Chapter 7 - The Hostage And The Ultimatum
“He went to Carlo?” The words tumbled from my lips, hollow and surreal. The luxurious safe house felt suddenly like a tomb.
“Daniel is angry, Sarah. He’s impulsive and he’s hurting,” Luca said softly, stepping toward me with his hands raised in a placating gesture. “He thinks Carlo Bellini can give him justice for Michael. He doesn't understand that Carlo is the man who created this entire war. He doesn't know Carlo will use him and then kill him the second he stops being useful.”
“Then we have to go get him!” I screamed, panic overriding my shock. I grabbed my purse from the sofa, my hands shaking so violently I dropped it onto the plush rug. “Take me to the compound, Luca! I’ll talk to him! I’ll make him understand!”
“You can't go anywhere near the Bellini compound,” Luca stated, his voice hardening into the authoritative tone of the Boss. He stepped forward and gripped my shoulders firmly. “If you walk into that territory, Carlo will take you hostage too. He will have both of the people I care about, and I will have no leverage to save either of you.”
I stared at him, tears blurring my vision. “He’s my son, Luca. He’s all I have left.”
“I know,” Luca whispered, his dark eyes fiercely intense. “And I swear on my life, I will bring him back to you. But I cannot do it if I am worried about keeping you alive. You stay here. Marco and the perimeter guards have strict orders not to let you leave.”
Before I could argue, Luca’s cell phone buzzed loudly in his pocket.
He let go of my shoulders and pulled the phone out. He looked at the caller ID, and his jaw tightened so hard I thought his teeth might shatter.
He answered it, putting it on speaker so I could hear.
“Carlo,” Luca said coldly.
A dry, amused chuckle echoed through the phone. “Good morning, Luca. It seems we had a busy night. I hear my daughter threw a bit of a tantrum at your restaurant.”
“Your daughter tried to have my mother murdered and my best friend killed, Carlo,” Luca replied, his voice deadly calm. “And she is currently sitting in a holding cell in my basement.”
“Ah, Vanessa,” Carlo sighed, sounding entirely unbothered. “She always was ambitious, but terribly sloppy. You can keep her, Luca. Consider her a peace offering for her foolishness.”
My stomach churned. The man was casually discarding his own daughter like a broken toy.
“I don't want your daughter,” Luca growled. “I want the boy.”
“Daniel?” Carlo asked, feigning surprise. “The boy came to me voluntarily, Luca. He knocked on my front gates thirty minutes ago, practically begging for an audience. He told me a very interesting story about how your late father murdered his father. He wants me to help him destroy you.”
I covered my mouth to muffle a sob, terrified that hearing my voice would give Carlo more leverage.
“Daniel is a grieving child who doesn't know what he’s doing,” Luca stated. “Let him go, Carlo. He has nothing to do with our business.”
“He has everything to do with our business,” Carlo corrected smoothly, the amusement vanishing from his voice, replaced by cold, ruthless calculation. “The boy told me about the micro-USB drive hidden in his father’s recipe book. He told me you have it, Luca.”
Luca went completely still.
Daniel had told him about the ledger. In his blind rage, my son had handed the Bellini family the exact weapon they needed to force Luca’s hand.
“If you want the boy back alive,” Carlo ordered, “you will bring that USB drive to the old meatpacking plant on Halsted Street at noon today. Come alone. Hand over the ledger, and I’ll hand over the boy.”
“If you touch one hair on his head, Carlo—”
“Noon, Luca,” Carlo interrupted sharply. “And if I see a single one of your snipers, or if you try to involve the police, I will mail Daniel back to his mother in pieces.”
The line went dead.
I collapsed onto the sofa, sobbing uncontrollably into my hands. Carlo was going to kill my son. He was going to execute an eighteen-year-old boy over a ledger full of dirty money.
Luca stared at the dead phone in his hand. He didn't look panicked. He looked like a man who had just crossed a line he could never uncross.
He walked over to the coffee table, picked up his suit jacket, and pulled out the small, black micro-USB drive that Daniel had found in the recipe book.
He held it up to the light, staring at it for a long, heavy moment.
“I’m going to make the trade,” Luca said quietly.
I looked up, wiping my eyes frantically. “You’re going to give him the ledger? But Vanessa said that ledger contains the routing numbers to all their offshore accounts! It’s millions of dollars! If you give it back, Carlo will be untouchable! He’ll destroy your family!”
“I don't care about the money, Sarah,” Luca said, looking directly into my eyes, his voice filled with a terrifying, absolute devotion. “I don't care about the territory. I don't care if Carlo Bellini burns my empire to the ground.”
He walked over to me, kneeling in front of the sofa so we were eye to eye. He reached out and gently cupped my tear-stained face in his large, warm hands.
“My father destroyed your family to protect his secrets,” Luca whispered, his voice cracking with immense guilt and sorrow. “I will gladly destroy my family’s empire to save yours.”
He pressed a soft, lingering kiss to my forehead, a promise sealed in absolute conviction.
Then, Luca stood up and walked out of the living room, leaving me alone in the silence.
I sat there for twenty minutes, trying to process the magnitude of what Luca was doing. He was sacrificing everything—his power, his wealth, his legacy—for me. For a maid. For the son of a man his father murdered.
But as I sat there, a horrific realization began to dawn on me.
Carlo Bellini was a monster who had just abandoned his own daughter to die. He had ordered hits on his own people. He was ruthless, paranoid, and fiercely protective of his power.
If Luca handed over the ledger, Carlo wouldn't just let them walk away. Carlo would never leave a loose end like Luca alive, especially knowing Luca had briefly possessed the financial secrets that could ruin him.
Carlo wasn't arranging a trade. He was arranging an execution. He was going to kill Luca, and he was going to kill Daniel to ensure there were no witnesses.
I jumped up from the sofa. I had to stop him. I had to warn Luca.
I ran to the heavy wooden doors of the living room and threw them open.
Standing in the hallway were two massive guards, their arms crossed, looking at me with apologetic but firm expressions.
“I’m sorry, Mrs. Collins,” the taller guard said gently. “The Boss gave strict orders. You are not to leave this room under any circumstances.”
“You don't understand!” I pleaded, pushing against his chest. “Carlo is going to kill him! It’s a trap! I have to tell Marco!”
“Marco is already mobilizing the perimeter teams, ma'am,” the guard replied, refusing to budge. “Please, go back inside.”
I backed into the living room, my heart hammering violently in my chest.
They weren't going to let me out. Luca was walking into a slaughterhouse at noon, and I was locked in a gilded cage.
I paced the massive room, my eyes scanning for any way out. The windows were bulletproof glass, locked from the outside. The only exit was guarded by two men the size of refrigerators.
I walked over to the marble fireplace, feeling completely hopeless.
But as I leaned my hands against the cool stone mantle, I noticed something resting on the corner of the hearth.
It was Luca’s suit jacket. He had left it behind when he knelt in front of me, walking out in just his dress shirt and holster.
I picked up the jacket. It smelled like expensive cologne and gunsmoke.
I reached into the inside pocket, hoping against hope he had forgotten his secondary cell phone so I could call Marco directly.
My fingers brushed against a small, hard object.
I pulled it out.
It wasn't a phone.
It was the small, black micro-USB drive.
The Bellini Ledger.
May you like
I stopped breathing. I stared at the tiny piece of plastic in my trembling palm.
If the ledger was in Luca’s jacket pocket... what did he take with him to trade Carlo for my son?
