Chapter Fifteen
Dante
It had taken several hours to locate Luca. Although, I had a feeling Marco didn’t think I’d be able to pull it off before his deadline. The man hadn’t been as clever as he’d thought.
I’d held Caterina when she’d finally broken.
She’d blamed herself for what happened to Luca, and after an hour of pacing, she’d fallen apart, sobbing so hard I’d worried she’d never stop.
I couldn’t remember a time I’d ever gently held a woman, but I had this time.
Some part of me had wanted to comfort her, even though I hadn’t known how.
Seeing her cry, watching her fall apart, had made me feel like someone had stuck a knife in me and twisted it.
Once she’d calmed, I’d gotten back to work, and it had finally paid off.
The warehouse schematic glowed on the tablet screen I’d positioned at the center of my command table, blueprints spread around it like a paper minefield.
Three forty-five in the morning and I had six of my best men on video call, their faces tiled on the monitor to my left while I walked them through entry vectors and fallback positions.
Caterina had woken twenty minutes ago, moved to the bathroom to clean up, and returned looking more like herself -- still pale, still obviously exhausted, but functional.
She’d been standing behind me for the past ten minutes, silent while I coordinated, but I felt her presence like heat against my back.
“Team Alpha enters through the north service door here.” I tapped the blueprint with enough force that the paper shifted. “Rizzo, you’re leading that squad. Four men, suppressed weapons, full tactical gear. You breach at exactly 0400. Not a second before, not a second after.”
Rizzo’s face nodded on the screen, his expression set in the focused lines of someone who’d done this a hundred times. “Rules of engagement?”
“Marco dies on sight. Anyone with him who resists, same. But Luca Lombardi comes out unharmed or you answer to me personally.” I moved my finger to a different entry point.
“Team Bravo takes the main entrance. Francesca, you’re commanding that vector.
Eight men, heavier weapons. You’re the hammer -- loud, obvious, drawing attention while Alpha moves to the hostage location.
I’ll fill in wherever I’m needed, which means I may move from team to team if that’s what it takes to get Luca out safely. ”
My sister’s face on screen showed the kind of cold calculation that ran in both our bloodlines. “And if Marco has the location rigged? Dead man’s switches, remote detonators?”
“Then we move fast enough that he doesn’t have time to use them.” I zoomed in on the warehouse interior layout. “Intelligence suggests he’s keeping Luca in the central bay area. Most exposure, easiest to guard from multiple angles. But that also means --”
“I’m coming with you.” Caterina’s voice cut through my tactical briefing like a blade.
I didn’t look up from the schematics. “No.”
“Dante --”
“No.” I kept my tone flat, absolute. The same voice I used when giving orders I expected followed without question. “You stay here. Watch the feeds if you want. But you’re not coming into an active combat situation.”
I heard her move closer, felt her hand come down on the table beside mine. “I have as much right to be there as anyone. More. He’s my brother.”
“Which is exactly why you’re staying here.” I finally looked up, met her eyes across the width of the command table. “You’re emotionally compromised. You’ll make mistakes. Get in the way. Possibly get your brother killed trying to help him.”
Her jaw set in that stubborn line I’d come to recognize. “I know Marco better than anyone on your team. You think I haven’t done research on him?”
“Irrelevant.”
“It’s not irrelevant.” She was leaning over the table now, her hands braced on the blueprints.
“He’ll have anticipated your approach. Military-style breach, overwhelming force, the standard enforcer playbook.
But I know what he’ll do when things don’t go according to his plan.
The moment I got even a hint the man wanted me for himself, I made sure I learned all I could about him. I wanted to be prepared.”
I felt my jaw clench. Felt my fingers drum against the table edge in the rhythm that meant I was being pushed toward a decision I didn’t want to make. She had a point. Not to mention, sometimes women saw things differently than we did.
But letting her into danger went against every instinct I had.
The same instinct that had made me hold her while she cried.
And had led to my promise to find her brother.
I’d spent three years ensuring no unworthy man got close enough to claim her, all because I’d known in my gut she belonged to me.
