THE EVICTION NOTICE

The air inside the building was thick with pulverized drywall and suffocating dust.

Luca tied his handkerchief over his mouth and nose, coughing violently as he navigated the ruined lobby. The sound of the bulldozers outside was deafening, a relentless mechanical grinding that shook the floorboards beneath his feet.

“Mrs. Higgins!” Luca roared, his voice barely audible over the destruction.

He knew her room. 2B. Second floor, right above the lobby.

He bounded up the main staircase, dodging a falling chandelier that crashed into the banister, splintering the wood into jagged shards.

The second-floor hallway was heavily sloped, the structural integrity failing rapidly. The floorboards groaned with every step.

Luca kicked the door of 2B open.

Mrs. Higgins, a fragile woman in her late seventies, was on her hands and knees near the shattered window, desperately digging through the rubble of her overturned dresser.

“Mrs. Higgins, we have to go!” Luca yelled, grabbing her arm.

“I can’t find it!” she cried hysterically, fighting against his grip. “My Arthur’s photograph! It’s the only picture I have of him from the war!”

“I will buy you a thousand photographs, but you are leaving right now!” Luca shouted, pulling her to her feet.

Before they could reach the door, the bulldozer outside slammed into the exterior wall of her room.

The brick wall exploded inward.

A massive chunk of masonry flew across the room, striking Luca square in the back. The impact knocked the wind out of him, sending him crashing to the floor, pinning his right leg beneath a heavy oak wardrobe that had toppled over.

Mrs. Higgins screamed, covering her head as dust filled the room.

Luca gritted his teeth, suppressing a groan of agony. He tried to pull his leg free, but the heavy wood wouldn't budge.

“Go!” Luca yelled at the terrified woman. “Run to the stairs!”

“I can’t leave you!” she sobbed.

Suddenly, a massive spotlight pierced the swirling dust through the gaping hole in the wall.

A Romano guard climbed over the rubble into the room, an assault rifle raised. He wore the black tactical gear and the silver wolf pin of the New York syndicate.

He looked at Mrs. Higgins, then down at Luca, pinned beneath the wardrobe.

A cruel smile spread across the guard’s face.

“Well, well,” the guard chuckled, raising the barrel of his rifle, aiming it directly at Luca’s head. “The great Luca Moretti. Don Romano sends his regards.”

Luca didn't flinch. He stared down the barrel of the gun with cold, defiant eyes.

But before the guard could pull the trigger, a sharp, metallic sound echoed from the hallway.

Click-clack.

The guard spun around.

Standing in the doorway of room 2B, her white t-shirt covered in dust, holding a massive, double-barreled shotgun leveled directly at the guard's chest, was me.

Sophie.

Luca’s eyes widened in absolute shock. “Sophie? What are you doing here?!”

I ignored him, my hands shaking violently, but the shotgun remained perfectly steady.

“Drop the gun,” I ordered the guard, my voice cracking with terror.

The Romano guard laughed, a harsh, grating sound. “Are you kidding me? A little maid is going to shoot me?”

He swung his rifle toward me.

I didn't think. I just pulled the trigger.

The deafening blast of the shotgun echoed through the crumbling building. The recoil slammed into my shoulder, knocking me backward into the hallway wall.

The guard took the full force of the buckshot to his tactical vest. The impact lifted him off his feet and threw him backward out of the gaping hole in the wall, plummeting two stories down into the rubble below.

My ears were ringing so loudly I couldn't hear my own scream.

I dropped the smoking shotgun and scrambled over the debris to Luca.

“I told you to stay at the house!” Luca roared, though the relief in his eyes betrayed his anger.

“You left your backup shotgun in the trunk of the SUV!” I yelled back, grabbing the edge of the heavy oak wardrobe pinning his leg. “Help me lift this!”

Mrs. Higgins scrambled over and grabbed the other side of the heavy furniture.

“On three!” Luca grunted, planting his hands on the floor to push. “One. Two. Three!”

With a massive heave, we lifted the wardrobe just enough for Luca to drag his leg out. He collapsed back onto the floor, panting heavily.

“Can you walk?” I asked, wrapping his arm over my shoulder.

“I don't have a choice,” Luca grimaced, forcing himself to stand, favoring his injured leg.

He grabbed Mrs. Higgins with his other arm, and the three of us hobbled out of the room, dodging falling ceiling tiles.

The main staircase had completely collapsed.

“The fire escape!” Luca yelled, pointing to the end of the hall.

We burst through the emergency exit door onto the rusted metal grating of the fire escape on the alley side of the building.

Below us, the gunfight was still raging at the front barricade, the sound of automatic weapons drowning out the storm.

We climbed down the metal stairs as fast as Luca’s injured leg would allow. We reached the alley floor just as the entire roof of the building finally caved in.

The structure pancaked with a deafening roar, sending a massive cloud of dust and debris billowing into the night sky, burying the Moretti Family Residence forever.

We stumbled into the safety of the dark alley, coughing uncontrollably.

A black SUV tore around the corner, screeching to a halt in front of us.

Daniel threw open the back door. “Boss! Get in!”

Luca shoved Mrs. Higgins into the backseat, then turned and practically threw me in after her. He climbed in last, slamming the door.

“Go!” Luca yelled.

Daniel floored it, speeding away from the destruction, leaving the Romano guards confused in the dust.

Inside the car, the silence was heavy, broken only by our ragged breathing.

Luca leaned his head back against the leather seat, closing his eyes. His suit was ruined, covered in white dust and blood from a cut on his forehead.

He slowly opened his eyes and looked at me.

I was shivering, my hands still cramped from holding the shotgun, my gray sweatpants soaked in mud.

“You shot a man for me,” Luca said, his voice dropping into a low, quiet register that made my heart race for an entirely different reason.

“He was going to kill you,” I whispered, staring at my trembling hands. “I couldn't just stay in my room.”

Luca reached across the seat. His large, warm hand gently covered my shaking hands, steadying them.

“You saved my life, Sophie,” Luca said softly.

He reached into his pocket and pulled out a small, silver object. He pressed it into my palm.

I looked down. It was a silver pocket watch, the glass cracked, but the intricate engraving on the back perfectly intact.

“What is this?” I asked.

“It was my father’s,” Luca explained quietly. “Keep it safe for me.”

Before I could ask why, Daniel’s voice broke the quiet intimacy of the backseat.

“Boss, the residents are secure at the secondary safe house. But we have a massive problem at the estate.”

Luca frowned, turning to the front seat. “What?”

“Vanessa’s father, Don Bellini, arrived at the mansion ten minutes ago with fifty heavily armed men,” Daniel said grimly. “They breached the gates. They have the staff hostage in the main hall.”