Luciano | Book I ✓

Chapter Forty-Five

a/n: I honestly want to deeply apologize for the wait you all had to endure to receive this chapter. Just note, this is (most likely) the second to last chapter. THERE WILL BE AN EPILOGUE.

I hope you all had a lovely holiday season & THANK YOU for the 10.5k followers! That's incredible! Also, we're more than halfway to 300 followers on Twitter so thank you again!

p.s. In response to the birthday wishes and present ideas, I have added a bonus scene featuring Federico at the end of the chapter. Make sure to keep reading till the very end!

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"Be willing to walk alone; many who started with you, won't finish with you."

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There's a certain wave of guiltiness that hits you once the adrenaline levels in your blood begin to decrease, once your breathing returns to normal, and your heart-race slows. It hits you when you least expect it; it hits you right after you've closed your eyes, right after a crack of thunder ripples across the sky, lighting up the back of your eyelids.

It hit me as the van coasted smoothly down the expressway, rain drenching everything outside. I breathed out through my nose, resting my forehead awkwardly on the glass of the window, its cool feel releasing some of the pressure that was building in my head.

I didn't realize I was crying until I found myself bringing a hand up to my nose, wiping at the tears that were threatening to fall from the bridge of it. They were tears I had been holding in for a while and as they fell, the back of my throat burned. I felt like my chest was collapsing and the dull headache I had experienced earlier was beginning to come back.

Zara sat on the second row of the van, just a seat over from me. She was slouched in her seat, her arms folded over her chest. Her head had rolled to one side and her facial expression remained the same; pursed lips and connected eyebrows, the tension was easily spotted. I could've sworn she had been sleep, but when I saw a tear roll out the corner of her eye, I knew she wasn't.

William and Tim were up front – one driving while the other navigated. Then there was Rosalie, who was still fast asleep on the last row in the back. She was still unaware of everything that had happened and in a way, I was happy about that. But I knew she would raise hell when she woke up and Liam was nowhere to be seen. I knew she would throw a fit when she then realized that her Uncle Rico was gone. And the tears would fall from her eyes when she asked me where they all went; where her brother, her uncle, and her curly-haired friend went...

And the pressure of answering that question will be too much for me, because what do you say? How do you explain to a seven year old that her brother was arrested; arrested for a crime that could keep the two apart for the rest of their lives? How do explain to a seven year old that her curly-haired friend was murdered? And how do you sit her down and explain to her that her favorite uncle, the man that she runs to when Liam isn't around, left her when she needed him the most?

I probably shouldn't have, but I blamed myself for the outcome of the whole thing. And if I had one wish, I wouldn't just wish to rewind this night, but rewind the entire summer. I would've done everything I could to keep myself from being thrown – or dragged – into Liam's life. I would've done everything in my power to keep the outcome of tonight from happening. So if keeping the three of them safe meant never meeting them, I would gladly do it.

My eyes might have been locked on the outside, occasionally glancing at random cars as they either matched our speed or flew past us – but my mind was elsewhere. What next?

We were not out of the woods just yet, not with the ongoing threat that Peter's men – despite whatever order Xavier Corinelli gives them – may still come after us in retaliation. And with Liam in jail, Dominic's status currently unknown, and Federico's location N/A, I felt exposed, vulnerable, and afraid.