Chapter 5 - The Vault Assassin
The man in the dark suit didn't run. He walked down the remaining steps with chilling, deliberate slowness. He had a thick neck, a broken nose, and eyes devoid of any humanity.
He stopped on the other side of the steel gate, staring at me through the bars. He raised the silenced pistol, pointing it directly at my chest.
"Vanessa said you might figure it out," the man rasped, his voice sounding like gravel crushed under a tire. "She said if I heard banging, I should quiet things down."
My heart hammered against my ribs like a trapped bird. I backed away from the gate until my spine hit the cold steel wall of the vault.
"You don't want to do this," I stammered, raising my hands. "If Luca finds out—"
"Luca is wiring the money right now," the man interrupted, a cruel smile pulling at his scarred lips. "And as soon as he does, the Bellini family is wiping the board clean. Starting with you."
He reached into his pocket and pulled out a keycard. He swiped it on the electronic reader beside the gate.
The heavy steel mechanism groaned, and the gate slowly began to slide open.
Panic surged through me, white-hot and blinding. I didn't have a weapon. I was trapped in a concrete box with an armed assassin.
I looked at the heavy metal deposit tray I had dropped on the table.
As the gate opened wide enough for a person to step through, the man raised his gun, aiming for my head.
I didn't think. I reacted purely on survival instinct.
I grabbed the metal tray with both hands and hurled it directly at his face with everything I had.
The heavy steel hit him squarely in the nose with a sickening crunch.
He staggered backward, crying out in pain, his finger pulling the trigger out of reflex. The silenced gun coughed—phut—and a bullet sparked against the wall inches from my ear, showering me in concrete dust.
Before he could recover, I lunged forward, ducking under his arm, and shoved him hard into the vault table. He crashed to the floor, the gun sliding across the smooth tile.
I didn't wait to see if he got up. I bolted up the spiral marble staircase, taking the steps two at a time, my lungs burning.
I burst into the main lobby of the bank. It was eerily quiet. The teller stations were empty. The security guard was nowhere in sight. The Bellinis had cleared the floor.
I sprinted toward the heavy glass revolving doors, ignoring the burning in my legs, and burst out onto the busy Chicago street.
The cold rain hit my face, shocking me back to reality. I melted into the crowd of umbrellas and hurried pedestrians, not looking back until I was three blocks away.
I ducked into a crowded coffee shop, my hands shaking so badly I could barely hold my phone. The signal returned instantly.
I dialed Luca’s private number.
It rang once. Twice.
"Hannah," Luca answered, his voice tight. "Do you have the box?"
"Don't wire the money!" I gasped, out of breath. "Luca, don't pay her!"
There was a tense silence on the other end. "I haven't. What did you find?"
"Vanessa lied," I said, leaning against the coffee shop wall, trying to lower my voice. "Teresa didn't order the hit. Vanessa's father did. And I have the microfilm proof."
"Where are you?" Luca's voice dropped an octave, turning instantly lethal.
"A coffee shop on State Street," I said. "They sent a guy with a gun into the vault to kill me, Luca. The Bellinis are trying to wipe the board."
"Stay exactly where you are," Luca commanded. "Go into the bathroom, lock the door, and do not come out until you hear my voice. I am five minutes away."
I rushed to the back of the cafe, slipped into the single-stall bathroom, locked the deadbolt, and sank to the floor, clutching my purse to my chest.
Inside the purse was the birth certificate, the broken crucifix, and the microfilm that could start a mafia war in Chicago.
True to his word, five minutes later, I heard a heavy knock on the door.
"Hannah. Open it."
I scrambled up and threw the deadbolt.
Luca stood in the narrow hallway, accompanied by two massive men in black coats who immediately flanked the entrance to the cafe. Luca looked terrifying—his usual composed demeanor replaced by a cold, calculating fury.
"Are you hurt?" he asked, his eyes scanning me for blood.
"No," I shook my head, my voice trembling. "I'm okay."
I reached into my purse and handed him the microfilm and the broken crucifix.
"The ledger is inside the cross," I explained quickly. "Marco Bellini killed Tessa. And... Luca, there's something else."
I hesitated, pulling out the birth certificate. I didn't know how to give him this. It was a document that would rewrite his entire existence.
"What is it?" he asked, noticing my hesitation.
"Vanessa told me the truth about the garden," I said softly, handing him the thick parchment. "Antonio didn't plant the yellow roses for your mother. He planted them for Tessa, the day you were born."
Luca frowned, looking down at the certificate. He read the lines. He read the mother's name.
Teresa Moretti.
I watched the color drain from his face as the realization hit him.
"Teresa is your biological mother, Luca," I whispered. "Antonio forced her to give you to Tessa to raise. She stayed in the house, watching another woman raise her son, just so she could be near you."
Luca stared at the paper. The fierce mafia boss vanished, leaving a heartbroken son standing in the hallway of a coffee shop.
"She let me believe..." he choked out, his voice cracking. "She let me believe she was just my stepmother. For thirty-six years. Why didn't she tell me?"
"Because she wanted to protect Antonio's memory for you," I said gently. "Even after everything he did to her, she didn't want you to hate your father."
Luca closed his eyes, his fist crumpling the edge of the birth certificate. When he opened them again, the sadness was gone, replaced by a rage so pure and concentrated it made the air feel thin.
"Call Daniel," Luca snapped to one of his guards. "Lock down the estate. Nobody gets near my mother."
He turned back to me. "I promised you fifty thousand dollars, Hannah. You've earned it. My men will take you to a safe house. You are done with this."
"No," I said, surprising myself.
Luca stopped, turning back to me. "Excuse me?"
"I'm not going to a safe house," I said, my voice hardening. "Vanessa threatened me. She sent a man to shoot me. She terrorized an old woman I care about. I am not running."
Luca stared at me for a long moment, assessing me.
"You're brave, Hannah," he said quietly. "But bravery gets people killed."
"Then keep me close," I countered. "Vanessa knows I escaped. If she realizes I have the microfilm, she won't go to Europe. She'll go after the one thing she knows you care about more than the money."
Luca's jaw tightened as he realized what I was saying.
May you like
Vanessa wouldn't run. She would go back to the mansion.
She would go after Teresa.
