"Then he can watch his daughter die. Is that what he wants?" Alessandro's voice rises, losing some of his control. "Is that what the great Don Ciresa wants? To receive his daughter's body in pieces?"
Another pause, longer this time. I can see Alessandro's jaw clenching, his free hand curling into a fist. "You have two hours to decide. After that, I start sending pieces of her back to you. Maybe I'll start with her fingers. Or maybe her ears. Something small that won't kill her right away. Something that will let her suffer while you make up your mind."
My stomach lurches, bile rising in my throat. I have to swallow hard to keep from vomiting right here in the chair.Oh God. Oh God, he's serious. He's actually going to?—
"Tell Luca Moretti that if he wants to see his wife and child alive again, he'll turn himself over. Otherwise, their blood is on his hands. He can live with that guilt for the rest of his miserable life."
Alessandro ends the call and turns back to me, his expression unreadable. The anger from the phone call is gone, replaced by that same cold calculation.
"Your father is considering his options," he says calmly, walking back toward me. "We'll know soon whether you're worth more to him alive or dead. Whether his pride is more important than his daughter's life."
I can't speak or think straight. It’s everything I can do not to fall apart completely.
The soldiers are still watching me. One of them, a younger guy with a scar across his cheek and dead eyes, is looking at me like he's imagining what he'd do if Alessandro gave him permission. I look away, focusing on the concrete floor, on the cracks and stains. Oil stains, water damage. Something dark that might be old, dried blood.Think. You have to think. There has to be a way out of this.
But there isn't.
I'm pregnant and unarmed, surrounded by people who want to hurt me and use me as leverage to destroy my family and kill the man I love. I have no weapons, no allies, no way to call for help. My phone is gone. My security detail is unconscious or dead. No one knows where I am.
No.
The thought comes from somewhere deep inside me, somewhere primal and fierce. From the same place that made me create Valentina in the first place, that made me walk into that club, and made me fight for what I wanted even when everyone told me it was impossible.
No. I won't let that happen.
I refuse to accept this outcome. I refuse to let Luca suffer for what I’ve set in motion. I refuse to let Alessandro win.
There has to be a way out, something I can do, some move I can make that will change the trajectory of this nightmare. Some weakness I can exploit, some opportunity I can seize.
I just have to find it.
I'm going to survive. And I'm going to make sure that when this is over, Alessandro Marchesi understands exactly what happens when you underestimate a woman who has everything to lose.
My hand presses harder against my stomach, feeling the small curve where my baby is growing, where that tiny heartbeat is fluttering away, unaware of the danger.
I won't let you die. I won't let any of us die. I promise.
27
LUCA
Everything feels like chaos, Dante and Romeo going back and forth on what to do, what plan to execute. Alessandro has made his demands, and Dante isn’t having it. I want to go in after her. Romeo is a stickler that under no circumstances do we cave and hand me over, that there’s some other way.
"It's not a trap." Dante's voice cuts through the room, and everyone turns to look at him. He's standing at the head of the table, his hands flat on the surface, his expression unreadable. "Alessandro wants to negotiate. He wants us to know where she is. He wants us desperate and willing to deal."
"Then we go in now," I say. "Full assault. Overwhelming force. We get her out before?—"
"Before what?" Dante's eyes are cold. "Before he kills her? He won't. Not yet. She's worth more to him alive than dead. She's leverage."
The word makes my stomach turn.
"We need allies," Romeo says, looking at Dante. "The Castellano family owes us for the thing in Queens last year. The DeLuca family still hasn't repaid the favor from the shippingdispute. We call them in, we can have fifty soldiers surrounding that warehouse within three hours."
Dante nods slowly. "Make the calls. I want every approach covered, every exit blocked. Snipers on the surrounding buildings. No one gets in or out without us knowing."
Romeo starts making calls, his voice low and urgent as he speaks to the other families. I should be helping, doing something useful, but all I can think about is Giulia.
She’s surrounded by men who want to hurt her, scared and alone, trying to protect our baby from something she can't control. She probably thinks I might not even come for her. The thought feels like a knife between my ribs.
