Chapter 7 - The Leather Coat
"She has Maya," I whispered, dropping the phone into my lap. The screen glowed weakly in the dark interior of the town car.
Luca killed the engine. He didn't ask questions. He took the phone from my trembling hands and listened to the message himself. When it finished, his jaw was set like granite.
"Vanessa doesn't want the necklace for its pearls," Luca said, turning on the overhead light. "Show it to me."
I handed him the heavy heirloom. Luca pressed a hidden latch near the diamond clasp. With a tiny click, one of the large pearls popped open. It wasn't a solid gem. It was a hollow locket. Inside was a tiny, folded micro-SD card.
"My wife found out about Vanessa and Daniel's embezzlement before she died," Luca explained, his voice thick with suppressed rage. "She hid the proof in here. That's why Vanessa kept it. She couldn't destroy the drive without risking the files being sent to the cloud, but she needed to keep it close."
"We have to give it to her," I said, panic rising in my throat. "She'll kill my sister."
"We aren't giving her anything, and she isn't touching your sister," Luca said. He took off his ruined shirt and pulled a heavy black leather coat from the trunk, slipping it on. He looked like the mafia boss the papers always claimed he was. Cold, precise, and lethal.
"There's an abandoned theater on 9th Avenue," Luca said, pulling a sleek black handgun from a lockbox under the seat and checking the magazine. "Vanessa owns it through a shell company. It's where Daniel used to run their off-the-books ledgers. That's where they're holding her."
"I'm coming with you."
"No, you're staying here with Sophie."
"She's my sister, Luca! You don't know the layout of that theater. I used to work the ticket booth there in high school before it closed. I know the basement tunnels."
Luca studied my face. He saw the absolute refusal to back down. He gave a single, sharp nod.
We left Sophie locked safely in the penthouse suite with Luca's two most trusted guards.
The rain had stopped by the time we reached the alley behind the Orpheum Theater. The back alley smelled of wet garbage and rust.
I guided Luca down a narrow stairwell hidden behind a dumpster. We slipped through a rusted utility door into the pitch-black basement. Above us, heavy footsteps echoed on the stage floorboards.
We crept up the spiral iron staircase. Through the grate, I saw the grand stage illuminated by a single spotlight.
Vanessa was standing there in her red silk dress, looking at her watch. Beside her, a large bodyguard held a terrified Maya by the arm.
But Daniel wasn't standing with Vanessa.
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He was tied to a chair at the edge of the stage, his face bruised and bleeding.
"Time's up," Vanessa said, pulling a gun from her purse and pointing it at Daniel's head. "I told you, Danny. You shouldn't have panicked at the dinner."
