Chapter 8 - THE ROSARY IN THE CATACOMBS
The damp, freezing air in the catacombs vanished, replaced by a suffocating, blinding terror.
Vanessa’s suppressed pistol was inches from Leo’s temple. My six-year-old son was frozen, his tiny hands clutching my pant leg, too terrified to even cry.
“Don't touch him,” I hissed, a primal, violent maternal rage erupting in my chest. I didn't have a gun, but I stepped in front of Leo, shielding his small body with my own, daring Vanessa to shoot through me.
Vanessa merely rolled her eyes. “So brave, Emma. So utterly pointless.”
She shifted her gaze to Luca. The Mafia boss stood perfectly still, his broad shoulders tense, the safe deposit key tightly gripped in his right hand.
“Drop the gun, Vanessa,” Luca said, his voice dropping into a register so dark and dangerous it made the stone walls vibrate.
“Give me the key, Luca,” Vanessa countered, her smile widening. “It’s over. Your mother killed your father. Your empire is a lie. If I take that key to the Commission, they will execute Rosa and hand the Chicago syndicate to my family. And you will be nothing.”
Luca looked at the small piece of tarnished metal in his palm.
It was the key to his kingdom. If he destroyed it, he protected his mother. If he handed it over, he saved our lives but doomed his own family to slaughter.
“You want the key?” Luca asked quietly.
“Toss it,” Vanessa commanded.
Luca didn't toss it.
With a terrifying, sudden calmness, Luca raised his arm and threw the safe deposit key directly into the ancient, grated storm drain set into the floor of the crypt.
The key bounced once, slipped through the iron bars, and disappeared into the rushing sewage water deep below the church.
Vanessa screamed in absolute fury.
“You idiot!” she shrieked, lowering her gun from me and aiming it directly at Luca’s chest. “You just threw away your only leverage!”
“No,” Luca said, a slow, dark smile spreading across his handsome face. “I threw away your leverage. Without that key, you have no proof against my mother. The Commission will never believe you. You have nothing.”
Vanessa’s face twisted into an ugly mask of pure hatred. “I still have bullets.”
She tightened her finger on the trigger.
I didn't think. I didn't plan. I just acted on pure adrenaline and the instinct of a mother protecting her child.
I reached down to my father’s belt, yanked out the heavy, silver rosary he always carried, and whipped it directly at Vanessa’s face.
The heavy silver cross struck Vanessa squarely in the eye.
She shrieked, stumbling backward, her gun firing wildly into the stone ceiling. Dust and debris rained down on us.
That split second of distraction was all Luca needed.
He lunged across the distance, tackling Vanessa’s two closest guards to the ground with brutal, bone-crushing force.
“Run!” Luca roared to us.
I scooped Leo into my arms, my father grabbing my shoulder, and we sprinted down the dark, winding corridor of the crypt, plunging deeper into the maze of tombs. Behind us, the deafening cracks of gunfire echoed off the stone walls.
“Mommy, I’m scared,” Leo sobbed into my neck.
“I know, baby, I know. Just hold on tight,” I gasped, my lungs burning as we ran blindly through the darkness.
We rounded a corner and slammed to a halt.
A dead end. An ancient, sealed wooden door blocked our path.
“We’re trapped,” my father wheezed, collapsing against the damp stone wall.
I set Leo behind me, picking up a heavy, rusted iron candlestick from a nearby tomb. If they came around that corner, I was going down fighting. I would kill as many of them as I could before they touched my son.
Footsteps echoed down the corridor. Heavy, deliberate boots.
I raised the candlestick, trembling violently.
A figure stepped out of the shadows.
It wasn't Vanessa. It wasn't her guards.
It was Luca.
He was bleeding from a cut above his eyebrow, his tailored suit torn and covered in dust, but his eyes were blazing with a fierce, protective fire.
“They’re down,” Luca breathed, holstering his weapon. He walked over to me, gently pulling the rusted iron candlestick from my shaking hands. “You’re safe, Emma. It’s over.”
I collapsed against his chest, sobbing hysterically. Luca wrapped his massive arms around me, burying his face in my hair, holding me tighter than I had ever been held in my life.
“I’ve got you,” he whispered against my temple. “I’ve got you.”
Suddenly, a loud, heavy pounding echoed from the ceiling above us. The sound of dozens of boots hitting the marble floor of the sanctuary.
“Police!” a voice boomed from a megaphone upstairs. “FBI! Drop your weapons!”
My father looked up, terrified. “Luca, the Feds.”
Luca didn't look panicked. He just stepped back, gently wiping a tear from my cheek with his thumb.
“I know,” Luca said softly. “I called them from the car.”
I stared at him, stunned. “You called the FBI? Luca, you’re the head of the syndicate. They’ll arrest you.”
“Let them,” Luca smiled, a genuine, beautiful smile that finally reached his eyes. “I don't want the syndicate, Emma. I never wanted it. My mother built an empire on blood and lies. Today, I burn it down.”
He turned toward the corridor as the FBI tactical teams began flooding down the stone stairs into the crypt, their flashlights cutting through the darkness.
Luca held up his hands, completely empty, surrendering himself to the authorities.
As the agents swarmed him, slamming him against the stone wall to handcuff him, Luca turned his head and looked at me one last time.
May you like
“Take care of the boy, Emma,” Luca shouted over the chaos. “I’ll come find you when this is done.”
And then, they dragged the Mafia boss away into the light, leaving me standing in the darkness with a broken family, a shattered empire, and a heart that suddenly belonged completely to him.
