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Worth the Blood

Author: Missy Smith
last update Huling Na-update: 2025-08-04 05:33:19
-Luciano (POV)-

It was dark, somewhere around 1:30 in the morning. The Moretti family asked for a sit down, so I suggested neutral ground, the alley behind a dive bar named “The Broken Mug”. They agreed. Then, of course, Marco Moretti was late. I leaned against the cold brick wall, waiting as the cold seeped into my bones. I told myself this would be a meeting and nothing more, just a warning unless things go south. This prick better hurry, I thought to myself. And that’s when I heard them, footsteps. I could tell it was the smug prick.

“You know you’re getting too close. Touching and pushing the lines that will start a war.” I said as I pushed off the wall. My voice remained calm, controlled, and firm. “This is the last time I will tell you to back off.” I watched as his pathetic soldiers took their places behind him, then he just gave me that smug little smirk. “Your line is useless now. Luca, you no longer scare anyone. In fact, this will not be yours much longer.” I didn’t move,
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  • The Cost of Saving Him   Ashes Don't Lie

    -Mina-The morning after the rescue came with a silence I didn’t trust. It wasn’t peace, just the thin layer of calm that forms before rot sets in. Frankie brewed coffee that no one drank. Tony slept on the couch, stitched and pale. Luca hadn’t come back since the argument, and the house felt wrong without the weight of him pacing the floors.Frankie handed me a mug and watched me over the rim of his own. “You should try to rest.” I shook my head. “If I close my eyes, I’ll see it again. Marco, the knife, Tony’s face. Rest doesn’t fix that.”“Neither does walking around like you’re waiting for a bullet.” He took a step closer. His shirt still smelled faintly of gunpowder. “You don’t have to carry this one alone.”“I dragged it into existince. That makes it mine,” The words cracked in the air between us. Carrying a weight I never knew would be mine to carry. He sighed and brushed his thumb against the side of my neck where a bruise was forming. The touch made my throat tighten. “You don

  • The Cost of Saving Him   Until Dawn

    -Mina-Dark came and went in slices. The floor was cold and had a greasy smell. When light finally held, zip ties bit my wrists, and Tony sat three feet away with blood drying on his shirt. He lifted his eyes when I breathed.“Stay small,” he whispered. “Make them think you are nothing.”A door clanged. Marco crossed the room with a smile that belonged on a billboard and a knife that did not. Two men shadowed him. One had a swallow tattoo by his ear. The other wore a long scar from jaw to collarbone.“You made this easy,” Marco said. “Brave is just another word for predictable.”“Tell me why he loves you,” he said. “Tell me why he keeps bleeding for a woman who burns his house to feel warm.” I looked away, ignoring him.Marco flicked the knife against Tony’s rope. Not a cut. Just a sound. Tony did not flinch. Marco nodded to the tattooed man. The punch that followed drove breath from Tony’s lungs. He coughed, and a red mist dotted his shirt.“This is not personal,” Marco said. “Alaric

  • The Cost of Saving Him   The Cost of Courage

    -Mina- Tony was supposed to check in every twenty minutes. He never missed a call, not once, according to Luca. When the clock struck the half hour and the radio remained silent, I felt a sense of wrongness crawl up my spine. Corey was the first to move, slamming his headset down as his fingers flew over the feed controls. The alley camera went black and remained that way. The van feed froze on static. No Tony. No movement. Only the echo of tires fading down wet streets.Frankie appeared in the doorway, still in his jacket, the smell of smoke clinging to him. His voice cut through the static. “Tell me you have eyes on him.”“Feed’s cut,” Corey said. “It’s not weather. Someone killed the line.” I pushed past them, palms flat on the desk, watching a square of nothing where Tony should have been whistling through another shift. My throat felt too tight to breathe. “Call him.”Frankie did. The ring went silent halfway through. No voicemail, no tone. Dead. He sent a text, and a few moment

  • The Cost of Saving Him   The Heat That Follows

    -Mina- I stood there, looking at all the damage, angry because of all the work Corey and all of their guys had put into it. And all this on opening night at that. I could handle bloodbath level, but this. I knew at this moment, I was officially done with the bar. At least I was for now. Frankie grabbed my wrist gently, pulling the gun from my hand, “They are gone now, you can put this up.” I heard the car before I saw it, looking through what once was a wall. The tires squealing against the wet roads broke the weird silence that lingered over the interrupted conversations. The car came to a dramatic stop in front of the bar, and Luca stepped out. He walked straight to the bar, scanning faces. His coat was wet at the hem from the rain. His hair hung in sharp lines on his forehead. For a moment, he stopped and looked at me, and the look in his eyes punched the air out of my lungs. It was worse than the men’s threats. It was a combination of disappointment and betrayal.Don Rinaldi w

  • The Cost of Saving Him   A Fuse in the Room

    -Mina- I lay there, reaching for the gun under the bar, when he spoke again. “Mina Mendoza, Luca Gambino, and Frankie Gambino. The three of you seem to have forgotten to call me.” At first, I didn’t recognize the voice, but then it hit me. Marco Moretti. I looked at Frankie, who was reloading his gun. “Frankie, where is Luca?” I whispered as I grabbed the gun, sliding it to him. I crawled towards him, taking his gun from him, switching the clips as he stood up. “What are you doing?” I tried to stop him, but he just held his hand out to me.“What the hell do you want, Marco?” Frankie asked. The voice held a calm that was all teeth. It cut through the ringing in my ears like a blade.Marco leaned against the splintered bar where glass had not long since looked like stained rain. He was clean, too clean for a man who sent trucks into walls. His suit was the kind that cost someone a funeral, his hands empty and slow. He smiled.“I want what every man with a name wants,” he said. “Power

  • The Cost of Saving Him   Ash in Our Throats

    -Mina-The room stank of sweat and storm and silence thick enough to choke on. The lamp threw yellow over the sheets, over Luca’s fists flexing like he wanted to hit God. Frankie stood by the dresser, phone glowing in his hand, jaw locked. Tony’s text burned between us: Moretti + Drovarez. Hit at the reopening.I pulled the blanket up, then let it drop. I could still taste both men, and hated that part of me wanted to keep it. Luca watched the floor. Frankie’s stare clung to me like a bruise.“Get dressed,” Luca said, pulling me to my feet and walking me to Frankie’s room. I stood and peeled off his shirt, slowly. If I were going to be their sin, they could see it. Frankie’s eyes dropped, then shut. Luca didn’t blink. I dressed in black underwear, jeans, and a t-shirt, each motion a punishment.“We move now,” Luca said. Frankie pocketed the phone. “Tony and Corey are setting the feeds.”The hallway reeked of gun oil. Frankie’s office glowed with monitors, every inch of my bar alive o

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