36. Sofia
36
SOFIA
A s Luca drags me out of the back of the chapel, desperation and adrenaline course through my veins. I can’t let this happen, can’t let him take me away from Dom. He came for me. He’s trying to rescue me.
I struggle against Luca’s iron grip, my bound hands clawing at his face and arms, my legs kicking out with every ounce of strength I possess. I won’t go quietly. I will not let him win without a fight.
But Luca is too strong, too determined to let me go. He hauls me down a side passage, his breath hot and ragged against my ear.
“Stop fucking fighting me, Sofia,” he growls, his fingers digging into my arm hard enough to leave a bruise. “You’re only making this harder on yourself. On both of us.”
I can hear the sounds of fighting behind us, the grunts and shouts and the sickening crack of bone against bone. But above it all, I hear Dom’s voice roaring my name with fury.
Dom’s voice brings me the first bit of hope I’ve felt since this whole situation went down. And it’s that hope that causes me to fight back.
I let out a bark of laughter, the sound harsh and mocking in the narrow confines of the hallway. “I can’t wait to see Dom put a bullet in your fucking head,” I spit back, my voice dripping with venom. “I’ll never stop fighting you, Luca.”
He spins me around, slamming me against the wall with a force that nearly knocks the air from my lungs. I gasp. His face is a mask of rage and madness, his eyes glinting with hatred.
“You really think your precious Dominico will be able to get to you?” he sneers, his lips curling into a cruel, mocking smile. “My men will tear him apart. And you? You’re mine now.”
For a moment, I feel a flicker of fear. What if he’s right? What if Dom can’t reach me in time? But then I remember how he easily destroyed Luca’s men and fought with a savagery that took my breath away.
Dom will get me. I know it.
He’s coming for me, fighting like hell to reach me, to save me from this nightmare. And that thought reminds me that I can’t give up, can’t let Luca break me, can’t let him win.
I am a Marino and a Sicura. And we don’t give up. Ever.
“I’m never yours,” I snarl as I wrench myself out of his grasp. Before Luca can grab me, I rear back and headbutt him in the face, finally doing what I wanted to do before Dom burst into the chapel. The satisfying crunch of his nose breaking fills the damp smelling hallway.
Luca howls with pain, jumping back to cradle his nose. I use this opportunity to stagger down the hallway, my heart pounding and my breath coming in ragged gasps. I don’t know where I’m going. I don’t even have a plan beyond getting as far away from Luca as I can.
“DOMINICO!” I scream, my throat straining from the force. “DOM! HELP ME!”
I race toward the door at the end of the hallway, freedom beckoning me. Just a few more steps, just a few more seconds, and I’ll be back in the arms of the man I love.
But just as my fingers brush against the cool metal of the door handle, I’m yanked back into a hard body.
“No!” I shriek, fighting against him. “Let me go!”
Luca’s face is contorted into a mask of rage. His eyes are wild as blood pours down his broken nose, his teeth stained red as he snarls at me in fury.
“You little bitch ,” he hisses, painfully digging his fingers again into my skin. “Do you really think you can run from me? You’re lucky I don’t kill you right here.”
He drags me back down the hallway, his grip on me unyielding, his stride quickening. We’re moving faster than before, and soon, we are at the same spot we were when I headbutted him.
I struggle against him again, trying to use every bit of my weight to knock him off kilter. Some of my father’s self-defense training is kicking in, and I try to find a way to hit him where it hurts.
But it’s no use. Luca has learned his lesson, and he will not allow me anywhere near his face or his groin.
And then, over the pounding of my own heart and the ragged gasps of my breath, I hear it. The sound of footsteps that aren’t Luca’s, of a voice shouting my name.
It’s Dom.
“Dom!” I scream again, my voice raw. “Dom, I’m here! Help me!”
But Luca slaps a hand over my mouth to shut me up, his fingers pressing against my lips with a bruising force.
I savagely bite down on his hand, my teeth sinking into the meat of his palm.
