Page 52 of Entwined Lies (Entwined #1)

Isabelle

Jake was glued to my side, his hands fisting the fabric of my shirt. His silence was loud—louder than the sobs from before. The sirens were still screaming. Medics moving like shadows. But it blurred into background noise. My eyes were locked on the door.

When it finally creaked open, my breath caught in my throat. The SWAT team moved in formation, weapons still raised, as they flanked Luca and Enzo.

My chest tightened so fast it hurt. Like something was clenching around my heart and wouldn’t let go.

He called the FBI, knowing full well what it’d cost him.

His freedom, his empire—hell, maybe even his life.

The weight dropped on me like a punch to the gut.

I swallowed hard, forcing back the sting behind my eyes.

My heart was in freefall. Beating too hard. Too fast. Too loud.

Luca moved like he didn’t care. As if the handcuffs didn’t mean a thing.

He looked unbreakable, even now. Strong, confident—like the cuffs didn’t belong on him, like they weren’t built for a man like him.

I’d known Luca was dangerous from the start, but damn, he was the kind of dangerous that made you forget reason.

The kind that pulls you in, even when every instinct screams at you to run.

They led Enzo toward the van where Nina was waiting. Luca was steered toward an ambulance.

Then, his eyes caught mine .

I wanted to scream, to run to him. To tell him I loved him, that I’d always love him. But there was too much distance.

I mouthed the words, hoping he’d feel them across the distance.

The paramedics still moved around us, their voices a low murmur, but my eyes stayed glued to the ambulance. How did I miss the giant impact on his bulletproof vest? It was impossible to ignore, and yet, I had.

They cut off his vest and his t-shirt, while the SWAT team stood nearby, watching like he might suddenly take off. But Luca wasn’t running. He just let them do their thing, his gaze never leaving mine.

It wasn’t until they peeled away the fabric that I saw it—a red mark, angry and swollen on his chest.

I sat there, frozen, watching them move around him. They checked his vitals, ran their hands over his bruised ribs, and kept pointing to the mark. I couldn’t hear a damn thing. But I didn’t need sound to feel it. My chest went tight. My stomach turned.

A bullet, right in the chest, and the only thing that kept him alive was that vest. That could’ve been it. One inch this way or that, and Luca would’ve been lying in a body bag instead of sitting there.

Jake shifted beside me. “Is Luca okay?”

I swallowed hard, forcing the lump in my throat down. “Yeah, he’s okay. He’s strong. Stronger than anyone.”

But seeing that mark… it hit hard. Luca had always seemed untouchable, like nothing could break him. And now, there was the proof that he wasn’t invincible. He was just a man, and he’d almost died saving us.

The medics finally gave a nod, one of them patting him on the shoulder. Whatever they said, it was enough to let the SWAT team start moving him again. They lifted him off the bench and led him toward a van, different from where Enzo and Nina were loaded.

Jake’s hand squeezed mine, but I barely felt it. All I could focus on was Luca. He moved farther with every step, like he was being pulled away piece by piece.

The van doors slammed shut. And the last I saw of Luca was his strong, defiant posture, etched in my memory as the vehicle disappeared from view.

The tears broke free, hot and fast, and I hid my face in Jake’s hair.

Luca gave himself up for us—I knew that. But knowing didn’t stop it from cutting deep.

As I sat there, holding Jake close, tears burning down my face, someone settled next to me. When I looked up, Chrissy was there. Her expression caught between concern and that rare relief you see after a not-guilty verdict.

She didn’t say anything at first. Just pulled me into a tight hug, and for a second, I let myself lean into her.

“Izzy, I talked to the doctors. Your mom and Luca… they’re okay. They’re taking Luca to the hospital for a CT scan to rule out any internal damage. But it’s just a precaution.”

Relief slammed into me, but dread rushed in right behind—hot, sharp, swallowing me whole. I wanted to cry. Wanted to run. Wanted to crawl out of my own skin.

Knowing Luca was physically okay didn’t ease the panic. What did “okay” even mean when he wasn’t heading for safety but into custody? He was walking straight into a legal nightmare, and I knew exactly what waited for him on the other side.

They’d hit him with everything they had—the full force of the system.

Murder, extortion, money laundering, drug trafficking—you name it.

They’d pile on every charge possible and see what stuck.

And even if some of the charges didn’t hold, it wouldn’t matter.

RICO cases weren’t about winning every count—they didn’t need to catch him in the act.

If they could prove a pattern, just a connection to the crimes committed by his crew, his associates, his organization—that would be enough.

It was about painting a picture, convincing a jury that he wasn’t just a part of the crime; he was the mastermind behind it all.

And I knew how easy it was to make that picture stick.

I’d built cases on it, torn lives apart with it.

They’d dig into every aspect of his life.

If they made the RICO charges stick, they could put him away for life.

No parole, no mercy. Just gone. Locked away, with nothing but the cold reality of prison bars for the rest of his days.

And if they really wanted to, if they could link him to enough murders, enough violence?

Death row. Yeah, they’d try for that too.

The government loves making an example out of men like him.

They’d show the world that no one—no matter how powerful or untouchable they thought they were—could escape the law.

And they’d be happy to use Luca as the example.

