Chapter 13 - What a Father Trades
“Let them go.”
Sokolov smiled from the catwalk.
“You’ve said that before.”
“What do you want?”
“You.”
“I’m here.”
“Not your body.”
Sokolov leaned against the railing.
“Your name.”
Luca understood.
“You want me to announce I’m leaving.”
“Publicly.”
“To every family.”
“Yes.”
“You want a vacuum.”
“I want chaos.”
Marco whispered:
“He wants everyone fighting for our territory.”
Luca kept his eyes on Sokolov.
“And after I step down?”
“You surrender the Red Hook contracts.”
“And Emma?”
“She walks.”
“Rachel?”
“Already free.”
“Russo’s wife?”
Sokolov shrugged.
“If I’m feeling generous.”
Luca’s expression hardened.
“All of them.”
“You’re negotiating?”
“Yes.”
“With what leverage?”
Luca looked at him.
“You still need me alive long enough to sign.”
Sokolov smiled.
“Smart.”
Luca removed his weapon.
Set it on the ground.
Marco whispered:
“Don’t.”
Luca took out his phone.
He called the council.
Put it on speaker.
One captain answered.
Then another.
Within a minute, seven men were listening.
Luca spoke clearly.
“This is Luca Bellini.”
Sokolov watched with satisfaction.
“As of tonight, I am withdrawing from all operational leadership.”
Marco closed his eyes.
Luca continued.
“Red Hook will no longer operate under my personal authority.”
Voices erupted from the phone.
“What the hell are you saying?”
“Luca—”
“Is this Sokolov?”
Luca ignored them.
“My daughter was taken because I spent years believing power could protect everything I loved.”
Sokolov’s smile faded slightly.
“I was wrong.”
One captain shouted:
“You don’t walk away!”
Luca continued.
“Anyone who wants my chair can fight over it after sunrise.”
Marco looked at him.
Sokolov raised the remote.
“Transfer the contracts.”
Luca opened the document sent earlier.
Signed digitally.
Sokolov checked his phone.
His smile returned.
“Done.”
“Now Emma.”
Sokolov pressed a button.
The glass-room door clicked open.
Marco moved.
Sokolov lifted the remote again.
“Not yet.”
Luca’s jaw tightened.
“You have what you wanted.”
“I have almost everything.”
“What else?”
Sokolov looked at Emma.
Then at Luca.
“I want her to see what powerful men really are.”
Luca became still.
Sokolov drew a handgun.
Marco raised his.
Sokolov aimed at Luca.
“Afraid.”
The shot fired.
Luca moved.
Pain struck him.
He fell.
Emma screamed.
“DADDY!”
Chaos erupted.
Marco fired toward the catwalk.
Sokolov disappeared behind steel beams.
Luca looked down.
Blood spread across his shirt.
The bullet had entered below his ribs.
His heartbeat became violent.
He heard Dr. Bennett’s voice in his memory.
Severe stress could trigger a lethal rhythm.
Emma ran from the glass room.
“No!”
Marco shouted:
“Emma, stay back!”
She ignored him.
She reached Luca and dropped beside him.
“Daddy.”
Luca tried to smile.
“Hi.”
“You’re bleeding again.”
“I know.”
“You keep doing that.”
“Bad habit.”
Her small hands touched his face.
For the first time, she was close enough to study every feature she had once left blank.
“Don’t go away.”
Luca’s throat closed.
“I don’t want to.”
“Promise.”
His heart stumbled.
He knew better than to make promises he could not control.
So Luca chose the hardest kind of honesty.
“I promise I’ll fight.”
Above them, Sokolov’s voice echoed.
“That won’t be enough.”
Marco turned.
Sokolov stood on the catwalk again.
This time—
May you like
his gun was pointed directly at Emma.
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