Chapter 5 - THE MEMORY CARD
“Get that card!” Victor roared, his cane slipping as he lunged forward.
The room exploded into chaos.
Bellini’s men drew their guns, but the pearls rolling across the smooth marble floor acted like ball bearings.
Two massive enforcers slipped and crashed into the dining table, shattering the twelve-thousand-dollar cake.
I didn’t think.
I dropped to my hands and knees in my maid’s uniform and scrambled toward the tiny white metallic bead.
“Emma, down!” Matteo shouted.
Gunfire deafened the room.
Luca’s men were firing back from the hallway.
Crystal chandeliers shattered, raining glass down on us.
I grabbed the memory card, my fingers closing tightly around it just as a heavy boot slammed onto my wrist.
It was Victor.
His eyes were wild, desperate.
“Give it to me, you little rat,” he hissed, pressing his weight down until my bones ground together.
I screamed in pain.
Suddenly, a blue blur slammed into Victor’s side.
It was Anna.
The twenty-five-year-old nurse tackled the aging mafia boss with the precision of a linebacker.
Victor fell hard, his cane clattering away.
“Leave her alone!” Anna yelled, pulling me up by my apron strings.
Matteo was suddenly there, grabbing both of us and pulling us behind the heavy oak bar.
Luca laid down covering fire, his face an absolute mask of lethal focus, until he slid behind the bar with us.
“Are you hit?” Luca demanded, checking his children first.
“We’re fine,” Matteo breathed.
Luca turned to me. His eyes dropped to my bruised, trembling hand.
I opened my palm.
The white memory card was safe.
Luca took it. “Thank you, Emma.”
“What is it?” Anna asked, terrified. “Why did Mom hide it in her necklace?”
“Because your mother was a forensic accountant before I married her,” Luca said grimly. “She didn’t just suspect Victor Bellini was stealing from the syndicate. She proved it. This card holds the offshore accounts. The proof of his treason against the Commission.”
If the Commission—the ruling body of the mafia—saw this card, Victor wouldn't just be killed. His entire bloodline would be erased.
“That’s why he had her killed,” Matteo realized, his voice breaking.
“And that’s why Vanessa spent six months trying to marry me,” Luca said, his jaw locked. “They couldn’t find the necklace. They thought it was somewhere in this house. She was tearing apart the estate looking for it.”
Suddenly, the gunfire stopped.
The sudden silence was more terrifying than the noise.
“Luca!” Victor called out. His voice was strained, breathless.
Luca peered slightly over the edge of the bar.
I saw it through the reflection of a broken mirror.
Victor Bellini was standing by the dining room doors.
He had a gun pointed directly at the head of Luca’s captured security chief.
But that wasn’t what made my stomach drop.
Standing next to Victor, holding a small canvas tote bag, was my mother.
“Mom?” I whispered, the word tearing out of my throat.
Victor smiled, pressing the barrel harder into the guard’s temple.
“I thought you might be stubborn, Luca. So I sent some men to pick up a little leverage.”
My mother looked terrified, her gray hair messy, wearing the same old cardigan she always wore to the grocery store.
“Emma,” she cried out.
“I’ll make a trade,” Victor called out, blood dripping from a cut on his forehead. “The memory card for the housekeeper’s mother. And as a bonus, I won’t make the call to pull the plug on her father.”
I looked at Luca.
He held the card that could destroy his greatest enemy. The man who murdered his wife.
May you like
He looked at the card.
Then, he reached into his pocket and pulled out a faded child’s drawing.
