SOPHIA
I don’t have much time. Any minute now, Scott could be coming for me. He would have brought the cavalry, and I have to get Luca and Diego out of here.
I can’t let them get arrested.
“Caputo?”Diego calls and then a grunt and the slam of a body against a wall alerts me that the cavalry ishere. I’m out of time.
“Luca, listen to me,” I say, cupping his face. He tries to wrench away from me, but I keep him there fast, staring into his eyes. “I have to tell you something. It’s important. It’s so important, Luca, and?—”
The SWAT team bursts in through the windows, making me jump. I scream and watch in horror as Luca reaches for his gun. It’s instinct. I don’t know if he even would have fired it, but it doesn’t matter.
Gunshots ring through the room and Luca’s hit, blood spurting all over me as the bullets penetrate through him. Three, in a small ring, right around his heart.
“No!” I scream, placing my hand over one of the wounds but blood spurts through my fingers and Luca gasps. There’s blood on his teeth. “No, no,fuck, Luca?—”
“Sophia,” he sputters. “Pixie.”
Then he goes down on his knees, slumping over and I scream again as the uniformed men come at me.
“Back away! He might have a weapon!”
“Fuck you!” I yell, fighting the officers, struggling to get to Luca. After a brief moment they let me go and I crumple to the ground next to Luca. “Baby listen, you have to listen to me.”
“I never got to tell you,” he says slowly, coughing and spitting up blood. My heart races. How bad is it? Is he dying? Is he dying right here? “I love you. I’m crazy about you, Sophia.”
My heart clenches in my chest. This can’t be happening. This can’t be happening, because he doesn’t know. He doesn’t know a beautiful little girl named Rosa Bianchi exists, and he can’t die before he knows that. Before he meets her.
“We have a daughter,” I rasp out, my voice weak. His green eyes are looking up at the ceiling, barely focusing. I shake him and he lets out a weak cough. “We have a daughter, Luca. Her name is Rosa and she has your eyes and you can’t die because you have to meet her! You have to?—”
But his eyes are drifting shut and another SWAT officer comes up to me, tugging off his mask to reveal that it’s Scott underneath.
Some insane part of me wants to ask when he joined SWAT, but words won’t come out as I clutch at Luca. They probably let himon the team just for this mission. It’s amazing what you can get done when you’re part of the Chicago Police Department.
“Medic,” I whisper hoarsely, then my voice cracks as I yell it louder. “Medic! Scott, please!”
Scott barks out something and a few EMT’s come on the scene, rushing to Luca. In the distance, I notice someone putting Diego into the back of a cop car.
God. What have I done?
Scott has to pull me physically off Luca and I scream and fight him.
“Hey. Hey, Soph, let them work.”
“Lost his pulse,” one of the EMTs yells, and my breath catches in my throat.
“Starting compressions,” the other says, pushing down hard on Luca’s chest. I struggle in Scott’s arms but to no avail. He holds me tight against his chest.
“Let them help him,” he says quietly, and I lose it. I dissolve into sobs, my knees buckling but Scott holds me up, murmuring sweet nothings against my ear.
He tries to lead me out of the building, but I won’t go. I’m too focused on the EMT giving CPR to my father’s daughter, to the man I’m in love with.
“He’s not going to make it, is he?” I ask in a broken voice, and for the longest time Scott doesn’t answer.
“I don’t know,” he says finally, voice flat, and the scream that comes out of my throat burns on its way out.
I start losing time. One moment, I’m standing in the mansion, staring at Luca’s prone form as the EMTs work on him. Next, I’m in the back of an ambulance with someone taking my blood pressure. Scott snaps in front of my face, bringing me back.
“Soph. Are you with me?”
