Page 107 of Mafia Shade's Reluctant Bride
“And I’d do it again. You were all puppets. Your father was weak.”
Luca roared. He reached for his gun. My stomach flipped.
I ran.
“Luca! Don’t!”
He didn’t hear me. He pressed the barrel against Enrico’s temple. His hand shook.
“He deserves it,” Luca growled.
Maria stepped in. Her voice cracked, but it carried.
“Stop!”
He looked up, eyes wild.
“He took everything from us!”
“And you think killing him gives it back? Don’t become him, Luca. You’re better than that.”
He stared at her, torn in half. His finger hovered.
“Justice, not revenge,” she whispered.
And somehow, that got through. His hand dropped. He backed away like the gun had burned him.
Police sirens wailed in the distance. I saw my men with Dante driving in just in time. Dante had called the police.
Enrico lay there, bloodied and laughing.
“You’re all pathetic.”
Maria stood over him. She didn’t flinch.
“You’ll rot in a cell. Alone and forgotten. That’s justice.”
Cops swarmed the scene with guns drawn. They tackled Enrico, cuffed him, and dragged him to the cruiser.
I looked around at the wreckage. The warehouse was a skeleton now. Smoke curled toward the heavens like the last lie Enrico ever told.
Maria turned to me. Her lips quivered, but she stayed strong.
Matteo held her hand.
I touched his head and pulled them both into my arms.
“It’s over.” She leaned into me, her breath shaky.
“It’s finally over.”
But in my gut, I knew something had changed. Justice might’ve been served. But nothing would ever be the same again.
Still, as long as I had her and our boy, I could start over.
The dust hadn’t even settled around the warehouse ruins. We had gone home, and there we were, all three of us—four if you count Luca finally pretending I wasn’t Satan.
Maria was nursing a scrape on her arm. Matteo sat in my lap like it was the most normal thing in the world, but his little shoulders were stiff, and his eyes wouldn’t stop darting around like he was still half-expecting everything to blow up again. Every loud noise made him flinch. Every shout in the distance made his head snap back toward the smoke like he needed to be ready to run. The kid looked like he hadn’t taken a full breath since we got out.
