Chapter 6 - THE GOLD BRACELET
The sound of twisting metal and shattering glass was deafening.
The heavy SUV was violently thrown across the intersection, spinning twice before slamming into a concrete streetlight pillar. The airbags deployed with a concussive force that knocked the breath from Hannah’s lungs.
For a terrifying minute, the world was completely silent, filled only with the smell of burning rubber and deployed airbag powder.
"Hannah."
A rough, desperate voice broke through the ringing in her ears.
Hannah blinked, trying to clear her blurred vision. Her head throbbed, but nothing felt broken.
Alessandro was leaning over the center console. His forehead was bleeding profusely, a deep gash near his hairline staining his white shirt crimson. But his hands were gentle as he frantically checked her arms, her neck, her face.
"I'm okay," she choked out, coughing on the smoke. "I'm okay."
"We have to move," Alessandro grunted, kicking his jammed door open with a massive surge of adrenaline.
He pulled himself out, staggered for a second, then ran to her side of the car. He wrenched the crushed passenger door open, unbuckled her seatbelt, and lifted her out into the freezing night air.
He didn't stop. He threw his arm around her waist and dragged her away from the wreckage, pushing through a rusted chain-link fence into an abandoned, overgrown industrial lot.
They collapsed behind a stack of rotting concrete pipes, hidden from the street.
Sirens began to wail in the distance.
Hannah was hyperventilating, clutching Alessandro’s ruined suit jacket around her. "Was that... was that your uncle? Did he try to kill us?"
Alessandro ripped his ruined shirt sleeve off and pressed the fabric tightly against his bleeding forehead. His eyes were cold and calculating in the dark.
"No," Alessandro said. "Carmine needs me alive to sign the Rossi contract. Dead, I am useless to him."
"Then who?"
"The Rossi family," Alessandro deduced, his voice tight with pain. "They don't want a marriage. They want to absorb my territory by force. They knew exactly where we were. Someone fed them our route."
Hannah’s blood ran cold. "Brian."
"He was desperate," Alessandro nodded grimly. "He couldn't sell you to Carmine, so he sold my location to the Rossi hitmen to clear his debts."
Before Hannah could fully process the absolute betrayal of her former boyfriend, the crunch of gravel echoed nearby.
Someone had followed them into the lot.
Alessandro instantly pushed Hannah behind him, pulling a compact black pistol from his ankle holster. He aimed it directly at the gap between the concrete pipes.
A shadow moved in the darkness.
"Put the gun down, Alessandro."
The voice was deep, weathered, and chillingly familiar.
A man stepped out of the shadows. He was older, his face lined with deep wrinkles, wearing a worn leather jacket. He wasn't holding a gun.
Instead, he was holding something small and glittering in his hand.
It was the sapphire bracelet. It must have fallen off Hannah’s wrist during the crash.
"That belongs to my daughter," the man said softly, tossing the priceless heirloom onto the dirt between them.
Hannah stopped breathing. She slowly stepped out from behind Alessandro, her legs feeling like water.
She stared at the man’s face. The strong jaw. The familiar green eyes. It was older, harder, and deeply scarred, but it was the exact same face she had just seen in the hidden photograph at the bakery.
"Dad?" Hannah whispered, the word feeling foreign on her tongue.
Her father looked at her, his eyes shining with unshed tears. "I'm sorry, Hannah. I'm so sorry I left."
"You... you're supposed to be dead," she choked out, her entire reality fracturing for the second time that day. "Mom said you died in a car crash twenty years ago!"
"It was the only way to keep you all alive," her father said, stepping closer.
Alessandro didn't lower his weapon. "Stay where you are, Marcus."
"You know him?" Hannah looked at Alessandro, betrayed.
"I knew him," Alessandro corrected. "Marcus Cooper was my father’s best enforcer. Until he stole a million dollars from the syndicate and vanished."
"I didn't steal it," Marcus snapped, his eyes flashing with sudden anger as he glared at Alessandro. "Your uncle stole it. Carmine embezzled the money to pay off his gambling debts, and he framed me for it. He ordered a hit on my family. I faked my death and ran so he would leave my wife and daughters alone."
"Then why are you here now?" Alessandro demanded.
Marcus reached into his heavy leather jacket.
Alessandro raised his gun, his finger tightening on the trigger.
But Marcus didn't pull out a weapon. He pulled out a small, glittering gold charm bracelet.
May you like
Hannah recognized it instantly. It was the bracelet Claire never took off.
"Because Carmine knows I'm back," Marcus said, his voice breaking. "And to make sure I don't interfere with his plans tonight, he took Claire."
