Chapter 22
Luca’s temper simmered as he stared through the iron bars of the cage. He’d known of Riko Tanaka’s fondness for cages—his sick little habit of using them to humiliate his enemies—but never had Luca imagined he’d be on the receiving end.
A cage. Like an animal.
The thought gnawed at him, every second making the humiliation bite deeper. His pride burned, but beneath it, fury coiled tight in his chest. This wasn’t just a show of power—it was a message. Tanaka wanted to taunt him, to make the great Luca Bernardi look small.
But Luca had let it happen.
Not because he’d been careless. No, he’d walked into this trap on purpose, to get close to Tanaka, to confirm the whispers he’d been hearing for months.
The Yakuza weren’t just circling—Tanaka was already moving his pieces.
Luca had calculated the risk, knowing his men were near, waiting for the right moment.
Still, sitting here in this ridiculous cage made his blood boil.
Tanaka would pay for it, and when he did, the retribution would be bloody.
“Luca!”
The whisper sliced through the silence, soft but urgent, not belonging to any of Tanaka’s guards. Luca froze, heart skipping.
He knew that voice.
He turned his head sharply, ignoring the dull throb in his skull, and there she was—Ava.
His breath caught at the sight of her, standing in the shadows, clutching a length of pipe like she meant to swing it at someone’s head.
“Ava, what the hell are you doing here?” he hissed, disbelief twisting through him. She couldn’t be here. Not in the middle of this. Yes, he had a plan, but one wrong move could bring the whole thing crashing down—and if she got caught in the middle…!
He tested the cage door, satisfied that his men had altered the lock.
His men had fixed it so that the lock only seemed to click into place.
But a second push would open the cage door without any friction.
He’d heard Tanaka clanking the cage door shut a few minutes ago and knew that a second clank would reveal the truth.
But he hadn’t counted on Ava showing up.
“I came because someone hurt you and dragged you away from my house!” Ava’s voice trembled with anger more than fear, her eyes blazing. “I followed them here.”
Luca’s chest tightened, his eyes darkening. She was holding that pipe like she meant to use it. Ava—beautiful, fearless, maddening Ava. Did she even realize what kind of men she was up against? What kind of danger she had just walked into?
“Don’t worry,” she pressed on, dropping the pipe as she crouched by a scattered pile of tools, her expression hardening with determination as she examined the options for breaking the iron bars with one of them. “I’ll get you out of there.”
“Ava!” Luca snapped, his voice a low growl edged with both panic and pride. “Get out of here. Now!” He scanned the shadows, his instincts screaming that time was running out. Tanaka wouldn’t be gone long, and when he returned, he’d bring reinforcements. If Ava was still here when that happened—
But she ignored him.
She grabbed a hacksaw from the pile, standing tall, her hands steady. “I can cut the bars away with this. Just get as far back as you can—I’ll cut you out—”
Luca’s heart slammed against his ribs. In a surge of frustration, he swung the cage door open, his hand darting out to seize her arm and yank her against him.
Before she could protest, he kissed her. Quick, rough, controlled—not the hungry claiming he wanted, but enough to silence her, to make her stop.
When he pulled back, his voice was a rasp against her lips. “Honey, you need to leave. I promise you, I’m fine. My men are close. I just need you to—”
The growl of an engine cut him off.
Bright headlights slashed across the construction site, flooding the shadows, blinding in their intensity. Another vehicle was pulling in. Damn it. Tanaka was back already.
Ava stiffened in his grip, her wide eyes flashing toward the oncoming lights.
“Hide. I have a plan,” Luca hissed, shoving her gently but firmly away from the cage. His pulse pounded in his ears. His men should have been here by now. Where the hell were they?
Ava’s gaze darted between him and the headlights. Then, without a word, she snatched up the pipe she’d dropped and sprinted to a nearby stack of lumber and steel rebar. Not the safest spot, but at least it gave her cover.
She was still close enough that Luca could hear her quick, shallow breaths.
The tension between them was almost unbearable—every second she remained here increased the risk.
He had to focus on catching Tanaka, on timing his plan perfectly.
Yet every instinct screamed at him to break free now, tear out of the cage, and shield Ava with his own body.
