Chapter 45 Amelia
Amelia
I walk into my bedroom and close the door with a quiet click. I do not slam it even though I want to break something. Starting with Luca's head.
I lean my back against the heavy wood and my breath comes out in jagged shudders. My skin is still buzzing from where his hands were just seconds ago. I can still feel the pressure of his lips on mine and it makes my stomach turn with a mix of longing and pure rage.
He pushed me away. He didn't just stop. He shoved me back like I was a nuisance or a mistake he had to fix. He looked at me with those cold eyes and talked about duty like he wasn't the one who started this. He acted like I was the problem. He made me feel like a stray he was tired of entertaining. My chest feels so tight that I can barely draw air into my lungs.
I reach up to wipe my face and my hand comes away wet. I am crying. The realization hits me like a physical blow to the gut. I promised myself a long time ago that I would never cry over a man again. I am a captain in the Italian Army. I have led men through hell. I have stared down death without blinking. Yet here I am in a dark room crying because a billionaire with a fiancée treated me like trash.
The tears do not stop. They fall unbidden and hot against my cheeks. I let out a low sob that I catch with my palm. I hate myself for this. I lash out at my own face and wipe the moisture away with sharp and angry motions. My skin stings from the friction but I don't care. Every quiver of my chin feels like a betrayal of everything I have worked for.
I pace the small space between the bed and the window. The blame starts to shift and it turns inward. I didn't stop him. I told him to stop with my mouth but my body was leaning into him. I wanted it. I wanted him to hold me and I wanted to forget that Ren Moretti was out there somewhere. I let my guard down for a man who belongs to another woman.
The guilt hits me harder than his words did. I feel a wave of shame and heat rising in my chest. I am a professional. I have a mission to complete and a reputation to rebuild. My unit is being dismantled and my brother is probably laughing at my empty desk. I cannot afford this kind of weakness. Every heartbeat is a reminder of my responsibility to the uniform I am not even wearing right now.
I stop pacing and stand in the middle of the room. I force myself to take a long and slow breath. I hold it for five seconds before letting it out. I repeat the process until the shaking in my hands finally settles. I am done crying. I wipe the last of the tears away with a final and aggressive swipe of my sleeve.
I sit on the edge of the bed and stare at the ceiling. My pride is wounded but my determination is starting to return. I cannot let this derail me. Luca is just a man. He is a distraction and a complication that I do not need. I need to focus on the docks. I need to focus on Northern Logistics. Most importantly I need to focus on finding Ren Moretti.
I reach for my laptop on the nightstand and pull it onto my lap. The light from the screen is blinding in the dark room but I don't look away. I open the file on the warehouse district and start rehearsing my plan for the morning. I memorize the exit points and the patrol schedules I managed to scrape from the server earlier.
The memory of his touch still lingers in the back of my mind. It is a simmering tension that I cannot fully extinguish yet. I bury it under strategy and action. I tell myself that tomorrow is the only thing that matters. I will find the target. I will get the proof I need. I will get out of this penthouse and away from the man who thinks he can break me.
I am a Captain of the Italian Army. I will always be a Captain no matter what and it is my duty as a Captain to get rid of every Mafia Organisation in Italy.
I close the laptop and lie down on top of the covers. I do not undress. I just wait for the clock to hit four in the morning. I am ready to leave this room and I am ready to finish what I started.
XXXX
The alarm on my phone vibrates against the nightstand at exactly five in the morning. I sit up and the cold air of the room hits my face like a slap. My eyes are dry and my throat feels tight from the night before but I push the feelings aside. I am a captain and I have a mission. I am not going to let a hallway mistake keep me in bed while the trail gets cold.
I look over at the couch in the corner of my room. Someone has been in here while I was asleep. A set of black combat boots, dark joggers, and a fitted black tee are laid out neatly on the cushions. Luca must have had someone drop them off. The clothes are tactical and durable. They are exactly what I need for crawling through a warehouse district. I hate that he knows what I need before I even ask for it. I hate that he is still taking care of me even after he pushed me away.
I dress quickly. The joggers fit perfectly and the boots are high quality. I pull my hair back into a tight braid and check the bandage on my side. The wound is closed and the skin is pink but it doesn't bleed when I move. I grab my phone and my makeshift surveillance kit. I take a deep breath and open the bedroom door.
Luca is standing in the living room. He is dressed in a navy suit that fits his body in all the right ways. He looks like he just stepped out of a boardroom instead of a penthouse at dawn. He is holding a cup of coffee and watching the news on a silent television screen. He looks up when I enter but I do not look at him. I walk straight to the kitchen island and pick up a bottle of water.
