Chapter 10 - The Train Yard And The Ledger
The night air was freezing as I slipped out the side entrance of the Moretti estate. Daniel’s men were entirely focused on the front gates and the perimeter walls, allowing me to quietly unlock the service gate near the kitchens and slip into the dark residential street.
I ran for three blocks until I hit the main avenue and flagged down a passing taxi.
“The old train yard on 5th Street,” I told the driver, handing him a crumpled twenty-dollar bill from my purse.
The ride was a blur of streetlights and rising panic. I was walking into a trap, but I couldn't let Jason turn the ledger over to the FBI. If Luca went to prison, the Bellinis would take over the city, and Vanessa would ensure I was hunted down and destroyed. Luca was our only shield.
The taxi dropped me off at the edge of the abandoned train yard. Rusty, graffiti-covered boxcars sat on overgrown tracks, casting long, eerie shadows in the pale moonlight. The silence was absolute, broken only by the crunch of gravel under my cheap boots.
“Jason?” I called out, my voice trembling slightly.
“Over here.”
A figure stepped out from behind a rusted shipping container. Jason.
He looked older, weathered by six years of hiding. He was wearing a dark jacket, his face pale and tight with anxiety. He didn't look like the man I had fallen in love with in high school. He looked like a rat backed into a corner.
“You came,” Jason said, looking past me to ensure I wasn't followed.
“I came,” I said coldly, keeping my distance. “Where is the ledger?”
“Do you have the check?” he countered, holding his hand out.
I reached into my pocket and pulled out the folded piece of paper Luca had written for me. I held it up, but I didn't hand it over.
“The ledger first, Jason,” I demanded.
Jason scoffed, running a hand through his thinning hair. “You’ve grown a spine, Rachel. Living with mobsters will do that to you.”
“Living with a coward taught me everything I needed to know,” I spat back. “You abandoned your daughter. You let your mother infiltrate my life and try to frame me for a felony. You don't care about us. You just want the money.”
Jason flinched, the accusation hitting its mark, but his desperation quickly swallowed any guilt.
“I did what I had to do to survive!” he shouted, pointing a finger at me. “You think Moretti is a saint? He’s using you! He wants the ledger so he can crush Carlo Bellini and rule the city. Once he has it, he’ll discard you just like Vanessa!”
“He didn't discard Vanessa, he fired her for being a monster,” I fired back. “And he protected Sophie tonight. That’s more than you ever did. Give me the book.”
Jason stared at me, his eyes wide and manic. He slowly reached inside his dark jacket and pulled out a thick, leather-bound notebook. The pages were yellowed and worn.
The Bellini Ledger.
“Give me the check,” Jason demanded again.
I took a step forward, holding the check out. Jason reached for it, offering the ledger with his other hand.
But as our fingers brushed the paper, the sudden, deafening sound of a car engine roared to life behind us.
Headlights blazed through the darkness, blinding me. A sleek, black Lincoln Town Car tore around the edge of the train yard, tires screaming on the gravel, and slammed to a halt twenty feet away.
It wasn't Luca’s men.
It was the Bellinis.
The doors flew open. Three men in tactical gear stepped out, weapons raised. And stepping out of the passenger side, wearing a heavy wool coat over his expensive suit, was Carlo Bellini himself.
“Well, well,” Carlo sneered, his silver hair catching the moonlight. “A family reunion. How touching.”
Jason panicked. He dropped the check on the gravel and scrambled backward, clutching the ledger to his chest. “Carlo, wait! I’ll give it to you! I was just trying to get the money to leave the country!”
“You’ve been a thorn in my side for six years, Jason,” Carlo said smoothly, walking forward while his men kept their guns trained on us. “You stole my property. You cost me millions in bribes to keep my accounts secure. Did you really think you could negotiate?”
Carlo raised his hand. One of his men stepped forward, leveling a shotgun directly at Jason’s chest.
“No!” I screamed, diving toward Jason, not to save him, but to grab the ledger.
The deafening boom of the shotgun echoed through the train yard.
Jason jerked backward, the impact throwing him against the rusted side of the boxcar. He slid to the gravel, gasping for air, the thick leather ledger slipping from his fingers and landing in the dirt.