But Luca doesn’t even flinch. He just tightens his grip on me again and drags me out into the night onto the roof of his villa. The cool, crisp air is a shock to my lungs after the stale, suffocating confines of the hallway and the gunfire filled chapel. The whir of helicopter blades fills my ears, the downdraft whipping my hair and dress into a frenzy.
Luca’s men are waiting for us, their faces hard and their guns at the ready. They flank us as Luca hauls me toward the waiting chopper, their eyes scanning the darkness for any sign of pursuit. Fear rears its ugly head in me.
I can’t get in that helicopter. I’ll never return if I do.
I throw myself away from Luca, doing my best to get away from him, to do anything but get in the chopper. I would rather throw myself off the roof than be taken away by Luca.
“Get back here,” Luca growls, snatching me into his arms and carrying me back toward the helicopter.
“No!” I scream, trying to fight again, but it’s too late. Luca’s arms are like bands of steel around me. I can’t even move.
It’s hopeless.
BANG !
Luca whirls around, and that’s when I see him.
Dom.
He bursts through the door, his eyes blazing and his face streaked with blood and grime. His shirt is torn, the fabric dark and wet with what I can only pray is someone else’s blood.
But even through the haze of pain and exhaustion that clouds his features, even through the blood and the sweat and the dirt… he’s the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen.
Our eyes meet across the distance, a moment of perfect, shining clarity amid the chaos and the madness. And in that instant, I know that everything will be alright, that no matter what happens, no matter what Luca tries to do… Dom will never let him take me.
But then I realize that Dom has come alone. None of his men have followed him.
And then it hits me. Dom plans on fighting Luca and his men by himself.
“Dom, no!” I cry out, my stomach clenching with fear.
But Dom pays me no mind. He charges forward, roaring his fury. Luca’s men open fire, the night erupting with the staccato burst of gunshots and the flash of muzzle flares.
But Dom doesn't falter, doesn't hesitate for even a second. I watch, my heart in my throat, as he moves like a whirlwind, like a force of nature that can’t be stopped or contained.
I watch in awe as he takes down Luca’s men with a brutal, devastating efficiency, his fists and feet striking with a deadly precision that leaves a trail of broken bodies in his wake. He blasts Luca’s men with his gun, tearing off faces and causing some men to fall to their deaths off the top of the roof.
And then he’s there, standing before us with his chest heaving and his eyes blazing with a fury that steals the very breath from my lungs.
I’ve never seen such controlled rage before.
“Let her go, Luca,” he snarls, his voice low and deadly. “Let her go, or I will tear you apart with my bare hands.”
Luca just laughs, his grip on me tightening until I cry out in pain. “I’d like to see you try, Dominico. Sofia is mine and there’s nothing you can do to stop this.”
In a blur of speed and power that startles me, Dom launches himself at Luca with a furious roar.
They go down in a tangle of limbs and fists, their bodies slamming into the ground with a bone-jarring impact.
The sound of flesh striking flesh, of grunts and snarls of pain and fury, fills the night air as Dom and Luca grapple on the ground. They roll and twist, each trying to gain the upper hand, to inflict maximum damage on the other.
Dom’s fist slams into Luca’s jaw with a sickening crack, snapping his head back and sending a spray of blood arcing through the air.
“Is that all you’ve got, Dominico?” Luca taunts, blood pouring out of his mouth. “I expected more from the great Sicura heir. I’ll make sure to show Sofia how a real man acts when I finally make her mine.”
Don’s eyes flash with a fury that borders on madness, his lips pulled back in a snarl of pure rage. “She was never yours, you sick fuck,” he growls, his hands closing around Luca’s throat and squeezing with all his strength. “And she will never be yours.”
Luca’s face turns purple, his eyes bulging as he claws at Dom’s hands with a desperate, animalistic frenzy. But Dom doesn’t let up.
“I should have done this years ago,” he hisses, his voice low and deadly. “I should have put you down before you could hurt anyone else.”
But even as the words leave his mouth, even as I feel a flicker of hope and triumph stirring in my chest… Luca makes his move.
With a burst of strength that seems to come from nowhere, he brings his knee up into Dom’s groin with a sickening crunch. Dom howls in pain, his grip on Luca’s throat loosening just enough for the other man to break free.
