Chapter 6 - THE CHOICE IN THE DARK
The damp basement air felt instantly suffocating.
My eighteen-year-old brother, Leo, stood frozen in the doorway, his hands zip-tied behind his back. His face was bruised, his clothes soaked from the rain, but his eyes found mine immediately.
“Hannah,” Leo choked out, his voice cracking with pure terror.
“Leo,” I cried, taking a step forward.
“Ah-ah,” Vanessa clicked her tongue, pressing the barrel of her silver pistol harder against the base of his skull. “One more step, maid, and I’ll paint this lovely concrete floor with his brains.”
Luca immediately stepped in front of me, shielding my body with his own. He raised his weapon, pointing it directly at Vanessa’s chest.
Four red laser sights instantly appeared on Luca’s suit jacket. Vanessa’s armed men had their assault rifles raised and steady.
“Lower the gun, Luca,” Vanessa said, her red silk evening gown practically glowing in the dim beam of the flashlight. She looked completely out of place in the grimy basement, yet entirely in control. “You’re outnumbered. And even you aren’t fast enough to shoot me before my finger twitches.”
Luca didn’t lower his weapon. His jaw was clenched so tight I thought his teeth might shatter.
“You’re a monster, Vanessa,” Luca said, his voice a low, lethal growl. “He’s your son. He’s your own blood.”
Vanessa’s smile vanished. A flash of genuine, unadulterated hatred crossed her face.
“He is a mistake,” she spat, the elegant façade finally cracking. “He is a filthy secret my father forced upon me when I was seventeen. A secret that would have cost me the Bellini inheritance and ruined my life. Your father was supposed to dispose of him. I paid him to do it.”
Tears spilled down my cheeks. My mother had raised Leo with so much love. She had read him bedtime stories, bandaged his scraped knees, and worked double shifts to send him to college. And this woman—this wealthy, beautiful, soulless woman—saw him as nothing but trash to be burned.
“But your father had a sudden attack of conscience,” Vanessa sneered. “He gave the bastard to a nurse. And he kept that ledger to blackmail me for the rest of his life. Every time I tried to consolidate power, every time I tried to take over the Chicago syndicate, your father threatened to expose the truth.”
She tightened her grip on the gun.
“So I waited,” she continued, her voice turning eerily calm. “I waited until the old man died. I seduced you. I infiltrated your home. I just needed the ledger to destroy the proof forever. Toss it over, Luca.”
Luca glanced at the black leather book in my hands.
“And if I give it to you?” Luca asked. “You’ll let them go?”
Vanessa laughed. A cold, hollow sound. “Of course not. I’m going to kill the boy, the maid, and you. Then I’ll go upstairs, retrieve your sweet mother from the SUV, and take her home. I’ll tell the Commission that a rival family ambushed us. I’ll be the grieving widow, and I’ll inherit the Moretti empire by next week.”
She nodded to the ledger.
“Now. Throw it.”
Luca slowly reached back, taking the heavy book from my trembling hands.
“Hannah,” Luca whispered, so softly only I could hear. “When I drop it, drop to the floor.”
I didn’t have time to process the command.
Luca tossed the heavy ledger into the center of the room.
Vanessa’s eyes flicked downward for a fraction of a second to watch it fall.
It was all the time Luca needed.
He didn’t shoot Vanessa. He shot the main electrical breaker box on the wall behind her.
Sparks showered the hallway as a deafening CRACK echoed through the basement. The single flickering lightbulb exploded.
We were plunged into absolute, pitch-black darkness.
“Get down!” Luca roared.
I threw myself onto the cold concrete. Gunfire erupted in the dark. The sound was deafening, echoing violently off the stone walls. Bullet casings clattered to the floor like metallic hail.
I heard men shouting, bodies hitting the ground, the terrifying flashes of muzzle fire illuminating the space in strobe-like bursts.
In one of those flashes, I saw Leo fall to his knees, his hands still tied behind his back.
I didn’t think. I just moved.
I scrambled across the dark floor, scraping my knees on the concrete, crawling frantically toward the doorway.
“Leo!” I screamed over the gunfire.
A hand grabbed my apron in the dark, pulling me hard against the wall.
“I’ve got him,” Luca’s voice grunted right beside my ear.
Another muzzle flash lit the hallway. Luca had pulled Leo behind a concrete pillar. Three of Vanessa’s men were dead on the floor. The fourth was scrambling backward toward the stairs.
And Vanessa was gone.
“She ran,” Leo choked out, hyperventilating. “She ran up the stairs.”
Luca didn’t hesitate. He pulled a folding knife from his pocket, slashed the zip-ties binding Leo’s wrists, and shoved the heavy ledger into my arms.
“Stay behind me,” Luca ordered.
We moved up the staircase, our hearts pounding in our throats. The basement door was wide open, rain blowing in from the street.
We rushed outside.
The street was empty. Vanessa’s men’s cars were gone.
But that wasn’t what made my blood run cold.
Luca’s black SUV, the one we had left parked at the curb, was sitting with its doors wide open. The engine was running. The rain was soaking the leather seats.
And the back seat was completely empty.
“Mom!” Luca screamed, running toward the vehicle.
He checked the floorboards, the trunk, the alleyway. Nothing.
Teresa Moretti was gone.
I ran to the car, my breath hitching as I looked down at the wet pavement beside the rear tire.
Lying in a puddle, glistening under the streetlamp, was the gold pocket watch.
I picked it up. The glass face was shattered.
And tucked inside the broken casing was a small, pristine white business card with a single address printed on it, written in elegant red ink.
Pier 44. Bring the ledger. Come alone. You have thirty minutes before I break her neck.
Luca stared at the card in my shaking hand. The formidable mafia boss looked like he was about to shatter into a million pieces. His mother, the woman who had protected him his entire life, was now in the hands of a psychopath.
“I have to go,” Luca said, his voice entirely devoid of emotion. He reached for the ledger in my arms.
But I stepped back, pulling the book against my chest.
“No,” I said, my voice trembling but firm.
Luca looked at me, stunned. “Hannah, give me the book. She has my mother.”
“And she has mine,” I replied, the tears finally stopping as a cold, terrifying resolve settled over me. “She told me on the phone that she had my family. She only brought Leo here. My mother is still missing.”
I looked at Leo, who nodded, his face pale with fear. “They separated us at the house, Hannah. Mom is still with Vanessa.”
I looked back at Luca.
“If you go alone, you’ll trade the ledger for Teresa, and Vanessa will execute my mother,” I said, stepping closer to him. “This isn’t just your family’s war anymore, Mr. Moretti. It’s mine.”
Luca stared at me in the rain, seeing the maid he had hired eleven months ago transform into something entirely different.
He didn’t argue. He didn’t pull rank.
He opened the passenger door of the SUV.
May you like
“Get in,” Luca said.
We were going to Pier 44. And we were going to end this.
