip. “Stop this. You’re not thinking straight. You’ve been awake for forty-eight hours, you’re operating on pure rage—”
“I’m operating on the fact that Gigi probably has hours before she dies!
” I spin on him, the blowtorch still lit.
“Romano told me she had a few days, Viktor. Days. So yes, I’m tearing the city apart.
Yes, I’m making enemies. Because the alternative is sitting around strategizing while she bleeds to death! ”
Viktor’s expression doesn’t soften. Instead, he looks pissed. “And what happens to our alliance when the Benedettos declare war?” he hisses. “When the police start connecting you to a dozen murders across the city? You’re jeopardizing everything we’ve built.”
“Then let it burn.” I turn back to my prisoner. “Everything. All of it. I don’t give a fuck about the alliance or the Benedettos or anything else. I’m getting her back.”
“She might already be dead,” Viktor says flatly.
My gun is in my hand before I consciously decide to draw it, pressing it against Viktor’s forehead between his eyes. “Finish that sentence. I fucking dare you,” I snarl, rage building in my throat. I’ll blow his fucking brains out for the disrespect. How dare he say she’s dead.
The room goes silent. Viktor’s men reach for their weapons, but Viktor himself doesn’t flinch or back down. He stares at me with the cold assessment of a predator evaluating another predator.
“Lower the gun, Marchetti,” he says quietly. “You point a weapon at me, you better be prepared to use it. And if you pull that trigger, you lose every resource I’ve committed to finding your wife.”
“She’s not dead.” I force the words through clenched teeth, the gun still pressed against his forehead. “She’s not. She’s not dead yet. I would know. I would feel it if she was gone.”
“Then prove me wrong by finding her alive.” Viktor’s voice is steel. “But do it smart. Your rampage is drawing too much heat. You want to save her? Then use your head instead of just your rage.”