Chapter 4 - THE COAT OF THE ASSASSIN
The damp air of the storage unit suddenly felt freezing.
I stared at the silver lighter in Luca’s hand, the name Marco glaring back at me. Marco. The man who had gently helped me carry groceries into the mansion yesterday. The man currently standing at the front gates, supposedly protecting us.
“Marco killed him,” Gabriel whimpered, shrinking behind my legs.
“Marco pulled the trigger,” Luca corrected, his voice dangerously quiet. “But Vanessa paid for the bullet. And Daniel knew he was going to die. That’s why he hid the coat and the ledger here instead of bringing them to me. He didn't know who else in the house was compromised.”
Luca dropped the lighter back into the box and picked up the heavy black ledger. He flipped it open.
The pages were filled with Daniel’s meticulous handwriting. Dates, account numbers, and offshore wire transfers.
“My God,” Luca breathed, reading the numbers. “Vanessa didn't just steal money. She was funneling millions out of our legitimate businesses and routing them to a shadow syndicate. The Vipers.”
I shivered. Even as a maid, I had heard whispers of the Vipers. They were a ruthless, ghost-like organization that dealt in human trafficking and blackmail. They weren't a mafia family; they were parasites who fed on powerful men’s secrets.
“She was paying off a gambling debt to them,” Luca realized, his eyes scanning the final page. “A twenty-million-dollar debt. And when Daniel caught her, she promised Marco the head of security position if he silenced Daniel permanently.”
Luca slammed the ledger shut. The sound echoed like a gunshot in the concrete basement.
“We have to go back to the mansion,” Luca said, his eyes burning with a terrifying resolve. “I am going to tear Marco apart with my bare hands.”
“No!” I stepped in front of him, my protective instinct overriding my fear of the mafia boss. “Luca, think! Marco has thirty armed men at that house who answer directly to him. If we go back there now, he will slaughter us in the driveway.”
Luca’s jaw tightened. He knew I was right.
“Hannah is right, Uncle Luca,” Gabriel sniffled. “Dad always said Marco was a snake. He said snakes bite when you trap them.”
Luca looked down at the nine-year-old boy. The absolute rage in his eyes softened for a fraction of a second. He knelt down.
“You’re a smart kid, Gabriel. Just like your dad.” Luca stood up and pulled his cell phone from his pocket. “We go to the safe house on 4th Avenue. It’s off the books. Only Daniel and I knew about it.”
We hurried back up the stairs and into the armored SUV. Luca drove erratically, constantly checking the rearview mirror to ensure we weren't being followed.
We reached a nondescript brownstone apartment in a quiet residential neighborhood. Luca unlocked the heavy steel door, ushering us inside.
The apartment was sparse but secure. No windows in the main living area, heavily reinforced doors, and a weapons cache hidden behind a bookshelf.
“Sit on the couch, Gabriel,” Luca instructed gently. “Hannah, lock the deadbolts.”
I slid the heavy metal bolts into place. My hands were shaking so badly I could barely grip the metal. I had scrubbed floors for three years to pay for my sister’s college tuition. I was not built for a mob war.
Luca walked over to the kitchen island and opened the ledger again under the pendant lights.
“I need to freeze the accounts Daniel listed here,” Luca muttered, pulling out a secure laptop from a hidden drawer. “If I cut off the money Vanessa was sending to the Vipers, they will hunt her down themselves for failing to pay her debt.”
I walked over to the kitchen, pouring a glass of water and bringing it to Gabriel. The boy took it with shaking hands.
“Is Marco going to find us?” Gabriel asked softly.
“No,” I promised him, smoothing his messy hair. “Luca is going to protect us. I promise.”
Suddenly, the encrypted landline phone on the kitchen wall began to ring.
The sound was jarring, echoing loudly in the quiet safe house.
Luca froze. His fingers stopped typing on the laptop.
He stared at the phone.
“Only Daniel and I knew this number,” Luca whispered.
The phone rang again.
I felt a cold sweat break out on the back of my neck.
Luca slowly walked over to the wall. He picked up the receiver and pressed it to his ear. He didn't say a word.
I watched his face. The color drained from his cheeks. His hand gripped the plastic receiver so tightly I thought it might shatter.
“You’re dead,” Luca whispered into the phone.
A tinny, distorted voice replied through the receiver. It was loud enough for me to hear in the quiet room.
“I’ve been dead to you for five years, nephew. But I assure you, I am very much alive.”
Luca’s eyes widened in sheer disbelief. “Uncle Silvio?”
Silvio Moretti. Luca’s uncle, who had supposedly died of a heart attack in a federal prison five years ago.
“Surprise, Luca,” Silvio chuckled darkly. “Vanessa was a wonderful pawn, wasn't she? So desperate to hide her gambling debts. It was almost too easy to convince her to siphon your money into my accounts.”
“You run the Vipers,” Luca realized, the horror setting in. “You faked your death to build a shadow syndicate.”
“And now I am taking back the family that rightfully belongs to me,” Silvio said smoothly. “I know you have Daniel’s ledger, Luca. I know you’re at the safe house on 4th Avenue.”
Luca’s head snapped up. “How do you know where we are?”
“Because Daniel wasn't the only one who kept secrets,” Silvio sneered. “Look out the peephole, nephew.”
Luca dropped the phone. He sprinted to the heavy steel front door and pressed his eye to the small glass peephole.
He cursed violently in Italian, stepping back from the door.
“Hannah, get Gabriel into the panic room. Now!” Luca roared, pulling a heavy assault rifle from the bookshelf cache.
“What’s out there?” I cried, grabbing Gabriel’s hand.
“Marco,” Luca snarled. “He didn't just kill Daniel. He works for Silvio. And he brought twenty men with him.”
Before I could move, a massive explosion rocked the front of the brownstone.
The heavy steel door buckled inward, smoke and dust filling the apartment. The deafening sound of automatic gunfire erupted from the hallway.
“Run!” Luca shouted, opening fire through the smoke to cover us.
I dragged Gabriel down the short hallway toward the reinforced panic room. The boy was screaming, clutching his baseball glove to his chest. Bullets shredded the drywall around us, showering us in white plaster dust.
We reached the heavy vault door of the panic room. I spun the wheel, shoved Gabriel inside, and turned back to look for Luca.
Through the thick smoke, I saw Luca take a bullet to the shoulder. He grunted in pain, falling to one knee behind the kitchen island, but kept firing.
“Luca!” I screamed.
He looked back at me, blood seeping through his white shirt.
“Lock the door, Hannah!” he yelled. “Do not open it for anyone but me!”
“I’m not leaving you!” I cried, stepping back into the hallway.
Suddenly, a massive hand grabbed my hair from behind.
I screamed in agony as I was violently yanked backward, away from the panic room.
The smoke cleared slightly.
Standing over me, holding a smoking pistol, was Marco.
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He didn't look at me. He looked directly at Gabriel, who was standing frozen inside the panic room.
“Give me the boy,” Marco growled. “And Silvio lets the maid live.”
