20. Luca #2
He doesn’t wait for another command—he takes off toward the stairs that are visible through the open door of the kitchen. A couple of men have already found their way there to block him, and one brandishes a knife as Emil rushes him.
“Over here!” Emil yells, drawing the man’s attention—and he looks over, giving me just enough time to shoot him before Emil reaches him.
He knocks the man behind him onto the stairs, and Emil pounces on the knife, snatching it up and driving it roughly into his chest before he takes off up the stairs.
All I can hear is the blood pumping in my veins, the adrenaline coursing through my system—but I know I need to act fast. Now that things have kicked off, it will only be a matter of time before all of Maglione’s men descend on this place, and I want to be as far away from here as I can be by the time that happens.
Preferably with Katie at my side.
I search the living room and kitchen, calling out her name—no point playing it stealthy now. Five guards down, but how many more might there be? That could be it…or, there could be someone else, someone who’s taking their time and stalking us until they can pick us off, one by one.
I notice a door next to the kitchen—a lock hangs open on it, and I push it open. But before I can so much as get a look at what’s happening down there, a man barrels out of the darkness toward me.
He knocks me off my feet, sending me crashing to the ground with a grunt. I wriggle out from underneath him before he can get a grip on me, scrabbling back and pulling myself to my feet. Before he can stand up to face me, I slam a kick into his face, and he flies sideways.
A pool of blood smears on the ground as his nose begins to bleed profusely. I’m breathing hard, my gun knocked out of my pants, with nothing more than my fists to rely on. But I am handy in a fight, and I’ll be damned if I let this fucker stop me getting what I?—
“Help! Help !”
As soon as I hear the voice, I freeze. It’s her—it’s Katie, I’m sure of it.
I look past the man, who is dragging himself upright once more, and realize that the door leads down some stairs and to a basement.
They must be keeping her in there. For what?
My mind flares with rage, and I throw myself at the man before he can pull himself together again.
I knock him into the stairs, and he slides down onto the floor.
I kneel on top of him and begin landing blows on his face, sending blood spraying this way and that.
I don’t know how long I’m working on him, but it doesn’t matter.
All I can think about is making him pay for whatever he’s done to Katie, and making it so he can’t get in the way of the rescue I’m about to make.
Finally, I draw back, my chest heaving, my knuckles bloody and aching, and rise to my feet.
“Katie!” I yell. “Where are you…?”
And then I see her—she’s crawling up the staircase and toward the open door, her eyes wide and ringed with dark circles, her hair a mess, her skin smeared with dirt and other marks. Some of them look like bruises.
I drop to my knees and pull her into my arms, and she grabs hold of me like she never wants to let me go, burying her head into my shoulder.
Her body is wracked with sobs, her entire system giving in as she realizes she’s safe.
I hold her there, squeezing her against me, letting her cling to me as though it’s the only thing left in the world that matters.
“Hey, hey, you’re okay,” I promise her, planting a kiss against her head. “It’s over now. You have nothing else to be scared of…”
“Polly,” she gasps, as she lifts her head to look at me. “Is Polly okay?”
“Polly’s okay,” I promise her, and she breaks down into a fresh wave of tears.
I rub her back and turn to look toward the stairs, wondering how much longer Emil is going to be—wondering how long I should leave it before I go up there to help him.
My brother is a capable fighter in his own right, but that doesn’t mean I want to leave him to the mercy of these people for too long.
And then I hear a voice from the top of the stairs.
“Look who I found, Luca.”
I glance up, and there’s my brother—but he’s not alone.
No, he has been joined by the leader of the Maglione family, Paulo, and it’s clear Emil has no intention of letting him call the shots.
He has his gun pressed into Paulo’s side, the muzzle of it digging into his ribs, as Emil marches him down the stairs and toward me.
Katie looks up, and when she sees them approaching us, she draws into me fearfully—I keep my arms wrapped around her tight, whispering quiet reassurances as he draws closer.
“What the fuck are you doing here?” Maglione spits as he reaches me.
I rise to my feet, taking the gun from Emil.
Seeing Katie like this, seeing her so hurt and scared after the nightmare he put her through, has left me with no more patience for this man.
I am going to make him pay for what he’s done.
Not just to her, but to everyone—to my family, to the women he’s hurt, to the communities he has ripped apart with his selfish lust for money and power.
I am going to bring this to an end, here and now, and I am going to look him in the eye when I do it.
“You took the mother of my child,” I tell him simply as I press my finger down on the trigger. “You really thought I’d let that happen?”
And as he looks back at me, for a moment, I can see the regret in his eyes.
He didn’t think it would come to this. He thought he would be able to get away with pulling something this foul, this twisted—he thought I would just let him take her from me, because I’ve never cared enough about a woman to stick around for so much as a second date.
But this is Katie. This is different. And this is the price he has to pay for it.
I pull the trigger—the sound of the shot rings in my ears as he drops to the ground, and behind me, I can hear Katie breathing hard. Emil takes the gun from me, and I drop down to my knees once more, wrapping her up tight in my arms.
“It’s okay,” I repeat to her as I rock her back and forth in my grip. It’s over now. All of it. The threat against my family, everything—everything that has been keeping me here.
But right now, all I care about is getting Katie back to our daughter. And showing her that I’m serious when I say I will do whatever it takes to keep them safe.