Chapter 5 Breaking Through the

Valentina's POV

After the turmoil of the evening before, the house was shockingly calm. The air seemed heavy with anxiety, like a storm building just beyond view, and I couldn't get rid of the sense that something horrible was just around the bend. After the event with Enzo, Luca had not spoken much; his typically austere cold, wary demeanor returned as though nothing had happened.

But then I knew better now. Though he would not admit it, I had seen the flutter of something deeper in him. And that made me most afraid.

Trying to gather my ideas, I stood by the window and watched the dismal sky. Last night's excitement had long since faded, leaving only the weight of all I had been running from for years. My father's past Enzo became fixated. World of Luca. I had all of it falling on me and knew nowhere to go from.

Alternatively, if I could anymore at all.

The door creaked open behind me, and I turned to find Luca standing there with black eyes inscrutable. We merely stared at each other for a minute, the quiet between us dense and weighty. Like we were on the brink of something hazardous, I could sense the strain developing and neither of us knew how to back off.

"You should eat," he remarked at last, his voice quiet and under control, but I sensed the least trace of worry beneath.

"I'm not hungry," I said, turning back to the window, although since morning my stomach had been in knots.

Luca moved in front of me, his presence hanging there. "Valentina, we have to chat."

I stiffened; the terror I had been attempting to suppress surged up in my chest. I wanted no more of this talk. I wanted not to face the truth hovering between us since last night. We could not, however, avoid it permanently.

I nodded, turned to face him. His eyes were focused, sharp as a knife slicing across the distance between us. I tried to find my voice with hard swallowing.

"What happened last night?"? I started, then he cut me off.

"Enzo's not done," Luca remarked, his voice hard and objective. "He is only starting. He wants you and will stop at nothing to get you. Valentina, right now you are in this. Whether or not you find it appealing.

His words turned my stomach, but I pushed myself to meet his eyes. And what about you, Luca? What are your wants?

I thought, for a moment, that I saw something weak, maybe even remorseful, flicker in his eyes, but it vanished as fast as it had shown. He backed off, his face stiffening.

"It makes no difference what I wish for," he remarked. This has nothing to do with me. It concerns survival.

Frustration boiling inside me, I closed my fists at my sides. "Stop passing for someone else not caring. Last night, Luca, I watched your attitude toward me. You cannot hide behind this cold, merciless deed for ever.

His jaw tightened, and he turned away, running his dark hair between his hands. Valentina, I have spent my whole life studying how to hide. That is what keeps me alive.

" And what about me??" I pushed, moving in closer. "Am I just another piece in your game? Someone to keep Enzo away so you might guard your empire?

Luca let the mask slip, just a little, for the first time; his eyes glowed with wrath. "You're not a pawn," he continued, his voice low and sharp. "You are the only thing keeping me from losing everything."

His comments knocked away the wind from me like a strike to the chest. I had anticipated control, manipulation, perhaps possibly apathy. Still, this is This was something else quite different.

I started to talk, but before I could get the words out the door opened and Matteo rushed in with a pale, strained face.

"Luca, we have a problem," Matteo stated, sounding urgent.

Luca's face changed quickly, his attention sharpening like a predator getting ready for a battle. " What is it?"

"Men of Enzo's," They are closing in on one Another Before they reach the gates, we have perhaps five minutes.

My heart shot into my throat, and panic attacked me. "What are we supposed to do?

Luca went without thinking twice. "Matteo, get the men primed." Valentina-" His eyes stern, he turned to face me. Remain here. Remain still. I would take care of this.

"No," I answered with a shaking voice. "I cannot sit here and do nothing."

"Valentina, this isn't a game," Luca said, his voice stern. "You might be killed."

"And thus could you!," I turned back, frustration and terror spilling over. "I'm not going to wait for that to happen sitting about."

Luca fixed me for a long time, his jaw closed and his eyes dark with something I couldn't quite identify. Then Matteo turned and fled the room without another word, closely followed.

My heart thumping, my head whirling, I stood there. This was not what I intended. Not one bit of it was. I couldn't, however, ignore the fact any more. Right now I was in this. Nor was there a turning back.

Though a muddled mess, I grabbed my jacket and raced after Luca. I had no notion of what I was doing or how I would survive on this hostile planet. But I wasn't going to let Luca bear it by herself. Not anymore.

Luca's soldiers, arming themselves and getting ready for fight, dominated the disorderly main hall. Luca was at the far end ordering, and his demeanor was as frigid and uncompromising as always. But I noticed the anxiety hidden deep beneath the surface when his eyes locked with mine.

My heart thumping in my chest, I went over to him. " What can I do?"

Luca shook his head with a clenched jaw. Valentina, this is not your fight.

I moved closer, my voice firm even though I was shaking inside. It is now.

He simply stared at me for a time, his face incomprehensible. Then, at last, he breathed; the strain in his shoulders just slightly relaxed.

"Excellent," he remarked. Keep near me. And stay away from foolish behavior.

I nodded, releasing the washing over me. Here it was. I was no longer only a spectator in Luca's universe. For better or worse, I participated in it right now.

Luca's men were moving into position when the sound of motors roaring in the distance drew me back to the present. Watching Luca arm himself, the weight of the circumstances fell on me all over once more as my heart raced.

Luca looked at me before I could say anything; his face was softer than I had ever seen. Stuck behind me. Whichever occurs.

I nodded, terror stranding my throat. The air was clearly tense, the sense of approaching violence dense and smothering.

Then all of it happened simultaneously.

The gates opened, and Enzo's soldiers surged in, rifles ablaze. Men of Luca returned fire, the loud sound of gunshots filling the air. My pulse thumping in my chest, I braced myself against the wall as anarchy tore about me.

Luca was there in the middle, moving with lethal accuracy and coldly killing adversaries with a spine-tingling effect. Still, his gaze never left me even as the violence tore everything around us. Even as the globe charred around him, he was shielding me.

I had no idea how long the struggle went-minutes? Years? My heart stuck in my mouth as I watched in shocked silence, time seemed to blur. The gunshots ceased completely at last, though it slowed first.

Luca stood in the middle of all the dust, bloodied yet triumphant when everything settled. His eyes fixed on me, and for a minute all else vanished.

"You're safe," he murmured, his voice raw with tiredness.

I nodded too overwhelmed to talk. But something had shifted between us as I gazed into his eyes. We were no more two persons tossed together by circumstance. Now tied by something deeper, something none of us completely understood but which connected us.

But time did not allow one to linger on that. Not as yet.

"Enzo's not going to stop," I said, shaking.

Luca's face grew rigid, his mouth closing. I understand.

And in that instant, I realized that our decisions had imprisoned us both in this life. One could not flee from it. Still, I felt less isolated for the first time.

Since right now we were in it together.

Cliffhanger: A fresh figure approached from the shadows as Luca and I stood there surrounded by fight debris. A woman, her face hidden under a hood, moved forward with a chilly, forceful voice.

"Luca DeLuca," she murmured, her tone cutting. "We ought to chat now."

Luca's face changed as his eyes narrowed to identify her. Still, he said nothing; his body stiff with expectancy.

"Who is she"? With a thumping heart, I whispered.

Luca's eyes turned to mine, a wicked glitter in them.

"She is my mother."