SMILE, SWEETHEART. HE'S AN IMPORTANT GUEST

The explosion of white light and sound filled the small stone chamber.

Vance and his mercenaries screamed, dropping their weapons as they clutched their eyes and ears.

Luca didn't hesitate. He knew the layout of a firefight better than anyone.

He grabbed the wooden box from the altar, grabbed my hand, and pulled me toward a narrow side tunnel he had spotted when we walked in.

We plunged into the darkness just as Vance’s men began firing blindly into the smoke.

Bullets chipped the ancient stone behind us.

“Keep moving!” Luca shouted over the echoing gunfire.

We ran through the twisting, damp tunnels of the catacombs. I couldn't see anything; I just trusted Luca’s grip on my hand.

We burst through a heavy wooden door and stumbled out into the bright, crisp morning air.

We were in the overgrown cemetery behind the cathedral.

Luca’s men were waiting. They had heard the gunfire and moved to intercept.

“Boss, we have them pinned inside,” Marco reported, his rifle raised.

“Hold the perimeter,” Luca ordered. “Don't let Vance escape. I want him alive.”

Luca pulled me behind the cover of a large stone mausoleum.

He opened the wooden box to ensure the charter was still inside. It was.

He looked at me. His chest was heaving, his dark eyes intense.

“Are you hurt?” he asked, checking me over quickly.

“I'm fine,” I breathed, leaning against the cold stone. “Who threw the flashbang?”

A voice spoke from the shadows of the cemetery gate.

“I did.”

We turned.

Standing there, wearing a dark leather jacket and holding a tactical shotgun, was a man I thought was dead.

My father.

Arthur Sullivan.

I froze. My mind completely stopped working.

He looked older, weathered, with a jagged scar across his jaw, but it was him.

“Dad?” I whispered, my voice breaking.

Arthur offered a sad, tired smile.

“Hello, Emma.”

I didn't run to him. I was too shocked.

“You’re dead,” I stammered. “We buried you.”

“You buried a closed casket,” Arthur corrected gently. “I had to disappear, Emma. The Commission found out I stole the key. If they knew I was alive, they would have tortured you and your mother to get to me. I had to let you think I was gone.”

Luca stepped forward, his expression hard.

“You let your daughter believe you were dead for two years? You let her scrub floors in my house to pay your widow’s mortgage?”

Arthur looked at Luca with deep respect.

“I knew she was working for you, Luca. I knew you were an honorable man. I knew she was safer in your house than anywhere else in Chicago.”

“She was almost killed in my house!” Luca roared.

“But she wasn't,” Arthur countered calmly. “Because you protected her. Just like I knew you would.”

Arthur looked back at me.

“I'm sorry, Emma. I did it to keep you alive.”

Tears streamed down my face. I didn't know whether to hug him or hit him.

I settled for both. I ran forward and hit his chest weakly before collapsing into his arms, sobbing.

He held me tight, kissing the top of my head.

“It's over now, sweetie. It's really over.”

Arthur looked at Luca over my shoulder.

“You have the charter, Luca. You have the leverage to destroy Vance and the rest of the corrupt Commission. You can reshape the city.”

Luca looked at the wooden box in his hand.

Then he looked at me.

“I don't want the city,” Luca said quietly.

Arthur frowned. “What do you mean?”

“I mean I'm done,” Luca stated, his voice ringing with absolute certainty. “I'm burning the charter. I'm dismantling the syndicate. I'm taking my legitimate businesses and I am walking away.”

Arthur stared at him in shock. “You would throw away absolute power?”

“Power cost me my father, my brother, and almost the woman I love,” Luca said, his eyes locking onto mine. “I'm not losing anything else.”

He walked over to a metal trash barrel near the cemetery gate.

He pulled a lighter from his pocket.

He set the ancient, priceless Commission Charter on fire and dropped it into the barrel.