Chapter 18 - The Queen's Gambit
“Luca, wait.”
My voice cut through the ringing silence of the panic room. Luca’s finger paused on the trigger. He looked back at me, his eyes wild with adrenaline and protective fury.
I walked slowly toward them, lowering my gun. I looked down at Julian, who was writhing in pain, clutching his bleeding shoulder. He was pathetic. A broken, cowardly man who had hidden behind our father’s shadow his entire life.
“I don't want him dead,” I said.
Julian let out a breathless sob of relief. “Thank you… thank you, Phina…”
“Shut up,” I snapped, my voice echoing off the steel walls. I turned to Luca. “Death is too easy a release for him. I want him stripped of everything. Empty his bank accounts. Take his properties. Leave him on the street with absolutely nothing, so he can live exactly as he made me feel my entire life—powerless.”
Luca stared at me, his chest heaving. Slowly, the murderous rage in his eyes shifted into absolute, unadulterated awe. He saw the queen he had helped forge.
Luca removed his boot from Julian’s shoulder and holstered his weapon. He smiled—a dark, proud, beautiful expression. “It is done.”
He signaled his men. Dante and another capo dragged a screaming, sobbing Julian out of the panic room.
The nightmare was finally over. The Vance empire was dead.
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Luca turned to me, wrapping his good arm around my waist and pulling me flush against him. “You are the most terrifying, magnificent woman I have ever known.”
“I had a good teacher,” I whispered, leaning up to kiss him.