He clenched his fists, forcing himself to stay put. For now, silence was his only weapon. The sound of tires screeched through the night, each second ticking like a hammer against his skull.
Ava crouched lower behind the stacks of rebar and lumber, pressing herself into the shadows. Her pulse pounded so loud she was sure it would give her away. All she could do was pray the cover held, that the arriving car’s occupants wouldn’t notice her.
The rumble of the engine cut off, followed by car doors slamming.
A moment later, the construction site blazed with sudden light as flood lamps flicked on, throwing sharp, angular shadows across the half-built structures.
Ava’s heart hammered. She froze, her body aching to move but terrified to draw attention.
Luca, locked beyond the bars, barely shifted. His gaze darted toward Ava’s hiding place only once—subtle, controlled—before fixing straight ahead. He couldn’t risk exposing her. Instead, his mind raced. Where the hell are my men?
Then he realized: they were holding back, lying in wait. This was part of his plan. Whoever had arrived would show themselves, and Luca’s men would strike when the time was right. For now, he had to endure, to play the part Tanaka expected of him.
Heavy footsteps echoed on the steel stairs, drawing closer until a voice—smooth, oiled with contempt—cut through the night.
“Ah, the great Luca Bernardi,” the man drawled, every syllable dripping with mockery. “A pleasure to finally meet you face to face.”
Luca’s fury didn’t fade — it condensed, sharpening to a cold, deliberate point.
He knew that voice.
Riko Tanaka emerged into view, sharp in a tailored suit, the open collar of his black shirt a calculated display of arrogance. His polished shoes gleamed beneath the floodlights, his every step radiating smug triumph—as if he already owned the ground he walked on.
“Who do I have the pleasure of meeting?” Luca asked evenly, his tone casual, businesslike, as though they were discussing contracts over dinner. He kept his body still, resisting the urge to glance again toward Ava. Every movement had to be measured, every signal deliberate.
“Riko Tanaka,” the man replied with a shallow, dismissive bow. Not respect. A deliberate insult.
Luca recognized the mockery for what it was, but he didn’t care. The gesture meant nothing compared to the fatal mistake Tanaka was making—walking into this trap, thinking he was the predator.
“I just left here a moment ago,” Tanaka continued, waving his hand as though bored with the conversation. “But something occurred to me, and I had to return. I decided to finish one task before I turned to the next.”
Luca’s chest tightened. So it was Tanaka himself. The bastard had grown cocky—too cocky.
“I wasn’t going to kill you immediately,” Tanaka went on, a sinister edge creeping into his words.
“The plan was to keep you alive for a few more days, let the message spread, send out pictures to your enemies and acquaintances so that they understood that you were completely humiliated. But someone advised me against leaving loose ends. I realized that it was safer, cleaner, to get rid of you now.”
The metallic click of a gun being cocked split the silence, sharp and final.
Luca’s pulse spiked, but it wasn’t fear—it was fury, white-hot and controlled. He saw Tanaka’s arrogance for what it was: blindness. The man thought he had won, thought caging him was victory.
But Luca Bernardi was no pawn.
His hand shifted, inching toward the button on his jacket, the signal for his men. The corner of his mouth curved in the faintest, most dangerous smile.
“Not today,” he muttered under his breath, his mind already two moves ahead.
Luca watched Tanaka raise the gun. The moment dragged, each second stretching thin, as if the air itself had thickened around him.
His chest tightened under the weight of inevitability.
This was the risk. He had accepted it when he let himself be taken, when he’d chosen to play this dangerous game.
But what he hadn’t counted on was Tanaka’s men knocking him unconscious—or Ava being here at all.
The barrel leveled at his head, close enough that Luca could almost feel the bullet already tearing through him. He braced himself. I’ve been shot before, he thought grimly. But not from this close.
Tanaka’s lips curled into a malicious smile, his eyes glittering with triumph. The click of the chamber echoed in the silence, sharp and final.
And then—everything shifted.
Luca’s gaze flicked to the shadows just as a blur of movement caught his eye. Ava. His heart lurched, but his expression slipped before he could school it. Tanaka caught the change and turned his head just as she broke cover.
