Chapter 16 - The Judgment
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Jake’s eyes widened in sheer, unrestrained panic. He scrambled backward on his hands, his injured leg dragging uselessly behind him.
“Ava! Please!” Jake shrieked, tears streaming down his dirt-streaked face. He looked at me, desperate and begging. “Ava, tell him to stop! I’m Emma’s father! You can't let him kill the father of your child!”
I stared down at the man who had ruined my life. I looked at the pathetic, weeping coward begging for mercy after he had just tried to use my daughter as leverage in a mafia war.
I didn't feel a single ounce of pity. The love I had once felt for him had died a long time ago, starved by his selfishness and cruelty.
“You aren't a father, Jake,” I said, my voice remarkably steady in the freezing rain. “A father protects his child. You abandoned her to starve.”
Jake sobbed, burying his face in his hands, waiting for the bullet.
Luca raised the pistol, his finger tightening on the trigger. His eyes were dark and merciless, fully prepared to execute the man in front of him.
“Luca,” I said softly.
Luca stopped. He didn't lower the gun, but he turned his head to look at me, waiting.
“Don't do it,” I whispered, stepping closer, leaning heavily on my crutch. “Not for him. For you. And for me. I don't want to watch you kill a man. I don't want Emma’s father’s blood on your hands.”
Luca stared at me, the brutal violence warring with the profound affection in his eyes. He understood what I was asking. I wasn't asking for mercy for Jake; I was asking him not to cross a line in front of me that couldn't be uncrossed.
Slowly, reluctantly, Luca lowered the weapon.
Jake let out a massive, shuddering breath of relief. “Thank you. Oh God, thank you, Ava.”
“Shut up,” Luca snarled, kicking Jake viciously in the ribs.
Luca turned to Dante. “Call Detective Miller. Tell him I have a present for him. The man who robbed the Castellano syndicate.”
Dante smiled grimly. “The black-site prison upstate, Boss?”
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“Yes,” Luca said coldly. “Jake Martinez is officially a ghost. Put him in a cell where he will never see the sun again. If he ever breathes the same air as Ava or Emma, I will kill him myself.”
Dante hauled the screaming, protesting Jake away into the darkness. The nightmare was finally over.
