Chapter 9 - The Night Roman Fell
Amelia screamed his name.
Roman hit the ground.
For a second, nobody moved.
Then everything happened at once.
Stefano fired toward Matteo.
Federal vehicles swarmed the road.
Daniel tackled Gabriel’s arm away from Amelia.
Claire ran.
Matteo disappeared behind the SUV.
Amelia dropped beside Roman.
“Roman.”
His eyes opened.
“I’m fine.”
Blood soaked his shoulder.
“You’re bleeding.”
“Shoulder.”
“You got shot.”
“I’ve noticed.”
Even now.
Even here.
She almost laughed and cried simultaneously.
Stefano reached them.
“We need to move.”
Roman grabbed his arm.
“Amelia first.”
Stefano looked at Amelia.
Amelia shook her head.
“No.”
Roman stared.
She pressed both hands against his wound.
“We both go.”
Something softened in his expression.
No argument.
Paramedics reached them.
Gabriel escaped during the confusion.
Matteo did too.
But their organization was collapsing.
Roman survived surgery.
The bullet had passed through muscle without striking bone or major vessels.
When he woke, Amelia was not beside his bed.
He had not expected her to be.
Stefano was.
“You look disappointed.”
Roman closed his eyes.
“I look medicated.”
“You always look disappointed while medicated.”
“Where is she?”
“Safe.”
Roman opened his eyes.
“That’s all?”
“That’s what she authorized me to tell you.”
Roman almost smiled.
“Good.”
Stefano raised an eyebrow.
“You’re happy she’s withholding information?”
“I’m happy she trusts you enough to tell you anything.”
Two hours later, a nurse entered with a small envelope.
Roman opened it.
Amelia’s handwriting.
You scared me.
Nothing else.
Roman read it ten times.
The next morning, Amelia came.
She stood in the doorway for several seconds before entering.
Roman did not move.
“Hi.”
“Hi.”
She sat in the chair.
He looked thinner.
Less invincible.
She hated how much that affected her.
“How’s your shoulder?”
“Sore.”
“Doctor says six weeks.”
“He says a lot.”
“Roman.”
“I’ll behave.”
She almost smiled.
Silence stretched.
Then Roman said, “Thank you.”
“For?”
“Coming.”
Amelia looked down.
“I almost didn’t.”
“I know.”
“I don’t know what this means.”
“It doesn’t have to mean anything.”
She looked at him.
That was new too.
Old Roman would have found significance.
A strategy.
A path.
This Roman seemed willing to let a moment remain a moment.
Amelia said, “Gabriel escaped.”
“Yes.”
“Matteo too.”
“Yes.”
“What happens now?”
“Federal agencies continue the search.”
“And you?”
“I cooperate.”
“That’s it?”
“That’s it.”
She stared.
“You’re not hunting them?”
“No.”
“Why?”
“Because every time I solve something with private violence, I keep the same world alive.”
Amelia looked at him carefully.
“You’ve thought about this.”
“Constantly.”
Roman reached toward the nightstand.
Her wedding ring sat there.
He had kept it with him even at the hospital.
Amelia’s gaze fixed on it.
Roman did not offer it.
He simply said, “I’ll keep it safe until you decide what you want done with it.”
Her chest tightened.
“Roman…”
“You don’t owe me an answer.”
“I know.”
“I mean it.”
She nodded.
The baby moved faintly.
Amelia’s eyes widened.
Roman noticed.
“What?”
She put a hand on her stomach.
“Nothing.”
“Amelia.”
She smiled despite herself.
“I think I felt the baby.”
Roman froze.
“Move?”
“Maybe.”
His face changed completely.
Wonder.
Fear.
Longing.
He looked at her stomach, then quickly away.
He would not ask.
That restraint hurt more than asking might have.
Amelia slowly stood.
She walked toward the bed.
Roman looked up.
She took his good hand.
Placed it gently against the curve of her belly.
They waited.
Nothing.
Roman held perfectly still.
Then—
a faint flutter.
His eyes filled.
Roman Duca, who had endured bullets, funerals, raids, betrayals, and years of violence without crying, looked at Amelia with tears shining in his eyes.
“That was…”
“The baby.”
He swallowed.
“Again?”
“We can wait.”
They did.
For several minutes, they simply sat there.
No empire.
No Gabriel.
No Valyria.
No Enzo.
Only a mother.
A father.
A child between them.
The baby moved again.
Roman laughed softly.
Amelia had not heard that sound in months.
It broke something open.
She withdrew his hand gently.
“I should go.”
He nodded.
“Okay.”
At the doorway, she stopped.
“Roman.”
“Yes?”
“When you chose Valyria…”
His face tightened.
“I know.”
“No. Let me finish.”
He waited.
“I understand why you did it.”
He looked surprised.
“That doesn’t mean I forgive it.”
“I know.”
“It doesn’t mean it was right.”
“I know.”
“But I understand.”
Roman nodded slowly.
“That’s more than I deserve.”
Amelia’s eyes filled.
“Stop deciding what you deserve.”
He looked at her.
“Right.”
She left.
Outside the hospital, Valyria waited.
Amelia stopped.
“You came.”
Valyria nodded.
“For Roman?”
“For you.”
Amelia raised an eyebrow.
Valyria held out a folder.
“I found something in my father’s files.”
“What?”
“A letter.”
“From Enzo?”
“Yes.”
Amelia took it.
Valyria’s voice trembled.
“He wrote it to Roman the week before he died.”
Amelia opened the folder.
The letter was short.
Roman,
If anything happens to me, do not spend your life paying me back.
Look after Valyria if she needs you, but she is not your debt.
No person should become another person’s prison.
Build something better than what we inherited.
Enzo.
Amelia stared.
Valyria whispered, “Roman never saw it.”
“Why?”
“My mother kept it.”
“Why?”
“She was angry at Roman after my father died.”
Amelia closed her eyes.
Eight years.
Roman had built an entire moral obligation around a promise Enzo had explicitly tried to release him from.
“Does Roman know?”
“Not yet.”
“You should tell him.”
Valyria shook her head.
“You should.”
“Why me?”
“Because I think he needs to understand that the dead man he was honoring never asked him to sacrifice the living.”
Amelia looked toward Roman’s hospital window.
She carried the letter upstairs.
Roman was asleep.
She placed it beside his ring.
Then she left.
When he woke and read it, Roman remained silent for almost an hour.
Stefano eventually entered.
Roman handed him the letter.
Stefano read.
“Eight years.”
Roman nodded.
“You didn’t know.”
“No.”
Stefano sat.
Roman stared at the ceiling.
“I destroyed my marriage over a debt that never existed.”
“No.”
Roman looked at him.
Stefano folded the letter.
“You damaged your marriage because you never asked whether the debt should control you.”
Roman absorbed the distinction.
Then his phone rang.
Federal investigator.
Gabriel Serrano had been located.
Not captured.
Located.
At a private airfield outside Richmond.
Roman listened.
“They think he’s leaving the country.”
Stefano stood.
Roman’s old instincts surged.
Cars.
Men.
Weapons.
Finish it.
Then he looked at Enzo’s letter.
Build something better than what we inherited.
Roman handed the phone to Stefano.
“Give them everything they need.”
Stefano stared.
“You’re staying here?”
“Yes.”
“Gabriel may get away.”
“Yes.”
Roman looked at Amelia’s wedding ring.
“I’m done letting dead men decide which living people I abandon.”
But Gabriel was not finished.
At that same moment, Amelia received a photograph on her prepaid phone.
Daniel.
Bound to a chair.
Below it:
You took Claire from me.
I took your uncle.
May you like
Come alone, or he dies.
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