Chapter 5 - THE TRAITOR'S BARGAIN
I clamped my hand over my mouth to stifle a scream.
Vanessa wasn't hiding from Luca. She hadn't run to escape. She had run straight to the rival syndicate.
"You promised me the three million, Viktor," Vanessa sneered, keeping the gun leveled at my mother’s temple. "I delivered the thief. I delivered the bait for Luca. Pay me."
Answer One: The Russians didn't figure out my mother was the thief on their own. Vanessa had connected the dots from Antonio's old ledgers and sold my mother out to buy her way into the Romanov cartel.
Viktor Romanov chuckled, leaning heavily on his silver cane. "Patience, my dear Vanessa. You were right about the old seamstress. But the money is gone. Antonio spent it years ago to crush my family. The only currency I care about tonight is Luca Moretti’s blood."
My mother looked up, her eyes bruised but fierce. "He won't come," she lied, her voice raspy. "He doesn't care about me."
"He will come," Viktor smiled coldly. "Because I left his father’s pocket watch on your kitchen table. A son cannot ignore a challenge to his father's ghost."
Luca was hiding behind a stack of wooden crates, thirty feet away from them. I watched him raise his gun, aligning the sights on Viktor’s chest. But he didn't have a clear shot at Vanessa, who was using my mother as a human shield.
"Put the gun down, Vanessa," Luca’s voice boomed through the warehouse, echoing off the high metal ceiling.
Vanessa jumped, spinning around. Viktor’s men instantly raised their assault rifles, pointing them into the shadows.
"Luca!" Vanessa shrieked, backing up slightly, her gun still aimed at my mother. "Come out! Or I swear I’ll shoot her!"
Luca stepped out from behind the crates, his weapon lowered but ready. He looked utterly fearless, staring down half a dozen armed men.
"Let her go, Viktor," Luca commanded, his voice dangerous and steady. "This is between you and me. The women have nothing to do with it."
"She stole from me!" Viktor roared, hitting his cane against the concrete. "She humiliated my cartel! I will watch her die, and then I will watch you die."
Open Two: How can Luca possibly save my mother when he is outnumbered six to one?
Luca took a slow step forward. "You want my blood, Viktor? Fine. But you know the Commission’s rules. You kill a civilian who is under syndicate protection, and the New York families will wipe you off the map by tomorrow morning."
Viktor hesitated. The mafia code was strict. Killing a boss was business; killing a civilian was a liability.
"She is not a civilian," Vanessa argued desperately, realizing Viktor was wavering. "She’s a thief! Shoot her, Viktor!"
Vanessa’s finger tightened on the trigger.
I didn't think. I couldn't watch my mother die while the men argued over mafia politics.
I stepped out of the shadows, raised the heavy metal flashlight, and hurled it with all my strength directly at the floodlight illuminating the center of the room.
The flashlight smashed into the halogen bulb. The glass shattered violently, plunging the center of the warehouse into pitch darkness.
"Now, Luca!" I screamed.
Gunfire erupted.
Muzzle flashes strobed through the dark warehouse. I heard men shouting in Russian. I dropped to the floor, crawling blindly toward where my mother’s chair had been.
"Mom!" I yelled over the deafening noise.
A hand grabbed my arm in the dark. I panicked, thrashing wildly, until a familiar, gentle voice spoke.
"Claire, it's me."
It was my mother. She had thrown herself onto the concrete when the light went out, her hands still bound behind her back.
I scrambled to her, using the shards of glass on the floor to saw through the thick zip-ties on her wrists. "I've got you, Mom. I've got you."
"You shouldn't be here, Claire," she wept, hugging me fiercely the moment her hands were free.
The gunfire stopped.
The heavy silence was more terrifying than the noise.
Someone flicked on a backup emergency light.
Luca stood in the center of the room. Four of Viktor’s men were on the ground, groaning or unconscious. Luca had disarmed them in the dark with terrifying efficiency.
But Viktor wasn't on the ground.
He was standing near the back exit, bleeding from a graze on his shoulder. And he was holding Vanessa by the throat, using her as a shield, a gun pressed to her head.
Reversal: Viktor didn't protect his new ally. The moment things went wrong, he used Vanessa as collateral.
"You win the battle, Luca," Viktor spat, backing toward the door. "But the war isn't over. I’ll be back for the old woman."
"Let Vanessa go," Luca said, his gun aimed steadily at Viktor’s head.
"She’s trash," Viktor sneered. "She sold you out for a promise of money. Why do you care?"
Luca didn't flinch. "Because she was under my protection. And the Morettis don't break their promises."
Before Luca could fire, Viktor shoved Vanessa violently forward. She stumbled into Luca, knocking his aim wide. Viktor didn't hesitate. He shot blindly, turned, and vanished through the metal door into the rain.
Luca caught Vanessa before she hit the ground.
But as he caught her, he gasped, stumbling backward.
Vanessa looked down in horror.
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Viktor’s blind shot hadn't missed. The bullet had struck Luca directly in the chest.
TITLE: The Silk Bandage
