Chapter 7 - Blood on the Cold Ground
I locked myself in the apartment upstairs, holding the twins tightly against my chest in the inner hallway, far from any windows. Ash hid his face in my neck, while Lena, sensing the extreme tension, began to cry softly.
"Shh, it's okay, my sweet babies," I whispered, singing a soft lullaby to drown out the sudden, sharp sounds coming from the alleyway below.
Pop. Pop. Pop.
The unmistakable, suppressed sound of gunfire echoed through the old brick walls of the building. I closed my eyes, praying to a God I hadn't spoken to in years, begging Him to keep Luca alive. Not for my sake, but for the sake of the two children who had finally found their father.
Down in the rain-slicked alley, Luca Moretti moved with the lethal efficiency of a ghost. The two hitmen sent by the Donati faction had expected a retired, softened boss caught off guard in a rural retirement. Instead, they encountered a demon fueled by the absolute necessity of protecting his family.
By the time Marco and three of Luca's elite security operatives arrived from their outpost five miles away, the threat had been completely neutralized. The silver sedan was gone, its occupants permanently taken care of, their bodies destined for a deep, unmarked location in the vast Appalachian wilderness where nobody would ever find them.
Luca stood in the alleyway, his knuckles bleeding, his breath ragged. He stripped off his stained flannel shirt, tossing it into a nearby incinerator bin, and washed his hands with freezing rainwater from a broken downspout. He refused to let a single drop of enemy blood enter the home of his wife and children.
When the deadbolt on my door clicked open twenty minutes later, I jumped, my hand gripping a heavy iron skillet.
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Luca stepped inside. He looked pale, exhausted, and deeply shaken—not by the violence, but by the fear that he had lost our trust forever.
"It's over," he said quietly, standing by the doorway, refusing to come closer. "They are gone. The entire Donati network has been erased from the roots up by my people in Chicago within the last twenty minutes. It's completely safe now, Sarah. But... if you want me to leave... if you think I'm too dangerous for them... I will go. I'll provide for you from afar, and I'll never show my face again."