“You’re a liability,” I said, forcing the words out with more conviction than I felt. “I’ll be focused on the tactical situation. Can’t afford to worry about keeping you safe while extracting Luca and eliminating Marco.”
“So don’t worry about keeping me safe.” She pushed off the table and moved around it, coming to stand directly in front of me.
Close enough that I had to look down to maintain eye contact.
“Treat me like any other asset in the operation. I follow orders, stay out of the way when you’re breaching, provide intelligence when it’s useful. ”
“It doesn’t work that way.”
“Why not?” She folded her arms. “Because I’m your wife? Because you think I’m some delicate thing that needs protecting?”
“Because if something happens to you while I’m supposed to be saving your brother, Luca loses a sister along with everything else Marco’s taken from him.
” I could feel my resistance crumbling, could hear it in how my arguments were becoming more specific, more conditional.
“Because Giuseppe will hold me personally responsible. Because --”
I cut myself off before I said something I couldn’t take back. Because seeing you hurt would break something in me I didn’t know could break.
She was watching me with too much perception. Seeing through the tactical justifications to whatever was underneath. “I need to be there, Dante. I need to see him safe. Need to know I did something instead of sitting here useless while other people risked their lives for my brother.”
She had a point. Multiple points. She knew Marco’s psychology in ways I may not have considered. And she had a right -- maybe not a tactical right, but a human one -- to be involved in her brother’s rescue.
I looked back at the video call screen where six of my best men were waiting patiently for me to finish this conversation. Looked at Francesca’s face, seeing the slight confusion there.
My fingers drummed against the table again. Jaw so tight I felt the muscle jumping. Eyes narrowed as I evaluated her -- really evaluated her, not as my wife or Giuseppe’s daughter, but as a potential asset in a high-stakes operation.
She stood her ground. Didn’t flinch from my assessment. Didn’t back down or soften her demand with pleading. Just waited with Lombardi patience for me to reach the conclusion she knew I’d reach eventually.
I was going to regret this.
“Fine.” The word came out clipped. “But you follow my conditions exactly. No deviation. No improvisation. One mistake and I’m pulling you out even if it compromises the operation. Clear?”
Relief washed over her features, but she nodded with enough gravity to show she understood this wasn’t a game. “Clear.”
“You wear a vest and helmet. You maintain radio contact at all times. If I say move, you move. If I say stay, you’re a fucking statue. You don’t go near Marco under any circumstances. If we find him alive, my men handle it while you stay back.”
“Agreed.”
“You see your brother, you don’t run to him.
You wait for my all-clear in case Marco rigged him with explosives or other contingencies.
” I moved closer, using my height advantage to emphasize how serious I was.
“And if at any point I decide you’re compromising the operation, you go back to the vehicle without argument.
I don’t care if we’re thirty seconds from getting Luca.
You follow orders or this ends badly for everyone. ”
“I understand.” Her voice was steady, no trace of the woman who’d been sobbing against my chest hours ago. This was the Caterina who’d orchestrated our marriage, who’d matched me in every negotiation. “I’ll follow your orders exactly.”
I studied her for a long moment, looking for any sign she was agreeing just to get her way with plans to improvise once we were in the field. But her eyes met mine with clear intent. She meant what she said. Or at least believed she did in this moment.
“All right.” I turned back to the video screen, where my team was still waiting. “Caterina Lombardi will be in the command vehicle. But she’s a non-combatant observer. No one puts her in danger. Questions?”
Rizzo’s face showed surprise, but he covered it quickly. “No questions.”
Francesca’s expression suggested she had plenty of questions but was saving them for later. “Understood.”
I continued the briefing, walking through contingency plans and communication protocols while Caterina moved to stand beside me at the table. Close enough that I felt her presence, close enough that I could verify she was paying attention to every detail I outlined.
She leaned over the schematics, studying the approach vectors with the kind of focus that suggested she was actually absorbing tactical information rather than just going through motions. Her finger traced the route Team Alpha would take, then moved to where Team Bravo would breach.
“What about Marco’s vehicle?” she asked, pointing at the warehouse’s small parking area. “He’ll have an escape route planned. If he realizes you’re breaching before you reach Luca, he might try to cut his losses and run.”
