CHAPTER 3 — THE ENEMY WHO KNEW HIS NAME
CHAPTER 3 — THE ENEMY WHO KNEW HIS NAME
The first man out of the jungle smiled before he spoke.
It was the kind of smile that belonged in a funeral.
"Boss."
His voice carried across the beach with effortless confidence.
"We've been looking for you."
Behind him, nearly twenty armed men spread into formation, boots crunching over black sand. Some wore tactical gear with no insignia. Others looked like fishermen—until Elena noticed the assault rifles hidden beneath their jackets.
Every barrel was aimed at Luca Romano.
Not one at her.
Luca stepped in front of Elena despite the blood soaking through his shirt.
His breathing was shallow.
His voice wasn't.
"Marco."
The leader removed his sunglasses.
"I hoped you'd recognize me."
Elena watched the exchange with growing confusion.
Marco...
She knew that name.
He had worked security for Romano Maritime for years. Quiet. Loyal. Invisible.
Or so everyone believed.
"I trusted you," Luca said.
Marco laughed.
"No."
"You trusted your father."
The words landed like another plane crash.
Elena looked at Luca.
His expression didn't change.
But his eyes did.
"You've been working for him."
"For fifteen years."
Marco shrugged.
"It wasn't difficult. Your father always said you were brilliant."
He smiled again.
"But brilliance makes men arrogant."
Luca's fingers curled.
"My father is dead."
"So the newspapers said."
Silence.
The ocean crashed behind them.
Marco took another step.
"The old man sends his regards."
Elena's stomach dropped.
Impossible.
Everyone knew Vittorio Romano—the legendary mafia patriarch—had died six years ago in a yacht explosion off Sicily.
Everyone.
Except apparently...
He hadn't.
"What does he want?" Luca asked.
Marco looked almost disappointed.
"You really don't know?"
"I asked you a question."
"He wants what you stole."
Elena frowned.
Stole?
Luca never blinked.
"I stole nothing."
"You disappeared with the ledger."
"What ledger?"
Marco finally noticed Elena speaking.
His eyes rested on her for several uncomfortable seconds.
"The accountant."
"So that's why she's alive."
Luca's voice hardened.
"She knows nothing."
Marco smiled.
"She will."
He lifted his rifle slightly.
"After we question her."
Luca moved half a step forward.
"No."
One word.
Enough to make every gunman tighten their grip.
Marco sighed.
"You'd die for an employee?"
Luca answered without hesitation.
"Yes."
Elena stared at him.
This was the same man who had refused to give her a day's leave.
The same man she'd believed incapable of compassion.
So why...
Why was he willing to die for her?
Marco nodded to two men.
"Take the woman."
They started forward.
Luca exploded into motion.
Despite broken ribs.
Despite a shattered shoulder.
Despite losing enough blood to kill an ordinary man.
He drove his elbow into the first attacker's throat.
The man collapsed instantly.
Luca stole his pistol before the second could react.
Two shots.
Precise.
Neither fatal.
One hit a shoulder.
The other shattered a rifle.
"RUN!" Luca shouted.
Elena finally moved.
She sprinted toward the rocks bordering the beach.
Gunfire erupted behind her.
Bullets ripped through palm trees.
Sand exploded around her feet.
She heard Luca firing in controlled bursts.
Not wildly.
Methodically.
Buying seconds.
Seconds with his own life.
She reached the rocks and looked back.
Luca stood alone against nearly twenty armed men.
His pistol clicked empty.
Marco lowered his weapon.
"I told him this would happen," he said almost sadly.
Then someone fired.
Not Marco.
A sniper hidden somewhere in the cliffs.
The bullet slammed into Luca's side.
He dropped to one knee.
"Luca!"
Elena screamed before she could stop herself.
Every head turned toward her.
Marco smiled.
"There you are."
She ran.
Into the jungle.
Branches tore at her arms.
Sharp volcanic rocks shredded her shoes.
Behind her came shouting.
Dogs.
No...
Not dogs.
Men.
Tracking teams.
She had no idea where she was going.
Only that stopping meant dying.
Or worse.
She stumbled down a steep hillside and landed beside a freshwater stream.
Someone grabbed her from behind.
A hand covered her mouth.
She fought wildly.
Then she heard the whisper.
"Quiet."
Luca.
She spun around.
He was somehow standing.
Barely.
Blood poured from a fresh gunshot wound.
"You..."
She stared in disbelief.
"You were hit."
"I noticed."
"How are you even alive?"
He managed the smallest smile.
"Years of disappointing people."
She almost laughed.
Almost.
Instead she wrapped his arm around her shoulders.
"We have to keep moving."
"No."
He pointed toward a narrow opening in the rocks hidden behind hanging vines.
"There."
A cave.
Hidden from above.
Together they disappeared inside moments before armed men reached the stream.
Outside...
Voices echoed only meters away.
Inside...
Darkness swallowed them.
Luca suddenly collapsed.
Elena caught him before his head struck the stone floor.
His skin burned with fever.
She opened the emergency medical kit she'd dragged from the crash.
The bullet had passed through.
Lucky.
Everything else wasn't.
Broken collarbone.
Three cracked ribs.
Deep cuts across his back.
Severe blood loss.
She cleaned the wounds as gently as she could.
Luca never cried out.
He simply watched her.
Finally he spoke.
"I thought you'd leave."
"I almost did."
"I know."
She tied the bandage tighter than necessary.
"Stop saying you know everything."
"I don't."
"Good."
Silence settled between them.
Then Elena asked the question she had carried for an entire year.
"My mother's hospital bill."
Luca closed his eyes.
"You paid it."
He didn't answer immediately.
Finally—
"Yes."
She froze.
"What?"
"I transferred the money anonymously."
"Why?"
"Because if I had done it publicly..."
He looked away.
"...she would've become leverage."
Elena's hands trembled.
"No."
"I couldn't let my enemies know I cared about anyone working for me."
"You told me business came first."
"I lied."
The cave became unbearably quiet.
Everything she had believed...
May you like
Everything...
Started falling apart.
