My lungs are burning from the smoke. My eyes are watering. Every breath tastes like copper. I'm lost. Completely, utterly lost in this maze of metal and violence. And then I hear it.
"Giulia!"
Luca’s voice cuts through the chaos like a lifeline, and I follow it without thinking. Down another hallway, past more bodies, through smoke that burns my lungs and makes my eyes water. "Giulia!"
Closer now. So close. I turn a corner and nearly collide with a Marchesi soldier. He grabs my arm, his grip bruising, and I scream.
A gunshot rings out, deafeningly loud in the enclosed space, and the soldier drops. I look up and see one of our men lowering his weapon. "Go!" he shouts at me. "That way! Luca's looking for you!"
I run in the direction he pointed, my heart pounding so hard I can feel it in my throat.
"Giulia!"
"Luca!" I scream back. "Luca, I'm here!"
I turn another corner and see him.
Luca is standing in the middle of the hallway, his weapon raised, his body coiled with lethal tension. He's covered in blood—his shirt is soaked with it, his face splattered, his hands dark. For a moment, I can't tell if it's his blood or someone else's, and the terror that thought brings is paralyzing.
Then he sees me, and everything in his face just… breaks.
All the anger I've seen there for weeks, all the resentment and distance, all of it shatters in an instant, replaced by something so raw and desperate it steals my breath away.
"Giulia." My name comes out like something torn from the deepest part of him.
He closes the distance between us and he reaches for me, his gun in one hand as the other goes to my face, my shoulders, my arms—touching me everywhere like he needs to confirm I'm real.
"Are you hurt?" His voice is ragged. "Did he hurt you? The baby—is the baby?—"
"We're fine." I choke back a sob. "We're both fine. Luca, we're?—"
He pulls me against him so hard it drives the air from my lungs, his arms wrapping around me like he's trying to absorb me into his body. I can feel him shaking like he's coming apart.
"I thought—" He can't finish the sentence. His face is buried in my hair, and I can feel his breath coming in harsh, uneven gasps. "I thought I was too late. I thought he'd?—"
"I'm here." My hands fist in his blood-soaked shirt, holding on like he's the only solid thing here in this place. "I'm here. You found me."
"I'm sorry." The words tumble out of him in a rush. "I'm so fucking sorry. For everything. For being cruel, for pushing you away, for making you think I didn't—that I couldn't?—"
"Luca—"
The gunfire starts up again, and Luca turns, pushing me behind him. “It’s not over yet,” he says grimly. “We still have to get out of here.”
29
LUCA
Earlier
The warehouse perimeteris exactly as the schematics showed—a chain-link fence with a single access road, and two guards stationed at the main entrance smoking cigarettes like they're working security at a nightclub instead of holding a kidnapped woman hostage. They're not expecting trouble. Definitely not expecting anyone to be stupid enough or desperate enough to launch a direct assault on a fortified Marchesi position with only five men.
Romeo moves beside me in the darkness. The three soldiers we brought are spread out in formation, weapons ready, waiting for my signal. We came in from the east side, where the fence backs up against an abandoned lot, cut through the chain-link with bolt cutters that made sounds I was certain would give us away, but the guards never even turned around.
Now we're thirty feet from the building, crouched behind a rusted shipping container that smells like decay and industrial chemicals. I run through the assault plan one more time in myhead. There's no room for error, not when Giulia's life depends on every decision I make in the next ten minutes.
"Two guards at the entrance," I say quietly, my voice barely carrying to Romeo beside me. "Two of our men take them simultaneously. Suppressed shots, no noise. We go in through the service door. The third of our guys stays outside, covers our exit, and takes down anyone who tries to run or call for backup."
Romeo nods, his face grim in the shadows. "And if there are more inside than we expected?"
