Vanessa claimed Sophie injured herself on a garage door, until Luca noticed the blood, the wheelchair, and one terrified look that told him his mother was missing. / Chapter 42 / 50

Chapter 42 - Falling Through the Storm

The drop was a heart-stopping blur of freezing wind, roaring flames, and vertigo. My stomach violently leaped into my throat as gravity seized us, the icy rain of the storm lashing against my face. Luca caught the secondary steel suspension cable with his gloved right arm, using a heavy carabiner clipped to his harness to brake our fall.

The metal screeched, throwing blinding showers of sparks into the dark rain as we hurtled downward along the exterior track of the skyscraper. The friction heated the steel through his leather gloves, the smell of burning friction competing with the ozone of the lightning above.

*KABOOM.*

Seventy floors up, the Sovereign Citadel erupted.

Fifty tons of thermite ignited in a cataclysmic flash of blinding orange and white. The entire crown of the skyscraper detonated, blowing tons of concrete, steel girders, and sheets of flaming glass out into the night sky. The shockwave slammed into us like an invisible fist, tossing us violently sideways.

"Hold on!" Luca roared, his muscles straining to the tearing point as he locked his legs around my waist, absorbing the violent pendulum swing with his own back against the building's facade. Concrete chunks rained down around us like meteors. A falling steel beam sheared through the upper anchor of our cable.

We free-fell the final four stories.

"Brace!"

Luca twisted in mid-air, ensuring his heavy tactical gear took the brunt of the impact as we smashed through the reinforced glass canopy of the fourth-floor podium terrace. We crashed into the deep waters of the decorative architectural reflecting pool.

The water was freezing, exploding around us in a massive white spray that extinguished the falling embers. The shock of the cold water drove the breath from my lungs, and the searing wound in my shoulder felt as though a branding iron had been thrust into my bone. I began to sink into the dark water, my limbs paralyzed.

Then Luca’s powerful hands broke through the surface, hooking beneath my arms and hoisting me upward. He dragged us gasping onto the polished granite rim of the pool, coughing water and ash.

"Luca! Sophie!"

Footsteps pounded through the shattered glass of the terrace. Dante emerged from the access corridor, his submachine gun drawn, his face streaked with soot. Behind him, being supported by two heavily armed loyalist soldiers, was Carmela. Her clothes were torn, her face pale, but her eyes blazed with fierce, maternal relief.

"Luca!" Carmela cried out, breaking away from the guards and staggering to her knees beside us. Her trembling hands framed Luca’s face before dropping to press against my bleeding shoulder. "Dear God, you're alive. Both of you."

"Mama," Luca breathed, wiping the blood from his brow, his dark eyes instantly sweeping the perimeter. "Where are the transports?"

"The underground garage collapsed when the charges blew," Dante said grimly, helping hoist me to my feet while Luca kept his arm anchored securely around my ribs. "Antonio’s sleeper cells have locked down the surrounding perimeter. Every corrupt cop and syndicate rat in the district is swarming toward the Citadel. We have less than three minutes before we're completely boxed in."