Page 65 of Sins of the Father
“You’ll have to shoot me face-to-face,” she snapped, forcing steel into her voice. “I won’t die like a frightened animal in the dark.”
Silence stretched until Carlos’s phone burst to life with a string of clipped tones. He pressed the answer button; his voice came over the Bluetooth, clipped and professional.
“Boss,” he said. “I found her.”
Mia’s throat tightened. She bit her lip to stop a cry. Waited.
Luc’s voice, flat and quiet through the speaker, answered. “Let her go.”
Carlos’s eyes widened. “Boss—”
A mirthless chuckle leaked through the line. “Do you think I lost my senses? Since she left, I cannot think of anything else. She is a weakness I never expected.”
Mia leaned forward despite herself, tears slipping down her cheeks as she stared at the dashboard, wanting to speak, to beg, to beg him not to do anything rash.
“I don’t want her dead,” Luc continued, voice breaking in a way she’d never heard before. “I want her to live—to live a long, good life. Maybe when she is old, she’ll think of me kindly and go to sleep. Let her go.”
Carlos inhaled sharply. “Boss, I can’t—”
“You defy me?” Luc asked. The single question held a steel so cold it could cut.
Carlos closed his mouth. The Commission’s rules hummed between them—no one simply walked away; there were consequences.
“If they hunt her down because she left,” Carlos said carefully, “the Commission will judge the Valachi family.”
Luc’s voice dropped, lethal and unimaginable. “If they dare, I will slaughter the Commission. Now let her go. Let her be happy.”
The call clicked off. Carlos sat frozen, the rain drumming a steady, indifferent rhythm on the roof. Mia felt the words land inside her like something impossible and miraculous at once—Luc would renounce power to keep her safe.
She pressed her hands flat to her knees as her shoulders shook. Relief and terror and a grief she couldn’t name tore through her at the same time. The car slid through the dark, the hiss of rain filling the space where words could not go, and her heart hammered against her ribs like a trapped thing.
“I love him,” she said, laughing and sobbing at the same time. “Before you found me, I kept thinking how empty life felt—without him, without Gabriella and Rosina, without Antonio, even you. I found a family and I left them, and everything in me ached to go back.”
Carlos twisted, the look in his eyes suddenly almost feral. “Do you mean it?”
He lifted the gun and levelled it at her. “I am willing to defy Luc—even if it costs me my life. I’ll do this to protect Gabriella. If the Commission answers with war, it will be bloody, and we will lose people.”
Mia’s throat tightened. The house hadn’t been a prison. It had become her life. Her strange, flawed, terrifying life. Shepictured Luc’s face—the cold mask he wore for the world, and the man she saw underneath it. “Love isn’t about safety,” she murmured. “It’s about choosing someone even when it’s hard.”
And she chose him.
Carlos slowly exhaled, relief flickering across his face. The sound came first—a sharp crack that split the air like thunder. The windshield shattered, spraying glass like rain. Carlos jerked forward, a choked grunt escaping him as crimson bloomed across his shirt.
Mia screamed, throwing her hands over her face as shards rained down. Her door wrenched open. Cold rain and chaos rushed in. Rough hands grabbed her arm, dragging her from the seat. She kicked, twisted, panic clawing through her chest. Her elbow shot up hard, connecting with a throat. The man gagged, stumbling back.
She turned to run. Another hand clamped around her wrist, iron-strong. She spun and froze. She knew that face—he’d been at Luc’s estate more than once, quiet, respectful, always standing just behind the older guards. A familiar man from Luc’s world. Her mind raced.Why is he here?
“John?” she asked, trying to recall if the name was accurate.
He didn’t answer. His expression was grim, eyes empty of mercy. Her heart stuttered. She tried to jerk away, but his hand tightened painfully. “Don’t—” she started.
The sting hit before the words finished. A needle, fast and precise, pricked the side of her neck. Her gasp caught in her throat. The world tilted. Her knees buckled as everything—rain, light, sound—blurred together. Mia felt her ribs tighten, constricting her lungs. John’s face swam before her eyes, the edges of his features dissolving into darkness.
Then nothing.
Luc staredat the empty glass on his desk. The hearth had burned down to dull embers hours ago, leaving the room cold and echoing. He had told Carlos to let her go—an order that should have been impossible for any man in his position. Carlos would still watch her, of course; men like theirs never truly let anything go. But Luc could not bring himself to take her life.
He closed his eyes and imagined the moment the truth leaked out. The Commission would not tolerate a deserter; they would demand a body to seal the lesson. And his answer to that demand would be simple and terrible: he would burn their world down, drag them into a war the city hadn’t seen in decades.
