Chapter 11 – [THE FINAL SACRIFICE]

“They’re at our house?” I panicked, grabbing my coat. “Luca, we have to call the police!”

“We can’t,” Luca said, his voice terrifyingly calm. “The Camorra doesn’t operate like my father did. They don’t care about collateral damage. If the police show up, they’ll blow the entire block.”

“Then what do we do?” David asked, grabbing a heavy rolling pin from the counter.

Luca took the rolling pin from David’s hands and tossed it aside.

“You do nothing. You stay here. I’m going to get the rosary.”

“No!” I grabbed his arm. “Luca, you just got out of prison! If you get caught with a gun, if you get involved in this, you’ll go back for the rest of your life!”

Luca looked down at me, his dark eyes softening.

“Emily. Two years ago, I gave up an empire because it was built on blood. I told you I wanted a quiet life. But a quiet life doesn’t mean I stop protecting the people I love.”

He leaned down and kissed me. Hard. Deep. A promise.

“Lock the doors. Do not open them for anyone but me.”

Before I could stop him, Luca slipped out the back door into the alley.

David pulled me into a hug, both of us shaking as the minutes ticked by.

Ten minutes.

Twenty.

Forty-five.

The silence in the bakery was agonizing.

“He’s not coming back, Em,” David whispered, tears slipping down his cheeks. “He went there to die for us.”

“Don’t say that,” I cried, staring at the back door. “He promised.”

At exactly fifty-nine minutes, the heavy metal back door rattled.

Three sharp knocks. Pause. Two knocks.

Luca’s signal.

David unlocked the deadbolt and pulled the door open.

Luca stood there. He was bleeding from a cut above his eyebrow, and his knuckles were bruised, but he was holding the silver rosary.

“Luca!” I sobbed, throwing my arms around his neck.

He winced slightly but held me tight. “I’m okay. I’m okay.”

“What happened?” David asked, quickly locking the door behind him. “Did you give it to them?”

“I didn’t have to,” Luca smirked, wiping the blood from his face. “When I got to the house, there were three guys tearing the place apart. I found the lockbox under the bed before they did.”

Luca walked over to the counter and placed the heavy silver rosary under the bright bakery lights.

He took a small paring knife from the prep station.

“Luca, what are you doing?” I asked.

“Watch.”

He jammed the tip of the knife into the largest silver bead—the crucifix.

He twisted.

The bead popped open.

Inside, tightly rolled into a tiny cylinder, was a piece of parchment.

David gasped. “The bearer bond.”

Luca unrolled it.

It was authentic. Stamped by the Bank of Geneva. Ten million dollars.

“They didn’t want the rosary,” Luca said. “They wanted this.”

“So give it to them!” David urged. “Let them take it and leave us alone!”

Luca shook his head. “If you pay a blackmailer, they never stop coming back. They know who you are now, David. They will bleed you dry until you’re dead.”

Luca took a lighter from his pocket.

“Luca, no!” David yelled. “That’s ten million dollars!”

“It’s ten million dollars of blood money,” Luca said, looking directly at me. “And we don’t build our lives on blood anymore.”

He flicked the lighter.

The flame caught the edge of the ancient parchment.

We stood in silence as the bond burned to ash on the metal countertop.

“It’s gone,” Luca said, crushing the ashes with his thumb.

He picked up the empty silver rosary and handed it back to David.

“You keep this. It’s a reminder of the woman who raised you. But the debt to the Camorra? It’s burned.”

“What if they come back?” I asked, looking at the shattered front window.

“They won’t,” Luca said calmly. “Before I left the house, I made a phone call. To an old friend at the FBI. The three men tearing apart your bedroom were arrested on federal terrorism charges five minutes ago. The Camorra’s cell in Chicago is finished.”

I stared at the man standing in my bakery.

He wasn’t a mafia boss anymore. He wasn’t a criminal.

He was a protector. My protector.

“Are we really safe now?” David asked quietly.

Luca put his hand on David’s shoulder. “Yeah, kid. You’re safe.”

David smiled, looking between Luca and me. “I think I’m gonna go… sweep the back room. Again.”

He quickly walked away, leaving us alone in the warm light of the bakery.

Luca reached across the counter and took my hand.

“I’m sorry I ruined our date,” he said softly.

I looked at the shattered window, the ashes on the counter, and the blood on his face.

Then I smiled, reaching up to wipe a smudge of dirt from his cheek.

“It’s okay,” I whispered. “We have the rest of our lives for dinner dates.”

Luca smiled back, pulling me into his arms.

The past was ashes.

The secrets were gone.

And the future, finally, belonged to us.

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