Chapter 9 - The Confession
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I couldn't stop shaking. The plastic burner phone sat on the pristine marble coffee table like a live grenade.
“He wants me to meet him,” I gasped, struggling to catch my breath as tears streamed down my face. “He said if I don't go to the old shipping yards at midnight, he’ll burn down the diner. My friends are working there tonight, Luca. He’s going to kill them.”
Luca didn't say a word. He stared at the burner phone, his chest heaving with a slow, controlled rage that terrified me more than Jake’s screaming.
“Dante,” Luca finally spoke, his voice completely devoid of emotion. “Send a full tactical team to Marino’s Diner. Evacuate the staff, shut it down, and establish a perimeter. If anyone smelling like gasoline approaches the building, break their legs.”
“On it, Boss,” Dante nodded, instantly pulling out his radio and moving toward the hallway.
Luca turned his attention back to me. He sat down on the edge of the coffee table, directly in front of the sofa, gently taking my trembling hands in his large, scarred ones.
“He got to you,” Luca whispered, the guilt evident in his dark eyes. “I promised you were safe, and he still managed to make you cry in my own home.”
“It’s not your fault,” I sobbed, squeezing his hands. “He’s a coward. He’s always been a coward.”
“He is a dead man,” Luca corrected me softly. “I was going to let my capos handle him. I was going to keep it professional. But he threatened your friends to get to you.”
Luca leaned forward, closing the distance between us until his forehead rested gently against mine. The sheer intimacy of the gesture made my breath hitch, temporarily freezing the panic in my veins.
“I am going to the shipping yards tonight, Ava,” Luca confessed, his breath warm against my skin. “I am going to look Jake Martinez in the eye, and I am going to make him understand exactly what happens to men who threaten what belongs to me.”
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My heart hammered violently against my ribs. What belongs to me.
I knew I should pull away. I knew I should be terrified of a man who spoke so casually about murder. But as I sat there, drowning in the protective, intoxicating warmth of his presence, I realized a horrifying truth. I didn't want him to stop. I wanted this dangerous, beautiful man to fight for me.