I pulled up satellite imagery showing the surrounding streets. “Team Charlie is positioned here and here, blocking primary exit routes. Anything on four wheels gets stopped before it reaches main roads.”
She nodded, already moving on to the next consideration. “And if he has Luca drugged? Unconscious or unable to walk?”
“Extraction stretcher in both breach vehicles. Medical team on standby three minutes out.” I zoomed the image back to the warehouse interior. “We’ve planned for every contingency.”
“Except me being there,” she said quietly, glancing up at me. “That wasn’t in your original plan.”
“No.” I held her gaze. “It wasn’t. But plans adapt to circumstances. You being there adds complications. Also adds potential intelligence value. We’ll manage the complications.”
Something shifted in her expression. Gratitude, maybe. Or respect. Or just relief that I was taking her seriously instead of treating her like an obstacle to work around.
I finished the briefing and disconnected the call, leaving just the two of us in the study with the schematics and surveillance feeds and the weight of what we were about to attempt. Three twenty in the morning. Forty minutes until we needed to be at the warehouse.
We stood side by side over the planning table, our shadows merging on the wall behind us from the angle of the desk lamp.
I reached for my phone to make the final call to Francesca, confirming everyone was in position.
My other hand, without conscious thought, came to rest at the small of Caterina’s back.
The gesture was automatic. Protective. The same way I’d been touching her all night -- keeping contact, maintaining connection, making sure she knew I was there.
She didn’t pull away. Didn’t comment on it. Just stayed beside me while I coordinated final positions, her attention fixed on the warehouse schematics like she was memorizing every detail.
Before we left there was one more thing I needed to do. I took out a gun and gave her a quick lesson on how to use it. I didn’t have time to take her to a shooting range, so I had to hope she’d be able to protect herself if she needed to.
“Ready?” I asked. She gave a nod and I took her hand.
We went to my car and made our way to the location.
We both needed to be present for this one.
I’d wanted her in the van, away from all of this, but now that it was go time, I didn’t like the idea of not having her in my line of sight.
Which was why she was now entering the warehouse with me.
“Alpha Team in position,” Francesca’s voice came through my phone speaker. “Bravo Team ready. Charlie Team confirms exit routes blocked. All personnel accounted for. Waiting on your go order.”
I checked my watch. Half a minute to four hundred hours. “Execute in thirty seconds. Mark.”
“Marking.” I heard her relay the countdown to the other teams. “All units, breach in thirty, twenty-nine, twenty-eight…”
Caterina’s hand moved to cover mine where it rested at her back. Her fingers curled around my wrist, holding on with pressure that betrayed her returning fear. Not for herself. For what we were about to walk into. For whether her brother would come out alive.
I turned my hand to thread my fingers through hers. Squeezed once. A gesture that said I’ve got this. Trust me. We’ll get him back.
She squeezed back. Then released me and straightened, her jaw set in determined lines. “Let’s go get my brother.”
We moved toward the door together, my hand automatically returning to the small of her back as we walked. Guiding her. Claiming her. Making sure anyone who saw us knew exactly who she belonged to.
Soon enough we’d know if Caterina’s instinct about Via Dante was correct. Hopefully, it wouldn’t be much longer before we’d either have Luca secured or be executing contingency plans.
And Marco Vitale would learn exactly what it cost to take something from Dante De Luca.
I felt Caterina’s warmth against my side, felt her breathing steady despite the fear I knew she was controlling. She was holding it together through sheer force of will, channeling everything into the mission ahead.
My wife. My responsibility. My partner in this moment, even if partnership wasn’t what I’d planned when I’d married her.
We’d get her brother back. Then I’d deal with Marco in ways that would make him understand his mistake in the last moments before his life ended.
But first, we had a warehouse to breach and a hostage to extract. Everything else could wait until Luca was safe.
Everything except the unfamiliar sensation in my chest that insisted this mattered beyond tactics and territory. That Caterina mattered. That I’d burn the entire city down if it meant keeping my promise to her.
I felt her lean into my side with exhausted trust.
Time to move.