All Chapters of Midnight Between Us: Chapter 11 - Chapter 20

The cabin fell into a suffocating silence. Rain drummed heavily against the roof while Luca DeLuca and Ava’s father stared at each other like two men standing on opposite sides of a grave. Ava looked between them desperately.“Someone tell me what’s happening.”Neither answered. Sofia finally shut the cabin door behind Luca carefully, her gun still raised slightly.“Damien’s men are dead,” she said quietly. Luca didn’t look away from Ava’s father.“I know.”Blood dripped slowly from Luca’s arm onto the wooden floor. Only then did Ava notice how pale he looked beneath the fury.“You’re hurt.”I’ll survive.”His voice was cold again.Distant.Like the brief softness from moments ago never happened. Ava stepped closer carefully. “Luca “Don’t.”The single word stopped her instantly. Pain flashed across his face before he buried it again. Her father moved subtly in front of her.Protective.Luca noticed immediately. And hated it.“You don’t get to play father now,” Luca said darkly. Ava’s father held h

The forest went silent except for Ava’s breathing.Fast.Panicked.Broken.Luca DeLuca knelt beside her in the mud, blood pouring down his back while rain soaked through his black shirt.And behind them—Damien stood smiling with the gun still raised.“You should’ve stayed hidden,” Damien said calmly.Ava moved instantly in front of Luca.“Don’t touch him.”Damien laughed softly.“That’s adorable.”Luca tried to stand again, but pain nearly dropped him back to the ground.“Ava,” he breathed harshly. “Move.”“No.”The word surprised even her.Because she meant it completely.Damien tilted his head curiously.“Do you know how many people have died because of him?”Ava didn’t answer.“Do you know what he really is?”Luca’s jaw tightened.“Shut up.”But Damien ignored him.“He’s not a victim, Ava. He’s worse than Vittorio ever was.”“That’s a lie.”“Is it?”Damien stepped closer slowly through the rain.“Ask him about Naples.”Luca’s expression changed instantly.Not anger.Horror.Ava no

The rain slowed to a cold drizzle as silence spread through the clearing.Nobody moved.Nobody spoke.Ava could still feel Luca DeLuca’s hand gripping hers tightly, but his attention remained fixed entirely on the woman standing beside the black SUV.Sienna Moretti.Even her name sounded dangerous.Sofia lowered her weapon slightly, confusion written across her face.“You’re supposed to be dead.”Sienna smiled faintly.“A lot of people say that when they see me.”Ava looked between them anxiously.Nobody looked happy about this woman’s arrival.Not even Luca.Especially Luca.Blood continued dripping from his chest wound, yet somehow the sight of Sienna seemed to affect him more than the bullets had.“You shouldn’t be here,” he said quietly.Sienna stepped closer slowly.“And yet here I am.”Her eyes scanned his injuries carefully.For one brief moment, genuine emotion cracked through her cold expression.Worry.Then it disappeared.“You’re bleeding everywhere,” she muttered.Luca alm

For a moment, nobody spoke.The only sound was the distant thunder rolling above the forest and the low rumble of engines waiting nearby.Ava stared at the image on Luca’s phone until her vision blurred.Her mother.Alive.Bruised.Terrified.Eleven years of grief shattered in a single second.And beside her stood Damien, smiling like the devil himself.A slow sickness twisted through Ava’s stomach.“This has to be fake,” she whispered.But deep down, she already knew it wasn’t.The fear in her mother’s eyes was real.The bruises were real.Everything was real.Luca locked the phone immediately, his expression turning dangerously unreadable.“We leave now.”Ava grabbed his wrist before he could move away.“You’re not going anywhere until you tell me the truth.”“Ava”“No.”Her voice cracked sharply through the clearing.Everyone froze.Rainwater dripped from her hair while years of pain and confusion finally exploded out of her.“My father lied to me. My mother lied to me. You lied to

The helicopter blades thundered above the clearing, slicing through rain and darkness with violent force.Nobody moved.Nobody breathed.Even the gunfire had stopped.Because the name Luca whispered carried weight strong enough to freeze an entire battlefield.Matteo DeLuca.A ghost.A dead man.A nightmare returned.Ava looked between the helicopter and Luca DeLuca in confusion. Luca’s face had gone pale beneath the blood and rain, his gray eyes locked upward in disbelief.“You said he was dead,” Sofia whispered harshly toward Vittorio.Vittorio DeLuca looked furious for the first time all night.“He was supposed to be.”The words sent chills through Ava instantly.Matteo stepped down from the helicopter slowly while armed men spread through the clearing around him with terrifying discipline.Unlike Vittorio’s men, these soldiers moved silently.Professionally.Like they had done this a thousand times before.And unlike everyone else in the clearing—They weren’t afraid.Rain slid do