Chapter 6 - THE ROSARY IN THE PILLOW
Luca didn't let me walk to the staff quarters alone.
He flanked me with two heavily armed guards as we crossed the manicured lawn toward the small building behind the main mansion.
The door to my apartment was hanging off its hinges.
Inside, my modest life had been entirely dismantled. The mattress was slashed, books were thrown across the floor, and my small kitchen table was smashed.
Answer one: Arthur Vance hadn't just come to the estate to rob the vault. He had brought an accomplice who used the evacuation as a diversion to search my apartment.
“They were looking for something,” Luca said, scanning the wreckage, his protective instincts in overdrive. “Something small enough to hide, valuable enough to risk breaking into the estate for.”
“I don't have anything valuable,” I whispered, picking up a shattered picture frame of my father. “I live paycheck to paycheck.”
“Arthur told Vanessa your father was a getaway driver who stole syndicate money,” Luca reminded me gently. “Arthur killed him for it. But maybe Arthur never found the money. Maybe he thought your father hid it and passed the secret to you.”
Open two: What did my father leave me? And who is the accomplice that searched my room?
I looked around the devastated apartment. Everything was destroyed.
Except for one thing.
Sitting perfectly intact on my ruined bedspread was my mother’s old sewing box.
I walked over to it. I opened the lid.
The threads and needles were gone. Instead, resting on the velvet lining, was a heavy, silver rosary.
It wasn't mine.
I picked it up. The silver was tarnished, and the crucifix was uniquely designed with a small black onyx stone in the center.
Luca saw it, and his jaw tightened so hard I heard his teeth grind.
“Don't touch that,” Luca said, taking the rosary from my hands with a handkerchief.
“What is it?” I asked, terrified by the sudden darkness in his eyes.
“It’s a calling card,” Luca said, his voice dropping an octave. “It belongs to the head of the Chicago syndicate council. Don Salvatore.”
My blood ran cold.
“Why would a syndicate boss break into my apartment?” I asked.
“Salvatore was the one who lost the money ten years ago,” Luca realized, the pieces finally clicking together. “Arthur didn't act alone tonight. Salvatore hired Arthur to infiltrate my house, blow the vault as a distraction, and search your apartment for the missing money.”
Luca looked at the rosary.
“Salvatore is telling me that he can reach into my home whenever he wants.”
Suddenly, the lights in the staff apartment flickered and died.
The emergency sirens on the main estate began wailing.
“Boss!” Daniel’s voice screamed over Luca’s radio. “We have multiple armed vehicles crashing the front gates! It’s Salvatore’s men! They’re swarming the property!”
The engagement party wasn't just a heist anymore. It was a full-scale mafia war.
“Get her to the panic room!” Luca roared at the two guards, shoving me toward them.
“No!” I grabbed Luca’s arm. “You said Salvatore wants the money my father stole! If I hide, they’ll tear this estate down with Mateo inside it!”
“I am not handing you over to a syndicate boss, Claire!” Luca shouted over the sirens.
“I don't want you to hand me over,” I said, my mind racing. “I want you to let me finish this.”
I ran to my closet and pulled out a heavy winter coat that the intruders had thrown on the floor. I dug my hand deep into the lining of the pocket, pulling out a small, child-like drawing I had kept for ten years.
It was a crayon drawing my father had given me the day before he died. I thought it was just a doodle.
“Look at this,” I shoved the drawing into Luca’s hands.
It was a drawing of a blue pickup truck. But drawn on the back of the truck were three distinct shapes: a crescent moon, a star, and a triangle.
“It’s not a doodle,” I breathed. “It’s a map.”
Luca stared at the shapes. “The Moon Tower. The Star Hotel. The Triangle Building. They’re old landmarks downtown.”
“My father hid the money,” I said, a fierce, protective anger burning in my chest. “I can lead Salvatore to it. We use the money to negotiate a truce.”
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Before Luca could argue, a massive explosion shook the ground. Salvatore’s men had breached the greenhouse doors.
TITLE: THE DEAL IN THE DARK
