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 itwasTanaka 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.
