Chapter 7 - THE WOMAN IN THE RED DRESS
The cold steel of the pistol barrel dug painfully into my forehead.
I stared up at Vanessa Bellini. She looked completely unhinged. The polished, arrogant mafia fiancée was gone, replaced by a desperate, cornered animal. Her manicured hands were shaking violently.
“How did you find us?” I whispered, keeping my voice low so I wouldn't wake Luca, who was still unconscious on the bloody surgical table beside me.
Vanessa let out a ragged, bitter laugh. “You think you’re so smart, don't you, Hannah? Scrubbing floors, playing the hero. I put a GPS tracker in Luca’s armored sedan three months ago. In case he ever tried to hide money from me.”
She pressed the gun harder against my skull.
“Silvio is going to kill me,” Vanessa sobbed, her voice cracking. “I failed to get the boy. I failed to get the ledger. The Vipers are hunting me right now. They told me if I don't bring them the microchip by sunrise, they will skin me alive.”
She reached out with her free hand and grabbed the collar of my shirt.
“Give me the chip, you pathetic little maid.”
“I don't have it,” I lied smoothly, my heart hammering against my ribs. The tiny micro-SD card was still tucked safely inside my bra.
“Liar!” Vanessa shrieked softly, glancing nervously at the door. “I know Daniel hid it in that stupid baseball glove! And the boy doesn't have the glove out there!”
My eyes widened. Gabriel.
“Where is he?” I demanded, a surge of adrenaline washing away my fear. “If you hurt him—”
“He’s locked in the doctor’s office,” Vanessa sneered. “And the good Dr. Aris is currently taking a nap on the floor with a bullet in his knee. Now give me the chip, or I swear to God I will walk out there and put a bullet in the orphan’s head.”
She meant it. She was terrified enough to kill a child just to save her own life.
I slowly raised my hands in surrender.
“Okay,” I breathed, acting defeated. “Okay, Vanessa. You win. I’ll give it to you.”
Vanessa’s shoulders dropped slightly in relief. Her grip on the pistol loosened for just a fraction of a second.
I didn't reach into my shirt.
I reached down to my apron pocket, grabbed the heavy, metal Zippo lighter Luca had given me earlier, and drove it upward with all my strength, directly into Vanessa’s jaw.
CRACK.
Vanessa screamed in agony, stumbling backward. The pistol fired, the suppressed gunshot thwipping through the air and shattering a glass cabinet of medicine bottles behind me.
I didn't give her time to recover. I lunged forward, tackling the woman in the red dress to the dirty linoleum floor.
We crashed hard, fighting tooth and nail. Vanessa clawed at my face, her sharp diamond rings tearing the skin on my cheek, but I didn't care. I grabbed her wrist, slamming her hand against the tile floor repeatedly until she screamed and dropped the gun.
I kicked the weapon under the surgical table.
Vanessa bucked wildly, trying to throw me off, but three years of hauling heavy laundry and scrubbing marble floors had made me stronger than the pampered mafia princess. I pinned her shoulders to the ground, my knee pressing hard into her chest.
“You think you can just walk in here and threaten my family?” I screamed, absolute fury taking over.
Vanessa stopped struggling. She looked up at me, her eyes wide with shock.
Not because of my strength. Because of my words.
My family.
Before Vanessa could speak, a massive, heavy hand clamped down on her throat from behind me.
I jumped back.
Luca was awake.
He had rolled off the surgical table. His shoulder was heavily bandaged, his face pale and sweating, but the look in his dark eyes was pure, unadulterated murder.
He hoisted Vanessa off the floor by her throat with his one good arm, slamming her violently against the brick wall of the clinic.
Vanessa choked, her feet dangling inches off the ground, clawing desperately at Luca’s massive hand.
“Luca... please...” she gasped, her face turning purple.
“You sold my best friend to a firing squad,” Luca snarled, his voice vibrating with lethal intent. “You sold a nine-year-old boy to a monster. And now you point a gun at the woman who saved my life?”
He squeezed harder. Vanessa’s eyes rolled back in her head.
“Luca, stop!” I yelled, grabbing his arm. “She’s not worth it! If you kill her, you become Silvio!”
Luca didn't let go. His chest heaved as he stared at the woman he was supposed to marry.
“She knows where Silvio is,” I pleaded. “She’s our only leverage. Don't kill her.”
Slowly, agonizingly, Luca released his grip.
Vanessa collapsed onto the floor, gasping hungrily for air, coughing and sobbing in a pathetic heap of ruined red silk.
Luca swayed on his feet, the exertion tearing at his fresh stitches. I quickly threw my arm around his waist, supporting his weight.
“Where is he?” Luca demanded, looking down at Vanessa.
Vanessa coughed, rubbing her bruised throat. “He’s... he’s at the old shipyard. Pier 44. That’s where the Vipers operate from.”
“Why does he want the chip so badly?” Luca asked coldly. “If he already has the money, why does he care if we have the account numbers?”
Vanessa let out a bitter, mocking laugh.
“You think the microchip is just bank accounts?” she sneered, looking up at us with bloodshot eyes. “Daniel didn't just find Silvio’s money, Luca. He found Silvio’s insurance policy.”
“What insurance policy?” I asked.
“Silvio doesn't work alone,” Vanessa whispered, a genuine terror returning to her voice. “The Vipers are backed by the Commission. The five mafia families of New York. Silvio has been paying them a tribute of fifty million dollars a year to keep them from wiping out the Moretti family.”
Luca’s face went completely pale. “The Commission?”
“Yes,” Vanessa smiled cruelly. “And on that microchip is the ledger proving that the head of the Commission, Don Carmine, is an FBI informant. Silvio was blackmailing the most powerful mafia boss in the country. If you expose that chip, the Commission will burn this entire city to the ground to bury the evidence. And Silvio will die with it.”
Luca and I exchanged a horrified look.
We didn't just hold the key to Silvio’s downfall. We held a nuclear bomb that could destroy the entire American mafia.
Suddenly, the heavy metal door of the back room creaked open.
Gabriel stood in the doorway, holding his baseball glove. He looked at Vanessa bleeding on the floor, then at Luca and me.
“Are the bad guys gone?” Gabriel asked in a small voice.
Luca stood up straight, ignoring the agonizing pain in his shoulder. He looked at the nine-year-old boy, then at me.
“Not yet, buddy,” Luca said softly. “But they’re about to be.”
May you like
He turned back to Vanessa, pulling his cell phone from his pocket.
“Call my uncle,” Luca commanded, tossing the phone onto Vanessa’s lap. “Tell him I want a meeting at Pier 44 in one hour. Tell him I’m bringing the chip. And tell him if he brings a single armed guard, I send the contents of this chip to every news outlet in the country.”