The tension in the room is thick enough to choke on. I can feel his gaze on my back but I ignore him. I do not say a word. I do not give him the satisfaction of an apology or an explanation. He doesn't deserve it.
"The car is waiting downstairs," Luca says. His voice is calm and smooth as if nothing happened between us.
"Thanks," I say. I finally look at him and my expression is a mask of professional indifference. "Let's go. I don't want to miss the shift change at the docks."
We take the elevator down in silence. We don't touch. We don't even stand near each other. We get into the back of a black SUV and the driver pulls out into the empty streets of Verona. The city is grey and shrouded in a thin mist. We drive through the industrial sector where the buildings are tall and the windows are broken.
We reach the Northern Logistics facility twenty minutes later. The warehouse is a massive structure of corrugated metal and rust. I see three trucks idling near the loading bays. Men are moving around with clipboards and flashlights. I feel the familiar spark of adrenaline in my chest. This is it. This is the heart of the Moretti network.
"I am going in for a closer look," I whisper. I check the knife hidden in my boot. "Stay in the car, Luca. This isn't a business meeting."
"I am coming with you," he says. He doesn't wait for my response. He opens the door and steps out into the damp air.
I don't argue because I don't have the time and I'm still pissed at him. He can do whatever the fuck he wants. I don't care.
I lead the way toward a stack of shipping containers near the perimeter fence. We move through the shadows. I stay low and use the equipment as cover. I am focused on the movements near the trucks. I see a man in a dark coat gesturing toward a side door. He looks nervous.
"That's the foreman," I murmur. "He's directing the high-value cargo. I need to see what is inside those crates."
We crawl closer to the loading dock. I find a gap between two trailers and peer through. The men are lifting heavy wooden boxes marked as industrial filters. They are moving them with extreme caution. My pulse quickens. I pull out my phone and start taking photos of the manifests stuck to the side of the crates. I am so close I can hear the men talking about the delivery schedule.
"We move the rest to the south bay by six," one of the men says.
I feel a surge of victory. I have them. I have the proof that Northern Logistics is moving goods for Moretti's organisation. I look at Luca and I expect to see the same excitement in his eyes. But he is just watching the door. He looks bored. It irritates me that he doesn't realize how big and important this is.
"I need to get inside that office," I say. I point to a small glass booth near the back of the warehouse. "The main server should be there. If I can get the digital logs I can link this directly to Moretti."
I wait for a break in the patrol and then I bolt across the open concrete. I reach the side door of the office and pick the lock in ten seconds. I slip inside and the smell of stale coffee and cigarettes hits me. I find the terminal and plug in my bypass drive. The screen flickers to life and I start downloading the files.
"Come on," I whisper. The progress bar moves slowly. Five percent. Ten percent.
Suddenly a light sweeps across the office window. I duck below the desk and hold my breath. I hear heavy footsteps on the metal stairs outside. My hand goes to my knife. I am ready to fight my way out. The door opens and a guard walks in. He shines his flashlight around the room. He stops the beam right on the glowing screen of the terminal.
"Hey!" the guard shouts.
I don't wait for him to pull his weapon. I lung forward and sweep his legs out from under him. He hits the floor with a heavy thud. I grab his collar and slam his head against the leg of the desk to knock him out. I look at the terminal. The download is at ninety percent.
"Amelia, we have to go," Luca says. He is standing in the doorway with his hand inside his suit jacket. "More guards are coming."
"Five more seconds!" I shout.
The drive clicks to one hundred percent. I yank it out and shove it into my pocket. I grab the guard's radio and smash it on the floor. I bolt out of the office and follow Luca toward the back exit. We run through the maze of containers while shouting starts to echo behind us. We reach the fence and I vault over it with a burst of energy that makes my side burn.
We scramble back into the SUV and the driver peels away before the gates can close. I am breathing hard and my heart is hammering against my ribs. I feel incredible. I have the files. I have the proof. I look at the small drive in my hand and I want to scream with joy.
I have no idea that the drive is filled with fake logs. I have no idea that the crates we saw were filled with actual industrial filters. I don't know that Ren is watching me from the seat next to me with a look of quiet pity. I am unaware that I am being led on a wild goose chase.
"I got it, Luca," I say. I am grinning and I don't care that I am being unprofessional or that I vowed not to speak to him anymore. "I finally got him."
Luca looks at me and for a second I see a flicker of something dark in his eyes. Then he nods and turns back to the window.
"Good work, Captain," he says.
I lean back in the seat and close my eyes. I feel like the hunt is almost over. I don't know that the real game hasn't even started yet.