Chapter 81 – Going Up In Flames

Chapter 81 – Going Up In Flames
Lucia’s POV

My chest locked. Like someone had knocked the air from my lungs.

I’d left him in the garden minutes ago, and he was okay.

Now? He was screaming. Begging. Breaking.

It didn’t make sense… none of it did.

I stood frozen outside Dante’s gate, my phone dangling in my hand, my mind blank.

No. No, no, no.

This couldn’t be happening.

And then, like the universe was mocking me, the same number flashed across my screen again.

UNKNOWN CALLER.

I hesitated—just a second too long—before I swiped to answer. “Hello?”

A low distorted voice answered. “If you hand that drive to Dante Romano, your father is dead.”

My tongue felt thick and useless. Every word got stuck behind my teeth as a cold film of sweat gathered at the back of my neck. “Who is this? What do you want—?”

“You have one chance to save him,” the voice snapped. “Bring every copy of the evidence. Alone. No games. No Dante. If you defy us, he dies screaming.”

The call ended.

My hand dropped to my side, the phone sliding from my fingers and hitting the gravel with a dull thud.

What the hell just happened?

I turned reflexively toward Dante’s gate, and just then, he stepped out from the front steps.

Our eyes met.

He was wearing all black, hands tucked into his pockets, hair slightly messy like he’d run them through his fingers a hundred times. His face was unreadable.

But I knew that face too well not to see the flicker of worry behind it.

He took one step toward me.

A sharp ache bloomed in my chest, but my legs moved on their own—numb, disconnected, already turning away.

I couldn’t look back. If I did, I’d break.

I couldn’t even explain anything to him. Because if I did, my father would die.

—————

By the time I reached home, I was shaking. The front door was cracked open. I hadn’t left it like that.

My instincts screamed.

I crept inside, step by step, heart in my throat.

“Dad?” I called out, my voice barely above a whisper.

Nothing.

I moved through the hall, every shadow a threat. I reached the foyer and stopped cold.

One of our guards. Dead.

His throat slit. Eyes wide open.

The room tilted. My vision tunneled, and my knees threatened to give. I gripped the doorframe like it was the only thing tethering me to reality.

This was real. This was war.

They’d taken him.

I bolted to the study and yanked open the drawer where I’d hidden the duplicate flash drive, taped to the underside of the drawer, wedged between a loose corner and a splintered edge.

Still there.

Thank God.

My phone buzzed again.

NEW MESSAGE: “Location dropped. Come alone. Bring everything.”

I opened the map. It was a desolate rest stop off the main highway. Remote. Exposed.

I texted back: “I want an open place. Public. No snipers.”

RESPONSE: “Pick a place. Doesn’t matter. We’ll be watching.”

I chose an abandoned warehouse just outside the city limits. Still isolated, but more open than a roadside drop. Fewer places to hide. Less chance of a bullet coming out of nowhere.

As I slipped on my jacket, I tried calling Dante.

No service.

Tried again.

Still nothing.

Blocked? Jammed? I was on my own.

———————

The warehouse loomed in the distance, all rusted sheet metal and broken glass. The wind whistled through the trees like a warning.

Then I saw him.

Gabriel Rucci. 

He stepped out from the shadows like a man who’d never been in hiding, wearing a sleek black coat and a smile that didn’t touch his eyes.

He had to be the masked man from the bunker.
The way he moved. That voice. The cold certainty in his presence. It was him. It had always been him. I had even seen him before—at Dante’s mansion—long before I saw his photo in the evidence.

“You’re early,” he said casually.

I stiffened. “You’re a traitor.”

He smirked. “Big words from a little girl.”

“You had my father taken.”

“I had no choice. You went poking around where you shouldn’t.”

“I know what you did,” I said. “The fire. Dante’s family. MY family.. It was you. You used a rogue Bratva soldier. You framed them so he’d slaughter them all. And you—”

He held up a hand. “Don’t finish that sentence, Lucia. You have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“I know you were fired by Dante’s father,” I hissed. “You weren’t loyal. He cast you out. And so you retaliated. You burned them alive. What was it you even wanted?!”

Gabriel’s smile vanished.

I hit a nerve.

“Hand over the drive,” he growled.

I hesitated, careful not to betray even a flicker of the truth that I had duplicates. Then, slowly, I reached into my pocket and tossed him the flash drive. “It’s all there.”

He caught it one-handed, slipped it into his coat like it meant nothing. His eyes never left mine.

Then he smiled—slow, amused, cruel. “You really thought you could poke around in my files without consequence? We found your fingerprints on the laptop, Lucia. You aren’t even smart.”

My breath hitched.

So that was it.

The damn laptop. I’d been so careful except for that one mistake. Still, it wasn’t planned… I was expecting to meet the so-called “M.”

His gaze sharpened. “You are recording, aren’t you?”

Before I could lie, a high-pitched shriek burst through my earpiece, splitting through my skull like a blade. I flinched, swore, and yanked it out.

Gabriel chuckled darkly. “We’re jamming everything within a hundred-meter radius. You really thought you could outplay me?”

“You’re scared,” I said. “That’s why you’re doing this. You’re afraid Dante will learn the truth.”

“You think you’re helping him?” he snapped. “You think the truth will save him?”

I met his eyes. “I think the truth will break him. But I think he deserves to know.”

He stared at me for a long moment. Then he smiled again—but this time, it was cruel. 

“Well then,” he said, glancing at his watch, “I hope you made good copies of those files.”

My stomach twisted.

He knew?

“You didn’t think we’d let you keep your little stash, did you?” he said. “Your house is burning, Lucia. Right now. Just in case you had backups.”

A sick drop punched through my stomach like I was falling without end. My hands trembled at my sides, fingers curling into useless fists.

“No…”

“Yes,” he said, stepping closer. “You wanted to play in a man’s world. Now you’re learning the rules.”

My mind spun. For one split second—just one—I wished someone would come. That Dante would find me. That I wouldn’t have to be strong alone.

But I crushed that thought the moment it surfaced.

I couldn’t afford wishes. Not here. Not now.

Everything I had… every piece of truth I’d risked my life to collect, was going up in flames.

A raw ache bloomed in my chest—not fear. Not rage.

Grief.

He didn’t know.
And if I died here, the last thing he’d remember…
Was me walking away.