Chapter 5 - THE BROKEN WATCH
The heavy steel handgun glinted in the dim red emergency light.
Sadi didn’t scream. She didn’t beg. She simply stared at the woman she had taken four bullets for, realizing with a cold, hollow certainty that in this world, loyalty had a very short expiration date.
"Rosa," Sadi’s voice was remarkably steady, despite the fresh blood soaking her bandages. "If you kill me, Dominic will never forgive you."
Rosa’s hands trembled, but she kept the gun leveled at Sadi’s chest.
"Dominic is my son," Rosa said, her voice cracking. "I will not let him die in a fire to protect a waitress. He married you to save your life. But now, your life is costing him his."
Sadi’s hand slowly drifted toward her sweatpants pocket.
Her fingers brushed against the cheap, plastic watch. Her father’s broken watch. The only thing she had managed to grab before running.
"My father hid the ledger to keep me safe," Sadi said, stalling for time. "If you hand me over to Leo Moretti, he won’t spare Dominic. He’ll torture me until he realizes I don't know where the ledger is, and then he’ll detonate the house anyway."
"He swore on his family’s honor," Rosa insisted, though she sounded desperate, trying to convince herself.
"Mobsters don't have honor, Rosa," Sadi snapped. "They have leverage."
Sadi gripped the plastic watch in her pocket.
"You said my father was a getaway driver," Sadi continued, locking eyes with Rosa. "But he was a mechanic. He spent his entire life taking things apart and putting them back together. He didn't hide the ledger in a bank or a safe."
Rosa frowned, the gun lowering a fraction of an inch. "What are you talking about?"
Sadi pulled the broken plastic watch from her pocket.
"My dad gave me this watch the day before he died," Sadi said, holding it up. "He told me it was broken, but he made me swear never to throw it away. He said it was the only thing of value he had left to give me."
Rosa stared at the cheap plastic.
"You think the ledger is in the watch?" Rosa scoffed, her panic giving way to disbelief. "That’s impossible. A ledger is a book."
"It’s not a book," Sadi realized, the truth suddenly clicking into place. "It was twelve years ago. They had thumb drives. Micro SD cards."
Sadi didn't wait for Rosa’s permission.
She slammed the plastic watch against the steel edge of the cot.
The cheap plastic shattered.
Rosa gasped, raising the gun again.
Sadi ignored her, sifting through the broken plastic pieces and tiny gears scattered on the blanket.
There, hidden beneath the dial, was a small, tightly folded piece of paper. Not a micro SD card.
Sadi unfolded it.
It was a baggage claim ticket from Union Station, dated twelve years ago.
"He didn't hide the ledger in the watch," Sadi breathed, staring at the faded numbers. "He hid the key to a locker."
Rosa lowered the gun completely.
The secure phone on the wall rang again.
Rosa jumped, staring at it as if it were a venomous snake.
Sadi stood up, wincing against the pain, and walked over to the phone. She picked up the receiver.
"Time's up, Rosa," a smooth, chilling voice said on the other end. Leo Moretti.
"This isn't Rosa," Sadi said, her voice dropping into a cold, flat tone she didn't know she possessed.
A pause on the line.
"Ah," Leo chuckled softly. "The heroic waitress. I must admit, I underestimated you."
"I have the claim ticket, Leo," Sadi said, cutting straight to the point. "I know exactly where the ledger is."
Silence hung heavy on the line.
"If that’s true," Leo finally said, "then you know you are a dead woman."
"If you detonate this house," Sadi countered, "you destroy Dominic, and me, and the claim ticket burns with us. You’ll never find the ledger. And when your own people find out you lost the only record of their dirty money, they’ll kill you themselves."
Leo didn't laugh this time.
"What do you want, Sadi?"
"I want Dominic and Rosa out of this house, unharmed. I want a car waiting at the back gate. And I want you to pull your men back."
"And in exchange?"
"I’ll meet you at Union Station. I’ll hand over the ledger. And you let me walk away."
Leo paused. "A bold play for a girl who pours coffee for a living."
"I don't pour coffee anymore," Sadi said. "I’m a Russo."
She hung up the phone.
Rosa stared at her, awe and terror battling in her gray eyes.
"You can't go," Rosa whispered. "He will kill you the second you hand it over."
"I know," Sadi said, turning to face her mother-in-law. "But it buys Dominic time."
Before Rosa could argue, the heavy steel door of the panic room suddenly began to hiss.
The emergency lock was disengaging.
Someone was overriding the system from the outside.
Sadi pushed Rosa behind her, grabbing the heavy handgun Rosa had dropped on the cot. She leveled it at the door.
The steel door swung open.
Standing in the doorway, covered in soot, his white button-down shirt stained with blood, was Dominic.
He held a massive combat shotgun in his right hand.
His eyes scanned the room, finding Sadi aiming a gun directly at his chest.
May you like
Dominic didn't raise his weapon. He slowly lowered it, his chest heaving.
"I told you," Dominic said, his voice a low, terrifying rumble that echoed in the stone cellar. "You are not dying today."
