Chapter 6 - THE POCKET WATCH THAT STOPPED TICKING
The coatroom froze.
Javier didn't pull the trigger. His eyes locked onto the heavy gold pocket watch in Marcus’s trembling hand.
“Put that down, Marcus,” Javier warned, his voice losing its arrogant edge.
Luca stared at his cousin.
“What is that?” Luca demanded.
Marcus laughed. It was a manic, broken sound.
“It’s an insurance policy, Luca,” Marcus panted, holding the watch high. “When I bypassed the security grid using Grace’s map, I didn't just let Javier’s men inside. I placed three pounds of C4 on the main gas line in the basement.”
My stomach plummeted. Three pounds of C4 on a gas line would vaporize half the estate.
“This watch is the detonator,” Marcus sneered. He popped the gold lid open.
Inside, the elegant clock face had been replaced by a digital countdown timer.
It read: 04:30.
“If my thumb comes off this pressure trigger,” Marcus said, his thumb pressed tightly against the winding crown, “or if that timer hits zero, we all burn.”
Javier cursed in Spanish, slowly lowering his gun from Celia’s head.
“You double-crossing rat,” Javier hissed.
“I told you I wanted out!” Marcus yelled at the mercenary. “You get me a helicopter on the roof, or nobody leaves!”
Celia scrambled away from Javier, collapsing onto the floor near Luca’s boots, sobbing uncontrollably.
“Marcus, please!” Celia wept, reaching toward her son. “You’re going to kill us all!”
“You told me they only wanted the vault, Mother!” Marcus screamed back at her. “You lied to me! They told me they were going to torture me until I brought them Luca’s head! This is the only way I survive!”
I gripped the heavy shotgun in my hands, my knuckles turning white.
Four minutes left.
“Marcus,” Luca said. His voice was incredibly soft. Almost hypnotic. “If you blow the house, you die too.”
“I’m dead anyway!” Marcus cried.
“No,” Luca said, taking a slow, deliberate step toward his cousin. “If you hand me the watch, I will give you a car and two million dollars from the safe. You can disappear. For real this time.”
Marcus hesitated. His eyes darted between Luca, Javier, and the timer on the watch.
03:45.
“You’re lying,” Marcus whispered. “You’ll kill me the second I let go.”
“I give you my word as Don of the Chicago syndicate,” Luca promised, holding his hands out, showing he was unarmed. “I will not kill you.”
Javier realized he was losing control of the situation.
“Don't listen to him, Marcus!” Javier shouted, raising his submachine gun again. “If you give him that watch, I’ll shoot you myself!”
Before Javier could aim, I didn't think. I just reacted.
I raised the heavy shotgun Luca had handed me. I didn't aim at Javier. I aimed at the massive, crystal chandelier hanging in the hallway directly above his head.
I pulled the trigger.
The recoil slammed into my shoulder, knocking me backward into the coats.
The deafening blast ripped through the air.
The chandelier detached from the ceiling, hundreds of pounds of glass and brass crashing down onto Javier.
He screamed, buried under the wreckage, his gun clattering across the marble floor.
In the chaos, Marcus panicked.
He looked at the crushed mercenary, then at Luca charging toward him.
Marcus dropped the gold pocket watch onto the hardwood floor.
“No!” Anna screamed, covering Grace’s body with her own.
I squeezed my eyes shut, bracing for the explosion.
But the explosion never came.
Instead, there was a sickening CRUNCH.
I opened my eyes.
Luca had dove across the room, catching the heavy gold watch before it hit the floor, keeping his thumb jammed firmly against the pressure trigger.
But Marcus hadn't waited to see if it worked.
Marcus had bolted out the door, leaping over the ruined chandelier, sprinting toward the grand staircase in the dark.
Luca knelt on the floor, breathing heavily, holding the detonator.
He looked at the digital timer.
02:15.
“Emma,” Luca said, his voice entirely calm.
“Yes, sir?” I gasped, struggling to my feet.
“I need you to take my thumb’s place on this trigger.”
My blood turned to ice.
“Sir, I… I can't. I don't know how—”
“You can,” Luca interrupted, locking his dark eyes onto mine. “You are the bravest person in this house tonight. Slide your thumb over mine. Do not let the pressure lift.”
I crawled over to him. My hands were shaking so violently I could barely see the watch.
I placed my thumb over his. The metal was cold.
“Press down,” Luca instructed.
I pressed. Hard.
Slowly, carefully, Luca slid his thumb out from underneath mine.
The timer didn't speed up. The bomb didn't detonate.
I was holding the lives of everyone in the house in my trembling hand.
“Good girl,” Luca whispered.
He stood up, retrieving his sidearm from his holster.
“What are you going to do?” Celia cried from the floor, staring at her nephew in terror.
“I promised Marcus I wouldn't kill him if he handed me the watch,” Luca said coldly.
He cocked the pistol.
“He dropped it.”
Luca turned and walked out of the coatroom, disappearing into the flashing red lights of the hallway, hunting his cousin.
I knelt on the floor, staring at the digital timer.
01:30.
Anna crawled over to me, wrapping her arms around my shoulders. “Hold on, Emma. Just hold on.”
“I can't stop the timer,” I whispered, tears of absolute panic spilling over my cheeks. “Even if I hold the pressure, the timer is still going.”
01:15.
Suddenly, the shattered remains of the chandelier shifted.
A hand reached out from the glass.
Javier, bleeding and broken, dragged himself out of the rubble.
He saw me kneeling on the floor, holding the detonator.
He smiled a bloody, jagged smile.
He reached into his tactical vest.
And pulled out a remote detonator of his own.
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“If the rat won't blow the house,” Javier coughed, spitting blood. “I will.”
TITLE: THE BRACELET TORN FROM THE IMPOSTER
