Chapter 3: The Devil's Offer
404 Words
Chapter 3: The Devil's Offer
The silence lasted only a heartbeat.
Then all hell broke loose.
"Take her!" someone shouted.
Bullets tore through the gallery.
Luca De Santis moved first.
In one swift motion, he wrapped an arm around Sofia's waist and pulled her behind a stone pillar as glass exploded above them.
"Stay down."
His voice was low. Controlled.
As if bullets were nothing more than an inconvenience.
"I don't even know you!" Sofia snapped, trying to pull away.
"You don't need to."
He released her only long enough to draw a sleek black pistol from beneath his jacket.
Three shots.
Three men dropped.
No hesitation.
No wasted movement.
Across the room, Dante Romano laughed.
"Still showing off, Luca?"
Without taking his eyes off Sofia, Luca answered, "You're in my way."
Dante spread his arms dramatically.
"Your way? That's an interesting choice of words."
His smile never faltered, but his men were already moving into position.
Within seconds, the gallery had become a battlefield divided in two.
Sofia's breathing turned shallow.
These weren't gangs.
They were armies.
And somehow...
She was standing between their kings.
A sharp c***k echoed through the room.
The ceiling groaned.
A chandelier broke free.
It crashed exactly where Sofia had been standing moments earlier.
Luca had pulled her away just in time.
She stared at the shattered crystal scattered across the floor.
"You..." she whispered.
"You saved me."
"I told you to stay down."
For the first time, she looked directly into his eyes.
There was no fear.
No anger.
Only calculation.
As though protecting her was simply another mission.
Dante watched the exchange from across the room.
His smile faded.
"I don't like that look."
"What look?" one of his men asked.
"The one where Luca starts caring."
Outside, sirens wailed in the distance.
Someone had called the police.
Neither mafia family could afford to be caught here.
Luca holstered his weapon.
"It's over."
Dante arched an eyebrow.
"You think so?"
Luca reached into his coat and removed a folded envelope.
He held it out to Sofia.
"This belonged to your father."
She froze.
"My father?"
"He wanted you to have it."
Before she could take it...
A gunshot rang out.
The envelope slipped from Luca's hand.
A crimson stain spread across the white paper.
Sofia's heart stopped.
Luca had been shot.
And the last thing he whispered before collapsing was—
"Don't... trust... either of us."
- Writer
