Chapter 11 - A GRAVE CANNOT HOLD TWO SECRETS
Gunfire erupted.
The glass exploded inward, spraying across the marble floor.
Luca shoved me and David behind a heavy marble pillar.
“Get down!” Luca roared, firing back through the broken windows.
“What is happening?!” David screamed, covering his head.
“Lorenzo Romano might be in jail, but his cartel is still active!” Luca yelled over the gunfire. “And they clearly followed you here!”
“They didn’t follow me!” David yelled back. “They brought me!”
Luca stopped firing.
He turned to David, his eyes lethal.
“What did you just say?”
David was trembling, staring at the floor.
“Vanessa didn’t just blackmail me four years ago,” David confessed, his voice shaking. “She sold my debt to the Romanos. They’ve kept me in a compound in Mexico. Faking my death was their idea.”
“Why would they keep an accountant alive for four years?” I demanded, grabbing his collar.
David looked up at me with terrified eyes.
“Because I wasn’t just doing accounting for Vanessa’s family,” he whispered. “I knew where the Romano syndicate hid their offshore accounts. I’ve been managing their money to keep you alive.”
My blood ran cold.
David hadn’t come back to rescue us.
He had led the cartel right to our front door.
“They told me if I came here and took the boy, they would let me live,” David cried.
“You came to steal my son?” I screamed, slapping him across the face.
David sobbed. “They said it was the only way!”
“He’s not your son anymore,” Luca growled, pressing his gun to David’s temple. “You’re a coward.”
“Luca, no!” I yelled.
Before Luca could pull the trigger, the front door was kicked off its hinges.
Five men in tactical gear poured into the foyer.
They weren’t police.
They wore the Romano crest on their vests.
Luca flipped a heavy oak table, providing us cover.
“Teresa!” Luca yelled into the house. “Take the boy to the panic room! Now!”
“Got him!” Teresa yelled from the stairs, grabbing Leo and disappearing into the wall panel.
The lead Romano thug stepped forward.
“Give us the accountant and the boy, Moretti!” the man shouted. “And we let you and the woman live.”
Luca looked at me.
His eyes were calm. Resolute.
“Do you trust me?” he whispered.
“With my life,” I said.
Luca reached into his pocket and pulled out a small remote.
“Then cover your ears.”
May you like
He pressed the button.
TITLE: THE ASHES OF OUR ENEMIES BUILD OUR CASTLE