She was a storm unleashed, fury and determination in every line of her body. The pipe was raised high, her steps quick, and for the first time, Luca saw Tanaka falter—hesitation flashing in his eyes at the sight of a woman charging him head-on.
The gun fired.
The crack split the night, deafening. But instead of hitting Luca, the bullet tore into the concrete wall behind him.
Ava’s swing connected a heartbeat later, the pipe slamming into Tanaka’s head with a dull, brutal thud.
His body jolted, his aim jerking off target, and a second shot sounded in the night, this one from Luca’s sniper that had been standing by, ready for this moment.
This bullet buried itself in Tanaka’s shoulder, blood blooming across the fine black fabric of his suit.
Tanaka staggered, his gun clattering to the ground as he fell to one knee, clutching both wounds with a snarl of pain.
Luca’s pulse thundered in his ears. For a heartbeat, silence reigned—Ava frozen in shock, the pipe trembling in her hands, Tanaka gasping through his teeth as blood seeped down his arm.
Then chaos erupted.
Gunfire cracked from the edges of the site as Luca’s men surged in, shouting orders as they rushed the SUV where Tanaka’s backup waited.
Ava blinked, snapping out of her daze, and stumbled toward Luca. He stepped out of the cage at last, catching her as she collapsed against him. In one fluid motion, he pulled her down behind the construction materials, shielding her body with his own.
“You did it, love,” he whispered fiercely, his breath hot against her ear. “You saved my life.”
Ava’s hands clenched in his shirt as the reality hit her. Her body began to shake violently, surprised screams breaking loose before she could stop them. She pressed her face against his chest, not even thinking to breath as she clung to the fabric of his shirt.
She hadn’t just swung that pipe to save him. She’d swung it for both of them—for the fragile, impossible future she suddenly realized she wanted more than anything.
Luca didn’t flinch. He didn’t ask her to stop or push her away. Instead, he held her tighter, his grip solid and grounding, even as his eyes swept the shadows.
After several seconds of silence, several whistles rent the air. That was the signal from his men indicating that their section of the area was clear.
Without a word, he lifted her into his arms, carrying her toward the stairs. His men were already in motion, searching the perimeter with cold precision for a stray guy from Tanaka’s team. Jim stepped forward as Luca passed, his jaw set, his gaze flicking from Ava’s trembling form to Luca’s face.
“Ava,” Jim said, his voice steady but tight with concern, “you did a damn good job. We’ll get you out of here.” There was respect in his eyes, and something fiercer—acknowledgment that she had stepped into their world and survived.
Luca’s mind churned with a hundred questions, but they could wait.
Only one thing mattered now: Ava’s safety.
Getting her away from this hellhole, away from the men who had tried to break him, to use her.
His plan tonight might have succeeded, but it had also spiraled into a disaster—but she was alive, and that was the victory.
He tightened his hold as they reached the waiting SUV.
The engine was already idling, one guard slipping into the passenger seat while another swept the shadows with his weapon raised, pointed away from them.
The rear door opened, and Luca slid inside with Ava still pressed to him, her face buried against his shoulder, her body trembling in the aftershock of violence.
Outside, his men dragged a bloodied, swearing Tanaka down the stairs to another vehicle.
The man clutched his shoulder, his fury palpable even through the haze of pain.
He was alive—barely—but Luca took grim satisfaction in the fact that Ava hadn’t taken a life tonight.
She had enough to carry without that weight.
Luca’s own soul was already marked beyond repair by the blood he had spilled. Ava didn’t belong to that darkness. She was different. She was light, and somehow she had brought it to the very edge of hell to save him.
“You did it, Ava,” he whispered against her hair, his voice rough, breaking despite himself. “You saved my life tonight. I owe you everything.”
He kissed the crown of her head, the taste of gunpowder still clinging to the air, his chest heavy with gratitude and something deeper he couldn’t name. She had stood against Tanaka when it should have been impossible. She had fought for him—for them.
As the SUV sped away from the construction site, Luca felt the weight of the night settle on him like armor. Nothing would ever be the same. His life had been spared by the woman trembling in his arms, and he knew with brutal certainty—he would never let her go.