Chapter 10 - The Price of the Emerald
Gunfire erupted inside the narrow service corridors with the deafening roar of a thousand thunderclaps.
Muzzle flashes illuminated the swirling white dust, turning the elegant estate into a slaughterhouse.
Luca fired back with brutal, pinpoint accuracy, dropping two Russian mercenaries in the collapsed doorway.
“Luna! Get behind the steel doors!” Luca roared over the deafening cacophony of automatic fire.
He tried to fight his way across the debris toward her, but heavy fire from three assault rifles pinned him down behind a stone archway.
Luna scrambled across the floor, chunks of concrete scraping her knees through her torn trousers.
Through the blinding haze of gray smoke, a heavy combat boot slammed down inches from her head.
She rolled onto her back and looked up into the sadistic, grinning face of Dmitri Kosoff.
“The little dove who thought she could be an empress,” Dmitri sneered, leveling his shotgun directly at her forehead.
Behind him, Vincent Torino was hastily reloading his handgun, shouting orders to the surviving mercenaries.
“Grab the girl!” Vincent yelled over the gunfire. “She is Luca’s only weakness!”
“If we have her, he will drop his weapons and surrender the entire Manhattan registry!”
Dmitri reached down with an iron fist, grabbing Luna by the collar of her jacket and hoisting her up like a rag doll.
His breath smelled of stale tobacco and raw adrenaline as he shoved her against the damaged wall.
“Look at your brave boss now,” Dmitri whispered cruelly, turning her face toward the crossfire.
“He threw away the peace of five territories for a housemaid who doesn't even have papers.”
Luca saw Dmitri holding Luna against the wall, and a sound of sheer, unhinged fury ripped from his throat.
He broke from his cover, exposing his chest to incoming fire as he charged down the smoke-filled corridor.
A Russian bullet tore through Luca’s left shoulder, spraying bright crimson across the pristine white wallpaper.
Another round grazed his ribcage, but the mafia heir did not even slow down.
He leveled his assault rifle with his uninjured right arm and squeezed the trigger.
Three rounds slammed into the mercenary standing beside Dmitri, dropping the gunman instantly to the floor.
Dmitri cursed violently, swinging Luna around to use her as a human shield against Luca’s relentless advance.
“Shoot, Moretti!” Dmitri laughed hysterically. “Put a bullet through your precious little queen!”
Luca froze ten paces away, his rifle barrel trembling as he refused to risk hitting Luna.
Blood poured down Luca’s left arm, dripping steadily from his fingertips onto the debris-covered floor.
Luna looked at Luca’s bleeding shoulder, seeing the agony and desperation burning in his green eyes.
She remembered the books in Spanish he had left on the kitchen counter for her.
She remembered the midnight medicine he had bought when she was freezing and abandoned.
She remembered the emerald ring he had offered her before the entire assembled underworld.
She was not a helpless victim destined to be used as leverage against the man who loved her.
Luna slid her right hand into the deep pocket of her wool jacket, her fingers finding the small revolver.
She kept her body pressed against Dmitri’s chest, pretending to weep and tremble with terror.
“Please... don't shoot him,” Luna sobbed convincingly, turning her head toward Dmitri’s ear.
Dmitri grinned in triumph, leaning his head down to mock her one last time.
“Too late, little maid.”
Luna pulled the snub-nosed revolver from her pocket, jammed the barrel directly into Dmitri’s side beneath his body armor, and pulled the trigger.
The muffled gunshot echoed through Dmitri’s ribs, the heavy hollow-point bullet tearing through his organs.
The Russian enforcer gasped in absolute shock, his eyes bulging as his grip on Luna went completely slack.
He stumbled backward, clutching his bleeding abdomen, staring at the maid who had just ended his life.
“You... bitch...” Dmitri choked out, collapsing onto the shattered floor in a pool of his own blood.
Luna fell backward onto the rug, the smoking revolver slipping from her numb fingers.
Before Vincent Torino could raise his gun to avenge his Russian partner, Luca closed the distance in two thunderous strides.
Luca drove the heavy butt of his rifle into Vincent’s jaw, shattering bone and sending the traitor crashing against the marble.
Luca pinned the treacherous enforcer down with his combat boot, pointing his assault rifle directly between Vincent’s eyes.
“Wait... Luca... please...” Vincent begged, spitting blood and broken teeth onto his lapel.
“Thirty years... I served your father...”
“My father ordered you to protect her or answer to him in hell,” Luca whispered with lethal finality.
“Go give him your excuses yourself.”
Luca pulled the trigger, ending the traitor’s life with a single, echoing shot.
The remaining Russian mercenaries, seeing both of their commanders eliminated, retreated frantically through the kitchen breach into the stormy night.
The mansion fell into an eerie, heavy silence, broken only by the distant wail of emergency sirens approaching through the rain.
Luca threw his rifle aside, ignored the searing pain in his bleeding shoulder, and fell to his knees beside Luna.
He pulled her into his arms, burying his face in her dark hair as his body shook with raw emotion.
“You are alive,” he breathed, his voice breaking into ragged sobs. “You saved me, mi paloma.”
Luna wrapped her arms around his neck, holding him tightly against the cold horrors of the night.
She looked down at her hands, which were now stained with the gunpowder and blood of a mafia war.
She had crossed the border three years ago seeking a quiet, peaceful life.
Instead, she had just fought off an army to protect the throne of the man who held her heart.
Down the hallway, the sound of reinforcements securing the perimeter echoed through the ruined house.
The battle for the estate was over, but Luna knew this was only the first skirmish in a war that would engulf the entire continent.
May you like
She reached up, took Luca’s bruised face in her blood-stained hands, and looked into his fierce green eyes.
“Teach me how to rule, Luca,” Luna said, her voice steady and devoid of fear.
