Chapter 7 - THE RECKONING AT THE DOCKSLuca held me so tightly I could feel the thunderous, frantic beat of his heart against my cheek. His hand gripped the back of my head, his fingers buried in my hair as he kissed the top of my forehead again and again.
"Are you hurt?" he rasped, his voice shaking with a rare, terrifying emotion. "Did he touch you? Did he hit you?"
"No," I sobbed, wrapping my arms around his waist. "No, Luca... I'm okay. You got here in time."
"I saw the perimeter feed on my phone," Luca whispered, his lips resting against my temple. "When I saw them enter your wing... I thought..." He couldn't even finish the sentence. The thought of losing me had pushed the most feared Don in the country to the brink of absolute madness.
Marco and six heavily armed Moretti enforcers burst into the room through the main doors, weapons drawn. They stopped dead in their tracks, taking in the scene: two neutralized assassins, a shattered balcony, and their Don holding a weeping girl in his arms like she was the most precious thing on earth.
"Boss!" Marco gasped. "We captured Matteo at the front gates. He was trying to board a speedboat."
Luca’s posture shifted instantly. The protective warmth he held for me vanished, replaced by an ice-cold, murderous aura that terrified even his own men.
"Bring Matteo down to the boat house," Luca commanded softly. "Drag Julian and his soldier down there too."
"Yes, Boss."
Luca looked down at me, his fingers gently smoothing my hair. "Stay upstairs with Marco's secondary team, Claire. I have to finish this."
I reached out, grabbing the sleeve of his shirt. "Luca... please be careful."
Luca leaned down, pressing his lips firmly against mine in a quick, fierce, breathtaking kiss that made my whole body go warm.
"I am always careful, little bird," he murmured against my lips. "I'll be back in twenty minutes."
Twenty minutes later, down at the dark, secluded boathouse at the tip of the peninsula, a final reckoning took place.
Matteo, the silver-haired traitor, knelt on the damp wooden planks beside Julian Bellini, whose broken arm was tied behind his back. Surrounding them were twelve high-ranking syndicate lieutenants who had been summoned by Marco to witness the Don's justice.
Luca stood before them, wearing a clean black suit jacket, his dark hair pulled back neatly behind his ears.
"Matteo," Luca spoke into the quiet night air, his voice echoing off the dark ocean water. "Thirty years you served my father. Twenty years you served me."
"Luca... please," Matteo whimpered, tears pouring down his face. "The Bellinis offered me twenty percent of the Miami port revenue! I made a mistake! I was greedy!"
"You didn't just sell out my business, Matteo," Luca said, stepping up to him. "You put armed assassins in the bedroom of the woman I intend to make my wife."
A collective gasp rippled through the gathered lieutenants.
Julian Bellini looked up from the floor, his face pale with utter shock. "Wife...? That... that maid?!"
Luca drew his custom .45 from his holster, pointing it directly between Matteo’s eyes.
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"She is no longer a maid, Julian," Luca said coldly, looking over at the broken Bellini heir. "She is the future Queen of the Moretti Syndicate. And anyone who breathes a word of disrespect against her dies where they stand."
Two gunshots echoed out across the quiet waters of Palm Shores, cutting through the night breeze, sealing the fate of the traitors forever.
