Page 24 of Vows Made in Silence

He whispers into the comm. “Two inside. Executing on sight.”

He rounds the final partition.

But the man standing there isn’t some pawn.

It’s a Capo.

And he’s holding a detonator.

Luca’s gun doesn’t tremble.

“Put it down,” he says, voice like stone dragged through glass.

The Capo smirks, thumb brushing the trigger. “You shoot; I drop this. Whole gallery goes up. You with it.”

Luca’s eyes scan the floor—there. Wires snake beneath a pedestal. They didn’t come to destroy the art.

They came to erase him.

“Why?” he demands.

“Because your father broke his oath,” the Capo spits. “Because you brought her back. She’s the crack in the foundation. And cracks spread.”

Luca steps forward, slow. “She’s not a crack. She’s the steel that kept me from burning this whole city down.”

The Capo hesitates—just for a second.

It’s all Luca needs.

He fires. One shot. The Capo’s hand explodes. The detonator drops.

Luca lunges, catches it mid-bounce.

The Capo screams, cradling the bloodied stump where his fingers used to be.

Turk’s voice buzzes in his ear. “Status?”

“Bomb neutralized. Capo’s down. Get the charges.”

But then—through the static—a sound.

A voice.

Small. Distant.

A child.

Calling out.

Luca’s entire body goes still.

Daniel.

The name crashes through his skull like a grenade.

He’s moving before Turk can respond—racing through smoke, past blood and bodies.

How?