Chapter 8 - THE NECKLACE IN THE SHATTERED GLASS
The deafening roar of a helicopter rotor cut through the sound of shattering glass.
Wind and rain whipped into the office as a massive, black tactical helicopter hovered just outside the ruined windows.
Adrian’s guards scrambled, raising their rifles to fire at the chopper, but a barrage of rubber bullets rained down from the open side doors, dropping three of them instantly.
In the chaos, Daniel dove across the room, tackling the guard nearest to Thomas.
Luca didn’t hesitate. He grabbed me and Noah, pulling us down behind the heavy wooden desk as gunfire erupted across the room.
“Who is that?!” I screamed over the noise, covering Noah’s ears.
“Vanessa!” Luca yelled back, pulling a combat knife from the boot of a fallen guard.
Through the chaos, I saw her.
Vanessa was standing in the open doorway of the helicopter, harnessed in, holding a high-powered tranquilizer rifle. The elegant, diamond-draped fiancée was gone. Her hair was pulled back, her face devoid of makeup, and her eyes burned with the fury of a mother who had nothing left to lose.
She fired with terrifying precision, dropping two more of Adrian’s men.
“Luca! The ropes!” she screamed over a loudspeaker.
Luca crawled across the glass-covered floor toward Thomas. He used the combat knife to frantically saw through the thick zip-ties binding Thomas to the chair.
“Get the boy!” Thomas choked out the second his hands were free, ignoring his own injuries.
“Daddy!” Noah screamed, breaking free from my grip and running through the crossfire.
“Noah, no!” I yelled, scrambling after him.
Adrian, realizing his men were losing the firefight, turned his gun toward Thomas and Noah.
“If I don’t get a family, neither do you,” Adrian snarled.
He pulled the trigger.
Click.
The gun jammed.
Before Adrian could clear the chamber, Daniel slammed into him from the side. The two men crashed through a glass partition, tumbling out onto the rain-slicked catwalk outside.
Luca grabbed Thomas and Noah, shoving them toward the shattered window where the helicopter had dropped a rope ladder.
“Go! Go!” Luca ordered.
Thomas didn’t argue. He grabbed the ladder, tucking Noah under one arm, and began climbing with sheer, desperate adrenaline.
I was next. I scrambled up onto the windowsill, grabbing the wet rope.
But as I pulled myself up, I looked back down at the catwalk.
Daniel was pinned beneath Adrian. Adrian had managed to draw a secondary weapon—a small silver revolver—and pressed it under Daniel’s chin.
“Luca!” Daniel choked out, blood pouring from his mouth. “Leave me!”
Luca stood at the window, one hand on the rope ladder. He looked at Daniel, the man who had betrayed him, the man who had just saved his life.
Luca let go of the ladder.
“No!” I screamed.
Luca jumped out the window onto the catwalk. He didn’t have a gun. He didn’t have a weapon.
He just had his bare hands.
He slammed his foot into Adrian’s wrist, knocking the revolver into the dark, churning water below. Adrian roared in anger, throwing Daniel aside, and lunged at Luca.
The two brothers collided on the metal grate, fighting with a brutal, primal desperation.
From the helicopter, Vanessa screamed something I couldn’t hear over the rotors.
Suddenly, a massive spotlight from a police boat illuminated the docks below. Sirens wailed in the distance. The authorities had arrived.
Adrian, realizing he was out of time, drove a knee into Luca’s stomach and shoved him backward. Luca stumbled, slipping on the wet metal, and fell hard against the railing.
Adrian stood over him, wiping blood from his mouth.
“You get to keep the empire, Luca,” Adrian spat. “But you’ll always know our father died a coward.”
Adrian reached into his jacket and pulled out something shimmering.
It was a delicate gold necklace with a single diamond pendant.
Vanessa’s necklace.
“Tell Vanessa her son says goodbye,” Adrian sneered, tossing the necklace onto Luca’s chest.
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Before Luca could move, Adrian turned and sprinted down the catwalk, disappearing into the maze of shipping containers just as the police boats breached the harbor.
Luca lay on the metal grate, clutching the necklace, the rain washing the blood from his face.
