Chapter 10 - Luca’s Last MapLuca was alive, but barely.
Dante caught him before he struck the floor. Blood soaked through the side of his shirt, and his breathing came in shallow bursts.
“Get the medical kit,” Dante ordered.
Clara moved immediately. Alina helped carry Luca to the bedroom, where they placed him on the narrow bed beside the empty crib.
The wound was a gunshot graze, but his ribs were fractured, and his skin felt feverish.
“He needs a hospital,” Alina said.
“The hospital is compromised,” Clara replied.
“Then call a surgeon.”
“The surgeon who helped us was killed tonight.”
Alina looked at Dante. “You can’t let him die.”
Dante’s face was pale beneath the blood on his cheek.
“I won’t.”
For the next hour, they worked in silence. Clara cleaned the wound. Alina held a lamp while Dante stitched the torn skin. His movements were steady, but his hands shook whenever Luca groaned.
When the bandage was secured, Luca opened his eyes.
“Dante?”
“I’m here.”
“You brought her.”
“She found me.”
Luca’s eyes shifted to Alina. “You have Rosa’s face.”
Alina stood near the door. “Tell me she was alive after the fire.”
“For three days.”
“Did she know I escaped?”
“She knew you were alive. That was the only thing she cared about.”
“Why didn’t she find me?”
Luca closed his eyes.
“Because the man who ordered the fire controlled the police, the hospitals, and the shelters. He made sure every record of you vanished.”
“Who was he?”
Luca looked at Dante.
“Our uncle.”
Dante’s expression changed. “Michele?”
“He believed Rafael had chosen you as his heir. When Rafael started protecting Rosa and her child, Michele saw an opportunity.”
Alina remembered a man in a dark suit standing beside Victor Hale on the night of the fire. She had never seen his face clearly, but she remembered a gold ring shaped like a serpent.
“Michele wore a serpent ring,” she said.
Luca nodded. “He still does.”
“He is alive?” Dante asked.
“He runs the new network through a company called Northstar Care.”
Dante’s eyes hardened. “The charitable hospital group?”
“The same one.”
Luca reached beneath his shirt and removed a folded paper. It was a map covered in red lines.
“Michele has the vault key,” he said. “But he cannot open the vault without you and Alina.”
“Why is he hunting Leo?”
“Because Isabella was not Leo’s mother.”
Alina froze.
Dante leaned closer. “Who was?”
Luca’s eyes moved to the baby in the crib.
“A woman named Elena Marrow.”
“That name means nothing to me.”
“She was the last girl taken from the eastern docks before the old network fell. She escaped, changed her identity, and raised a child in secret.”
“Leo?”
Luca nodded. “Isabella was his guardian. She agreed to carry the false records because Elena was dying.”
Dante looked toward the crib.
“Why did no one tell me?”
“Because Elena believed you would protect him. She was right.”
Alina studied the sleeping child. “What does Leo have to do with the vault?”
“His birth certificate carries the final code.”
“The code is in a baby’s records?”
“Not written. Hidden in the pattern of his birthmarks.”
Dante rubbed his hand over his face.
“This is insane.”
“It is organized crime,” Luca said. “Insanity is what people call it when they are not prepared.”
The basement lights flickered.
Clara moved toward the stairs.
“They found us.”
A vehicle screeched outside the bakery.
Luca pushed himself upright, grimacing.
“The map,” he said. “The vault is beneath the old train station. Go before Michele arrives.”
“I’m not leaving you,” Dante said.
“You have to.”
“I spent six months believing you were dead.”
“Then don’t waste another minute watching me bleed.”
Gunfire erupted above them.
Clara grabbed Leo from the crib. Alina reached for the baby, but a bullet punched through the ceiling.
Dante pulled her down.
“We move now.”
“Luca needs help.”
Luca seized Dante’s sleeve.
“Listen to me. Michele doesn’t want the vault opened. He wants you and Alina inside it when he burns the evidence.”
Dante stared at him.
“If we go there, he will trap us.”
“Yes.”
“Then why are you telling us to go?”
Luca smiled weakly.
“Because the only place where he can be defeated is the place he believes makes him untouchable.”
Another explosion shook the bakery.
Dust rained from the ceiling.
Dante pulled Alina toward the hidden exit. Clara carried Leo behind them.
As Alina crossed the doorway, she looked back at Luca.
He raised one hand.
“Lina,” he called.
She turned.
May you like
“Your mother left you one final message. It is inside the dragon.”
Then the door slammed shut between them.
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