I could already see the headlines. ‘Luca Abruzzo, Kingpin Brought Down by the Feds.’ The press would have a field day, splashing his face across every paper, every screen, painting him as the untouchable crime boss finally brought to justice.

They’d turn him into the poster boy for organized crime, the trophy they’d parade around.

People would see Luca and think he was a carbon copy of his father, and in some ways, they’d be right.

Luca was guilty. Probably on more charges than I could even imagine.

Antonio had been ruthless, willing to crush anyone who stood in his way, and Luca?

He had learned from the best. He didn’t just inherit the business—he took it and ran with it, expanding the empire in ways his father never could.

He became the same kind of man, the one who could give an order and watch lives end without blinking.

The same cold, calculated decisions that had made Antonio feared, respected, and hated—those lived in Luca too.

And yeah, maybe he deserved what was coming for him. Maybe the law finally catching up to him was the price he had to pay. But none of it changed how I felt. It didn’t erase the fact that, despite all the things he’d done, Luca had been the man who would burn the world down to protect us.

Guilty or not, he was still mine. And nothing the law threw at him was ever going to change that.

? ? ?

Morning came, but being awake all night made it hard to feel the difference. I sat at the kitchen island, sipping coffee, but honestly? I could’ve used something stronger. Something that would burn its way down and loosen the permanent knot in my stomach.

My mom’s neighborhood was taped up. Her house, and the two others where Luca’s men had kept watch over her and Jake, were now official crime scenes.

Yellow tape, flashing lights, cops crawling around like ants, picking through the wreckage from the hell of the previous day.

The street I used to feel safe in was now ground zero for everything that had gone wrong.

Luca’s lawyer gave Chrissy a message to pass along while we waited to be cleared by the paramedics.

Go to my place.

So here we were, in Luca’s house, waiting for the next disaster to hit.

I didn’t have a chance to sit there long; Luca’s men escorted in the feds even before I could finish my mug.

Let’s get over with , I thought and stood up with a sigh.

They were all smiles, trying to keep it casual, like we were still on good terms, but the air was heavy, and everyone in the room knew what this was. I’d been in enough of these ‘friendly’ interrogations to recognize the game.

Luca’s men flanked them, never stepping too far from the scene, eyes watchful, arms crossed. Their presence was a message: no matter how deep their boss was in FBI custody, his power wasn’t going anywhere. And the agents felt it. I could see it in the way their smiles didn’t quite reach their eyes.

I stood up and poured them coffee, the routine as mechanical as the questions they hadn’t even started asking yet.

Setting the mugs down in front of them, I forced a smile.

“We all know neither I nor my mom are saying a damn word, right? And my son… well, he is out of the question,” I said, leaning back against the counter.

They chatted about old cases, tossed out a few half-assed jokes—trying to butter me up, as if I didn’t see through it.

We’d been on the same side before, but today was different.

Today, I was the one they were circling, and no matter how many jokes they tried to throw around, we weren’t friends anymore.

One of them leaned forward, eyes smiling, mouth even more so. “So, Isabelle. You sure there’s nothing you want to share? You know, between old friends?”

“We all know I’m not about to help you out here. You can drop the small talk.”

“Alright then. Guess we’ll be heading out. You know where to reach us if you change your mind.”

I nodded, giving them nothing more. Luca’s fate was out of my hands in a lot of ways, but that didn’t mean I was going to help them tear him apart. They could dig all they wanted, but they weren’t going to use me to get to him.

They walked out without a word.

Luca’s men didn’t say much—they didn’t have to. The silence did all the talking.

I reached for my mug, hand curling around the ceramic just as footsteps echoed behind me. I turned to find one of the agents standing there. The one I used to consider a friend .

His eyes locked on mine, and I could see it—tight jaw, the weight of something unspoken behind his stare.

“This doesn’t end well. For him. We both know that.”

I didn’t respond. Just held onto my mug and waited.

He glanced over his shoulder, then continued. “I owe you…for saving my ass during the Gartner case. So this is off the record. The DA is gonna offer him a deal. It’s not a lifeboat, but it’s his best shot, given what we’ve got on him.”

My grip on the mug went white-knuckled, my eyes locked on a spot I wasn’t really seeing.

“What kind of deal?”

“Not a great one. But it’s better than what he’ll get if he tries to fight everything. It won’t save him, but it’ll stop him from going down with the whole damn ship. If you care about him, make him take it.”

My heart hammered in my chest, the weight of his words sinking in fast.

“Just… think about it,” he added, his voice softer now. Like we were still friends, like I was still the person who had his back.

He reached for his notepad, paused long enough to meet my eyes, then walked out.

I was staring at the empty spot where he’d been.

My mind was running a mile a minute. I wasn’t naive.

A deal might be Luca’s best shot, but I wasn’t about to push him to take whatever half-assed offer they dangled.

I’d spent too many years on the other side, cutting deals, watching men get chewed up and spat out by the same system that pretended to offer them a way out.

Luca wasn’t going to be another headline for the Governor to plaster across their press conferences.

If they want to take him down, they’d have to get through me first.

The thought of what I might have to do next twisted my gut, but I shoved it aside. Because morals went out the window the second they put Luca in cuffs.