Chapter 14 - The Last Shot
Luca moved before anyone else.
He threw himself over Emma.
The gun fired.
Metal sparked beside them.
Marco fired back.
Sokolov dropped behind the railing.
“Move!” Luca shouted.
Marco grabbed Emma.
“No! Daddy!”
“Take her!”
Marco carried her behind a concrete barrier.
Luca pushed himself up.
Every breath hurt.
His heart was losing rhythm.
He could feel it.
Fast.
Pause.
Hard beat.
Pause.
The warehouse tilted.
Sokolov ran toward the loading docks.
Luca followed.
Marco shouted behind him.
“LUCA!”
He kept going.
Not because he wanted revenge.
That surprised him.
Three days earlier, he would have chased Sokolov for pride.
For reputation.
For blood.
Now he chased him because as long as Sokolov was free, Emma would never be safe.
They reached the dock.
Rain had started.
Sokolov turned.
“You traded everything for them.”
“Yes.”
“You’re nothing now.”
Luca almost laughed.
For the first time, the insult meant nothing.
“I’m her father.”
Sokolov fired.
Luca ducked behind a steel post.
“You think that makes you stronger?”
“No.”
Luca breathed through the pain.
“It gives me something worth surviving for.”
Sokolov stepped closer.
“That is weakness.”
“You sound like my uncle.”
Sokolov hesitated.
That second was enough.
Luca knocked the gun from his hand.
They crashed into the railing.
Sokolov struck Luca’s wounded shoulder.
White pain exploded.
Luca nearly fell.
Sokolov grabbed his throat.
“You were feared by half this city.”
Luca drove a knee into him.
“And miserable in all of it.”
They hit the ground.
Sokolov reached for a knife.
Luca caught his wrist.
His heart slammed.
Then suddenly—
nothing.
A terrifying pause.
Luca’s strength vanished.
Sokolov saw it.
Smiled.
“There it is.”
The heart problem.
The vulnerability.
Luca fell backward.
Sokolov picked up the knife.
Then a voice shouted:
“Police!”
Sokolov turned.
Rachel stood near the loading bay with detectives behind her.
Marco had called them the moment Emma was secured.
Sokolov raised the knife.
A shot cracked.
He dropped.
The detectives rushed forward.
Luca barely saw them.
His vision darkened.
Rachel ran.
“Luca!”
She dropped beside him.
Emma broke free from Marco.
“Daddy!”
Luca heard her as if from very far away.
Dr. Bennett’s emergency team rushed in seconds later.
“Move!”
Pads hit Luca’s chest.
Rachel held Emma.
“Don’t look, baby.”
“I want Daddy!”
Dr. Bennett checked the monitor.
“V-tach.”
Luca’s eyes opened weakly.
Emma was crying.
His daughter knew his face now.
He had finally entered her life—
and he was terrified he had arrived only in time to die in front of her.
Dr. Bennett shouted:
“Clear!”
The shock hit.
Luca’s body jerked.
The monitor screamed.
Nothing.
Rachel’s face collapsed.
“Again!”
“Charging.”
Emma buried her face against Rachel.
“Daddy promised.”
Dr. Bennett looked at the monitor.
“Clear!”
Another shock.
Silence.
One second.
Two.
Three.
Then—
beep.
Rachel stopped breathing.
Beep.
Dr. Bennett looked down at Luca.
“Come on.”
Beep.
A rhythm returned.
Weak.
But there.
Emma lifted her head.
“Mommy?”
Rachel began crying.
“He’s here.”
And for the first time in three years, Rachel wasn’t talking about an invisible man.
Luca Bellini was finally there.
But whether he would ever open his eyes again—
May you like
no one could promise.
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