Chapter 10 - THE SIEGE OF THE SANCTUARY
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Samuel stared at Luca as if the man had spoken to him in an ancient, forgotten tongue.
"That's impossible," Samuel breathed, shaking his head in disbelief.
"My name is Samuel Miller. My parents were David and Sarah Miller from Green Bay."
"Your parents were wonderful people who protected you from a world of monsters," Luca said, his voice thick with raw emotion.
"Look at my face, Samuel. Look at my eyes."
Samuel stared intently at Luca, the color slowly draining from his face as the undeniable physical resemblance overwhelmed him.
Before Samuel could say another word, Marco burst through the stairwell doorway, his rifle smoking, blood dripping from a cut on his brow.
"Boss! The street is clear, but we just got an emergency transmission from the estate!" Marco shouted frantically.
"Dominic Moretti just betrayed us!"
Luca's head snapped toward Marco, his expression turning into one of pure, unadulterated shock.
"My uncle Dominic?"
"Yes!" Marco confirmed, gasping for air.
"Dominic was working with the Sterlings from the very beginning!"
"The moment we left the gates to come here, Dominic arrived at the mansion with thirty heavily armed mercenaries!"
"They took out the perimeter guards, breached the courtyard, and they are trying to break into the private safe room right now!"
"They want Eleanor Whitmore dead, and they're dousing the greenhouse in gasoline!"
Luca let out a roar of rage that sounded like an animal being torn apart from the inside.
"They will not touch that woman!" Luca screamed, grabbing his weapon from the floor.
"And they will not burn my mother's roses!"
Samuel stepped out from behind his desk, his confusion suddenly replaced by the fierce, commanding presence of a captain.
"Wait! Who is Eleanor Whitmore?" Samuel demanded, stepping directly into Luca's path.
"She is the woman who saved your life when our father tried to sell you thirty years ago!" Luca yelled back, his eyes wild.
"She kept the secret that kept you alive, and now my traitorous uncle is going to slaughter her in our mother's garden!"
Samuel didn't hesitate for even a fraction of a second.
The firefighter's instinct to run directly into danger took complete control of his body.
"Then what the hell are we waiting for?" Samuel grabbed a heavy iron halogen tool from his locker.
"Let's go get her."
Five minutes later, our convoy was racing back toward the northern suburbs, sirens screaming as we tore through the stormy night.
By the time our vehicles smashed through the iron gates of the Moretti estate, the sky above the gardens was glowing with an ominous orange hue.
Thick black smoke was billowing into the rain, illuminated by the flashing lights of mercenary vehicles parked across the lawn.
The outer walls of the greenhouse were surrounded by men dressed in black tactical gear, carrying jerrycans of fuel.
Inside the glass structure, Eleanor was huddled in the center of Maria's white rosebed, holding a wooden cross against her chest.
Standing directly outside the shattered glass entrance was Dominic Moretti, Luca's sixty-year-old uncle, holding a silver lighter in his hand.
"Burn it all to ash!" Dominic shouted to his men over the roar of the thunder.
"Burn the flowers, burn the old witch, and erase Maria's ghost once and for all!"
"DOMINIC!" Luca's voice roared across the courtyard like a blast from an artillery cannon.
The black Mercedes did not slow down; it plowed straight across the manicured lawn, scattering mercenaries like bowling pins.
Luca leapt from the moving vehicle before it had even come to a complete stop, his dual pistols spitting fire into the darkness.
Samuel charged right behind him, swinging his heavy steel halogen tool with devastating power, knocking a mercenary unconscious in a single blow.
I sprinted toward the side entrance of the greenhouse, keeping low as bullets shattered the remaining glass panels overhead.
Shards of glass fell around us like a deadly winter frost, glittering in the orange light of the encroaching fires.
Luca advanced through the chaos like an invincible force of nature, cutting down every traitor who stood between him and his family.
Dominic turned in absolute terror, attempting to run toward an idling SUV, but Luca caught him by the collar of his expensive wool coat.
With a terrifying heave, Luca slammed his traitorous uncle against the brick foundation of the greenhouse, pinning him by his throat.
"You sold my brother to Arthur Sterling," Luca hissed, his gun barrel pressed directly between Dominic's eyes.
"You helped my father stage his death, and you put Vanessa in my bed to watch me!"
Dominic choked, blood bubbling at the corner of his lips as he clawed at Luca's iron grip.
"Frank was weak, Luca!" Dominic gasped out, his eyes bulging with terror.
"Sterling had us surrounded! We had to give him the boy to save the family business!"
"There is no business without honor, Dominic," Luca stated with absolute, chilling finality.
Luca pulled the trigger.
The gunshot cracked through the rainy night, and Dominic Moretti's lifeless body slumped onto the muddy ground.
Luca dropped the weapon, spun around, and sprinted into the shattered greenhouse where the flames were beginning to lick at the rosebushes.
"Eleanor!" Luca cried out, coughing through the dense smoke.
I was already on my knees beside the elderly woman, shielding her frail body with my own coat.
Samuel rushed in right behind us, effortlessly lifting Eleanor into his strong arms as if she weighed no more than a feather.
"I've got her!" Samuel shouted, carrying the weeping woman out of the burning structure into the clean, rainy air.
Luca stopped for a single moment, looking down at his mother's oldest white rosebush, which was surrounded by creeping flames.
He reached down with his bare hands, grabbed the thick, thorny base of the plant, and ripped it entirely out of the burning earth, roots and all.
He carried the living plant out into the open courtyard, collapsing onto his knees on the wet grass beside his brother and Eleanor.
The rain poured down, extinguishing the small fires, washing the blood and soot away from the white petals in Luca's bleeding hands.
Eleanor opened her tear-filled eyes, looking up into the handsome face of the young firefighter who held her so gently.
She reached up a trembling, weathered hand and touched the familiar birthmark on Samuel's neck.
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"Oh, Maria," Eleanor sobbed into the Chicago night.
"Your baby came home."
