The Prophecy

"Dante!"

The gun clattered to the floor. Luca fell to his knees beside his friend. "Dante, no, no, no."

Dante was gasping, clutching his chest. Bubbles of blood were forming on his lips. He looked up at Luca, and there was no anger in his eyes. Only a profound, heartbreaking confusion.

"You... idiot," Dante wheezed.

"You were going to kill me," Luca sobbed, pressing his hands against the wound, trying to keep the life inside. "I saw the text."

"Not... you," Dante choked out. His hand fumbled in his wet pocket. He pulled out the burner phone—the one from his pocket, not the bag.

He shoved it into Luca’s bloody hand.

"Read... the rest."

Dante’s head rolled back. His eyes fixed on the ceiling, where the green storm raged on. The chest heaved once, twice, and then stopped.

Luca sat in the silence, the only sound the rain beginning to hammer against the glass roof.

He looked down at the dead face of the only man who had ever truly loved him. Then, with numb fingers, he opened the phone Dante had given him.

He opened the sent folder. He found the message. It had been sent ten minutes ago.

* It’s done tonight. The Lamb goes to slaughter. Luca is safe. I’m bringing him home.*

Luca stared at the words. The letters swam before his eyes.

"The Lamb..." Luca whispered.

* Lamberto.* "The Lamb" Lamberto. The rival capo from the Rossi family. The man who had put a hit out on Luca last week.

Dante hadn't been plotting to kill Luca. He had been plotting to kill Lamberto. He had orchestrated a hit on the rival boss to protect Luca. He had hidden it because he knew Luca’s conscience couldn't handle the blood.

* The Wolf will eat the Lamb.*

Nonna had been right. But she hadn't been talking about Dante.

Luca looked at his own reflection in the darkened glass window. He saw the blood on his hands. He saw the gun on the floor.

Dante was the sheepdog who had died protecting the flock. And Luca... Luca was the one who had bared his teeth and bitten the hand that fed him.

Luca curled up on the rug beside his dead brother as the storm battered the glass box, realizing too late that the wolf in the prophecy had been him all along.