Chapter 6 - Shadows on the Terrace
Victoria didn't wait for the feds.
Like a cornered animal, she turned and lunged through the terrace doors, shattering the delicate glass pane with the brass handle. She sprinted out onto the stone veranda overlooking the dark waters of Lake Michigan.
"Miller, secure the guests!" Luca commanded.
He didn't wait for his guards. Luca sprinted onto the terrace after her.
My heart seized with dread. I didn't think about my shattered arm, the doctor’s orders, or my place in the household. I pushed through the crowd and ran out into the freezing lake wind.
"Sophie, stay back!" Luca called out over his shoulder, but I couldn't stop.
The rain had begun to fall in heavy, freezing sheets. The terrace was slick as ice. At the edge of the stone balustrade, thirty feet above the jagged breakwater rocks where the lake crashed violently, Victoria stood trapped.
The wind whipped her crimson gown around her legs like smoke. Her makeup was streaked with rain and mascara, her eyes wild with madness.
"Stay back, Luca!" she screamed, balancing precariously on the wet stone edge. "I won't go to prison! I won't let you put me in the same hole where my father died!"
"Step down, Victoria," Luca said, stopping five yards away, his palms open in a cautious, de-escalating gesture. "This ends tonight. No more blood."
"You took everything from me!" she shrieked. Then her wild gaze snapped past Luca and landed on me.
Pure, unadulterated hatred twisted her face.
"You," she hissed, pointing a shaking finger at my throat. "You ruined it all! If you had just let them put the old woman in the elevator, I would be on a yacht in Monaco by sunrise! You miserable little cockroach!"
Before Luca could react, Victoria dropped down from the balustrade, slipped off her high heels, and lunged directly at me with a jagged piece of broken glass she had snatched from the shattered terrace door.
"Sophie, move!" Luca roared.
I couldn't raise my left arm to defend myself. I threw my weight to the right, slipping on the wet limestone. The glass blade slashed through the air, inches from my neck, cutting a deep tear across the shoulder of my uniform.
Victoria grabbed my hair with one hand, yanking my head back, raising the sharp shard to drive it down into my chest.
"Die with them!" she screamed.
A split-second later, Luca collided with her like a freight train.
He tackled her away from me, his arm wrapping around her torso to pin the weapon to the ground. The glass shattered harmlessly against the stone. Victoria writhed, kicking and biting like a rabid dog, screaming obscenities into the pouring rain.
Two FBI tactical officers burst through the terrace doors with assault rifles raised, followed by Miller.
"Federal agents! Don't move!"
Miller dropped to his knees, pinning Victoria’s wrists behind her back with heavy zip-ties. She spat on the ground, still screaming curses as the feds hauled her to her feet, soaking wet, ruined, and completely defeated.
As they dragged her through the French doors toward the waiting squad cars, Luca didn't watch her go.
He turned immediately to where I lay on the wet stone.
"Sophie!"
He dropped to his knees beside me, his hands trembling as he checked my neck, my face, my injured arm. Rain soaked his hair, plastering it against his forehead, but his eyes were blazing with a raw, terrifying terror that had nothing to do with business or money.
"Did she cut you? Look at me, Sophie. Did she hurt you?"
"I'm okay," I gasped, the cold rain mixing with the hot tears spilling down my cheeks. "I'm okay, Luca... she didn't get me."
He pulled me against his chest with an intensity that knocked the remaining breath from my lungs. He didn't care that my uniform was filthy, that the rain was ruining his bespoke shirt, or that twenty of Chicago's wealthiest citizens were watching from the ballroom windows.
He buried his face in my neck, his broad frame shaking with a ragged, shuddering exhale.
May you like
"I have you," he whispered fiercely into my wet hair. "You're safe. I swear to God, you will never be hurt in this house again."
***