Luca rolls to his feet, his chest heaving and his eyes wild with a mad, feverish light. He reaches into his jacket, his hand emerging with a wicked-looking knife that glints in the moonlight.
“What a coincidence, Dominico,” Luca sneers, his voice raspy and strained from the pressure of Dom’s hands. “I was thinking the same thing.”
He lunges forward, the knife slashing through the air. Dom tries to twist out of the way, but he’s not fast enough.
The blade catches him in the shoulder, sinking deep into the muscle. Dom screams, the sound raw and primal and full of an agony that tears at my very soul. My scream mingles with his.
Blood blooms on his shirt, a dark, spreading stain that makes my heart seize in my chest. I want to run to him, to throw myself between him and Luca to protect him.
But I’m frozen, paralyzed by a terror that goes beyond words, beyond thought. All I can do is watch, my breath coming in ragged gasps and my eyes wide with terror as the man I love fights for his life.
Dom staggers back, his hand pressing against the wound in his shoulder as he tries to staunch the flow of blood. But Luca is relentless, his knife flashing and darting as he presses his advantage.
He scores another hit, the blade slicing across Dom’s chest and leaving a thin, weeping line of blood in its wake. Dom grits his teeth, his face pale and slick with sweat as he tries to fend off Luca’s onslaught.
But I can see the toll it’s taking on him, can see the way his movements are slowing and his breath is coming in short, pained gasps. He’s losing blood, losing strength with every passing second.
I have to do something, have to find a way to save him. I won’t let Dom die. I won’t let Luca win and let him take away my love.
Desperately, I search for a weapon, for anything that’ll give me a fighting chance.
And that’s when my eyes land on a jagged chunk of concrete lying just a few feet away.
Using the sharp end of the concrete to neatly cut the rope around my wrists, I wrench the concrete up, panting heavily. With an animalistic yell, I rush toward Luca.
Luca turns at the sound, his eyes widening as he sees me get closer. But I’m too fast as I shove him off Dom and hit him over the head with the concrete. Luca goes sprawling onto the ground as the concrete falls from my hands, my arms shaking.
Before I can even think, I’m knocked to the ground, Luca’s hands wrapped around my throat as blood pours from the open wound in his head.
“I’ve changed my mind,” he snarls, his fingers pressing painfully into my throat. “Dom’s proper punishment is watching me kill you.”
My body seizes as it fights for oxygen, my hands scrabbling against his as I buck against him, trying to get him off me, trying to breathe.
But Luca is too heavy. His eyes gleam with triumph as black spots float over my vision. “ Buona notte, bellissima .”
BANG .
Luca’s eyes widen in horror as he straightens up and looks down. Blood blooms from his chest, and he gasps before his eyes roll into the back of his head and he slumps sideways.
Precious air fills my lungs as I gasp and cough painfully, my throat smarting. But when I look up, my heart stops.
Dom stands with a smoking gun extended in his hand, eyes wild with rage and hatred. He looks down at Luca’s corpse, his expression a blend of disgust and grim satisfaction.
“It’s over,” he says, his voice rough and ragged with pain and exhaustion. “He’s dead, and he’s never going to hurt you again.”
He turns to me then, his eyes softening with a tenderness that takes my breath away. He reaches for me, his arms coming around me like a shield.
I cling to him, my face buried in his chest as I breathe in the scent of him. “Dom,” I whisper, my voice small and broken. “I thought… I thought I was going to lose you.”
He presses a kiss to the top of my head, his lips lingering against my head. “Never,” he murmurs. “I will always come for you, Sofia. I will never let you go.”
I look up at him, my eyes shimmering with tears of relief and joy and sheer, overwhelming love. "I know," I whisper, my hand coming up to cup his cheek. “Thank you.”
He smiles then, a real smile that lights up his whole face and makes my heart skip a beat. “Let’s go home, baby,” he says, his arms tightening around me as he lifts me off my feet.
“Yes,” I breathe, snuggling into him. “Let’s go home.”