Chapter 5 - The Blood on His Hands
The silence in the bedroom became absolute. Even the soft hiss of the oxygen seemed to fade against the raw intensity of his words.
""What do you mean?"" I asked, my voice barely audible above the quiet hum of the monitors.
Luca didn't look up immediately. He stayed on his knees, his forehead pressed against my hand, breathing in the scent of my skin as if grounding himself against a storm. When he finally lifted his eyes, the cold, calculating mask of the mafia Don was gone. In its place was a man who looked utterly devastated.
""Two weeks ago, my underboss, Vincent, made a move,"" Luca said, his voice flat with lethal undertones. ""He didn't come after my territory. He didn't come after my money. He found out where you went three days a week.""
My blood ran ice cold. ""Vincent knew about St. Bridget’s?""
""He knew you were visiting a hospital downtown. He assumed you were meeting a lover. Or worse, feeding information to the feds."" Luca swallowed hard, his dark eyes darkening with remembered rage. ""Tonight, while you were sitting in that restaurant waiting for me, Vincent’s crew was moving on that corner bistro. They were going to take you as leverage to force me out of the commission.""
A gasp caught in my throat. The memory of the quiet Italian restaurant, the candles, the kind owner bringing me bruschetta—all of it had been sitting in the crosshairs of a cartel massacre.
""Marco called me at six-thirty,"" Luca continued, his voice tight. ""He spotted their surveillance van outside the restaurant. If I had sent my convoy to pick you up, it would have triggered a full-scale shootout in the middle of a crowded civilian street. You would have been caught in the crossfire.""
""So you went alone?""
""I took four men and hit Vincent’s safehouse in Queens before they could give the green light,"" Luca said, his gaze dropping to his bruised, blood-stained knuckles. ""I wanted to eliminate every single threat to you before the clock struck midnight. I wanted to end it all so I could walk into that restaurant, sit across from you, and tell you that you were finally safe. That our contract was over, and I wanted a real life with you.""
He let out a ragged, self-mocking laugh.
""By the time I put Vincent in the ground and burned his warehouse, it was ten-fifteen. My phone had been crushed in the raid. I sped across the bridge like a maniac, running red lights, terrified you were still in danger. When Marco told me you had left the restaurant on foot, I thought my heart was going to burst.""
He reached out, his calloused fingertips lightly grazing the deep purple shadows under my eyes.
""I arrived at the gates just as you pushed through the front doors. I watched you fall, Nora. I have looked down the barrel of a loaded gun without flinching, but watching your knees buckle on those stairs made me feel more powerless than a child.""
I stared at him, my heart hammering against my ribs. All the anger, the bitter resentment that had festered inside me for months, began to dissolve into a terrifying, overwhelming truth. He hadn't abandoned me out of indifference. He had plunged himself into hell to keep the flames from touching me.
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""You should have told me,"" I whispered, reaching out to touch his cheek.
""I didn't want you to be afraid of my world,"" Luca choked out, leaning his face into my palm. ""I thought if I kept you distant, you would stay clean. But all I did was leave you alone to bleed for a stranger.""
