Chapter 10 - Dawn of the Phoenix
Time seemed to slow down entirely as the grenade hit the concrete.
Luca reacted purely on instinct, launching himself forward with explosive speed.
He kicked the grenade violently over the edge of the tall hospital roof.
A massive explosion rocked the air mid-fall, sending a shockwave over the edge.
Marco Rossi cursed loudly and tried to pull his sidearm.
Before Marco could aim, Elena picked up Arthur’s dropped pistol.
She fired a single, perfect shot directly into Marco’s chest.
The scarred rival boss collapsed backward, dead before he hit the ground.
Arthur watched in sheer horror as his entire grand master plan crumbled into dust.
Nico and the Moretti soldiers finally swarmed the roof, securing the bleeding old man.
"Take him to the darkest hole we own," Luca ordered Nico coldly.
Luca turned slowly and walked over to where Elena was shaking violently.
He gently took the smoking gun from her hands and tossed it aside.
He wrapped his arms around her and pulled her tightly against his chest.
"It is over, Elena," he whispered softly into her tangled hair.
"I am so sorry I ever made you feel like you were not my entire world," he confessed.
Elena buried her face in his ruined jacket, sobbing tears of pure relief.
"We are going home together, Luca," she replied softly.
They walked off the roof hand in hand, leaving the ashes and the chaos behind them.
Two months later, the city of Chicago was finally peaceful and entirely theirs again.
Luca had stepped back from the violent front lines to focus entirely on their marriage.
They were sitting together in the sunlit kitchen of their newly rebuilt home.
Elena was sorting through the old boxes she had rescued from her childhood house.
She pulled out the old denim jacket she had worn on their very first date.
A strange, stiff lump inside the lining caught her attention immediately.
She grabbed a pair of scissors and carefully cut the fabric open.
Inside was a small, encrypted USB drive wrapped in waterproof plastic.
She plugged it into her laptop while Luca was pouring coffee across the room.
A video file instantly popped up, showing a masked man standing in a familiar room.
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"Elena, if you are watching this, your husband is not the only monster in Chicago," the man said.
The man pulled off his mask to reveal a face completely identical to Luca's.
