Chapter 38 - The Price of Loyalty
The words hung in the cramped, smoky air of the bunker like a live grenade.
*Donna of the Rossi family.*
My breath caught in my chest. I looked down at Luca, searching his face for any hint of delirium, any sign that the blood loss had scrambled his mind. But there was nothing of the sort. His gaze was steady, dark, and utterly serious.
Leo dropped the butt of his rifle to the floor, his jaw hanging open. "Donna? Luca, she was your maid forty-eight hours ago! She was scrubbing your marble corridors!"
"And forty-eight hours ago, my empire was filled with traitors who kissed my ring while sharpening their daggers," Luca said coldly, not releasing my hand. "Elena stood by my side while my own brothers fled or betrayed me. She dug a bullet from my flesh with steady hands. She killed a man to protect you. She possesses more iron in her veins than the entire Commission combined."
He turned his face upward toward me, his thumb tracing the knuckles of my bruised hand. "Unless you wish to return to your old life, Elena? A life of poverty, running from shadows, wondering when Matteo’s killers will kick down your door?"
"I don't run," I heard myself say, the words coming from a deeper, darker part of my soul that I hadn't known existed until the flames took the mansion. "Not anymore."
A faint, approving smile curved Donato’s scarred mouth. "She has the grit, Luca. I'll give her that. But grit won't crack the San Gennaro fortress. Matteo has fortified the coastal approach with fifty men. Heavy weaponry. Thermal sensors. It's an impenetrable redoubt."
"Nothing built by human hands is impenetrable," Luca said, rising slowly from the chair. He stripped off his blood-crusted shirt, revealing the fresh, stark bandage across his shoulder. He picked up an adrenaline ampoule from Donato’s medical bench and shoved it toward me. "Inject this into my thigh."
"Luca, that will spike your heart rate dangerously—"
"Do it, Elena," he commanded, his voice brooking no argument. "I need my body to function for six hours. After that, I can bleed out if necessary. But tonight, Matteo dies."
I swallowed the lump in my throat, broke the glass neck of the ampoule, and drove the needle into the dense muscle of his leg.
Luca’s pupils dilated almost instantly, a deep, shuddering breath tearing from his lungs as the synthetic chemical surged through his circulatory system. The pallor vanished from his cheeks, replaced by a fierce, predatory flush. His movements became fluid, terrifyingly fast once more.
"Donato," Luca ordered, his voice ringing with absolute command. "You still have the coastal torpedo skiff in the submerged dry dock?"
"She runs," the old smuggler grinned, showing gold-capped teeth. "Twin engines, silent running mode on electric batteries. She can slip beneath the fortress sea gates without making a ripple on their radar."
"Load her with every block of C-4 you have left," Luca said, racking the slide of an assault rifle Donato handed him. "Leo, you will pilot the skiff to the sea gate. You blow the auxiliary generators, cutting power to the fortress."
"And what will you do?" Leo asked, his eyes wide.
May you like
Luca looked at me, a dark, wicked glint in his eyes that made my blood sing with terrifying anticipation. "Elena and I will attend the conclave. Matteo wants to present himself as the undisputed Don. It would be rude of us to miss his coronation."
***
