Page 36 of Vows Made in Silence
I stand, blood on my knuckles, chest heaving.
Vescari doesn’t get up.
I walk to Giuliana. She’s conscious, barely. I drop to my knees beside her.
“I came for you,” I whisper.
She reaches out, fingers brushing my jaw. “I knew you would but where's Daniel?"
The moment her words hit me—Where’s Daniel?—my blood runs colder than Vescari’s corpse.
Before I can answer, Turk’s radio crackles. A new voice cuts through.
“You found one traitor,” the voice says. “But the one who started it all… he’s still alive. And he’s coming for the boy.”
—
My stomach twists into a knot of cold fury.
Daniel.
When I left him, it was with a promise sealed in the quiet strength of a pinky swear—the kind you make to children when words aren’t strong enough. He was clutching the stuffed dinosaur Giuliana gave him, looking up at me with those same sharp eyes that once stared back at me in the mirror.
I’d posted two of my best men—Marco and Renzo—outside the safehouse compound, strategically positioned in unmarked sedans. They were watching from every angle, overlapping fields of vision. Marco had eyes on the front. Renzo monitored the alley. Both carried encrypted comms and kill-switch protocols.
At first, everything was quiet. Routine.
Then came the static. A single coded burst.
Followed by silence.
The ambush was clean. Professional. The kind you don’t see until you’re already bleeding. A hit squad neutralized Marco from across the street with a sniper shot. Renzo got off three return rounds before being flanked. He managed to grab Daniel, shield him and run for cover to call Turk with his dying breath.
Turk’s voice cracked when he delivered the news.
“They hit the safehouse. Took Daniel. Renzo didn’t make it. They knew exactly where to strike. This was coordinated.”
I rise to my feet like a man pulled by strings of vengeance. “Trace that signal,” I bark. “Now.”
Turk’s already on it, typing into the encrypted device slung on his hip. Static bleeds through the comms, and then—coordinates.
“East side. Highway 95. Vehicle moving fast. Unmarked black van. They’ve got a twenty-minute head start.”
Giuliana’s face drains of color as I kneel back beside her. “I’ll get him,” I say. “I swear on everything I am.”
She grabs my shirt, voice breaking. “Luca, please—he doesn’t even know who you really are.”
My jaw tightens. “He will.”
“Take me with you,” Giuliana blurts, eyes wild. She pushes against Frankie’s hold, her voice cracking. “I won’t be left behind, Luca. Not again.”
I turn to her—storm already brewing inside me. “No.”
Her fists clutch my shirt. “It’s too dangerous to face them alone. You need me—I can help.” Her voice lowers, desperate. “I can’t sit in a locked room wondering if you’ll come back… if Daniel will.”
I grip her shoulders, hard enough to shake sense into both of us. “You need to let me handle this.”
But her eyes—Christ, those eyes—burn with stubborn fire. “I am handling it. We’re in this together.”
