Chapter 7 - The First Step
Rachel Kim refused to let Luca turn rehabilitation into another war.
“You cannot threaten your nerves into working,” she said.
“I have threatened more stubborn things.”
“Nerves do not care.”
Maya sat on the floor with Tommy.
Tommy had officially decided Luca was acceptable.
He still refused to call him nice.
“Rich people get weird when you compliment them,” Tommy explained.
Luca ignored him.
He gripped the parallel bars.
Rachel positioned herself behind him.
“Do not stand.”
“That appears to be the purpose.”
“The purpose is to make your body remember the sequence.”
Luca hated sequences.
He wanted results.
Maya watched his left foot.
“Move your big toe.”
He tried.
Nothing.
“Again.”
Nothing.
“Again.”
Luca exhaled sharply.
His toe moved.
Maya slapped Tommy’s arm.
“I saw it.”
“So did I,” Tommy said.
Rachel remained calm.
“Again.”
The toe moved.
Then the ankle tightened.
Pain shot up Luca’s leg.
He nearly shouted.
Rachel caught his shoulder.
“Good.”
“Good?”
“Pain means the signal reached somewhere it has not reached properly in years.”
Luca gritted his teeth.
“Your profession has terrible definitions.”
Maya laughed.
Then Luca felt something different.
Pressure.
Not movement.
Weight.
The floor beneath his left foot existed in a way it had not existed yesterday.
His breath stopped.
Rachel saw his face.
“What?”
“I can feel the floor.”
Maya stood.
Luca looked down.
He had ruled cities.
Broken competitors.
Expanded an empire across three states.
Nothing had ever felt as powerful as the pressure beneath one shoe.
Elena appeared in the doorway.
She had been watching quietly.
Luca looked at her.
“I can feel it.”
Her eyes filled.
For one second, the investigation disappeared.
The betrayal disappeared.
Everything became one man feeling the floor beneath his foot.
Then a security guard entered.
His expression erased the moment.
“Mr. Costello.”
Luca released the bars.
“What?”
“We stopped someone at the south gate.”
“Who?”
“A delivery driver.”
“And?”
“He had no delivery.”
The guard placed a photograph on a nearby table.
The man in the image was older now.
His hair was white.
May you like
But the scar near his left ear was visible.
Arthur Vale had finally returned.