“Jason!” I cried, falling to my knees beside him. He was bleeding heavily from his shoulder, but he was still alive.
Carlo chuckled, walking slowly toward us. He bent down and picked up the leather ledger, brushing the dirt off the cover with a satisfied smile.
“Finally,” Carlo breathed. “With this back in my possession, and Moretti’s accounts frozen, the city is mine.”
He looked down at me, kneeling in the gravel beside my bleeding ex-boyfriend.
“And as a bonus, I get to tie up a loose end,” Carlo smiled cruelly. He turned to his men. “Kill them both. Leave the bodies in the boxcar.”
The men raised their weapons. I closed my eyes, a single tear slipping down my cheek as I thought of Sophie waking up in the mansion without me.
CRACK.
The sound of a sniper rifle echoed through the night.
The man aiming the shotgun at me instantly dropped to the gravel, a clean hole through his shoulder.
Carlo spun around in panic. “Where did that come from?!”
Suddenly, the rusted doors of the boxcar behind me violently slammed open.
Luca Moretti stepped out of the shadows, flanked by Daniel and three heavily armed guards. They hadn't driven into the train yard. They had been waiting inside the boxcars the entire time.
“Drop the weapons, Carlo!” Luca roared, aiming his handgun squarely at Bellini’s head. “It’s over!”
Carlo’s remaining men froze, realizing they were surrounded by snipers hidden in the dark and Luca’s elite team stepping out of the train cars. Slowly, they lowered their guns to the gravel.
“Moretti,” Carlo snarled, clutching the ledger tightly. “You set me up.”
“I didn't set you up,” Luca said, stepping out of the boxcar and walking toward me. He didn't look at Carlo. He looked at me, his eyes filled with a terrifying mix of anger and absolute relief. “Rachel did.”
I looked up at Luca, my hands shaking.
“I told you I was loyal,” I whispered.
Luca reached down, grabbed my hand, and pulled me to my feet, tucking me securely behind his broad shoulders.
He turned back to Carlo Bellini.
“You wanted to use Jason as bait to lure me out,” Luca said coldly. “But you forgot one thing, Carlo. I control the phone lines in my estate.”
Carlo’s eyes widened in realization.
“When Jason called Rachel’s cell phone tonight, my security team intercepted the call,” Luca explained, walking closer to the mafia boss. “I heard everything. I heard him demand the fifty thousand dollars. I heard him name this train yard. I deployed my team here twenty minutes before Rachel even left the house.”
“And you let her walk into a war zone?!” Carlo scoffed, trying to regain his composure.
“I let her walk in because I knew my snipers had every inch of this yard covered,” Luca said, his voice dropping to a lethal whisper. “And because I needed you to step out of your armored car and hold that ledger in your hands.”
The wail of police sirens suddenly shattered the quiet night. Not one or two. Dozens of them. Red and blue lights began flashing at the edges of the train yard, blocking every exit.
Carlo looked around in sheer panic. “You called the cops?! You’re a boss! You’re breaking omertà!”
“I’m not a boss anymore,” Luca said, a fierce, triumphant smile spreading across his face. “I told you, Carlo. I’m going legitimate. And the first step in cleaning my name was handing the FBI the man who committed federal wire fraud to freeze my accounts.”
FBI agents poured into the train yard, weapons drawn, swarming Carlo and his men.
Carlo Bellini was slammed against the side of his own Lincoln, handcuffs clicking sharply around his wrists. The ledger—the proof of his decades of corruption—was seized from his hands by a federal agent.
Luca didn't watch Carlo get arrested. He turned his back on the crumbling empire and looked down at me.
“You shouldn't have left the house, Rachel,” Luca said, his voice thick with emotion as he gently cupped my face.
“I had to protect you,” I whispered, leaning into his touch.
Luca smiled, a breathtaking expression of pure love. He leaned down and pressed his lips to mine, kissing me fiercely in the middle of the chaos, promising me that the war was finally over.
But as we pulled apart, a weak, raspy voice called out from the gravel.
“Rachel…”
I looked down. Jason was clutching his bleeding shoulder, looking up at us with wide, desperate eyes.
“Rachel, please,” Jason coughed. “You have to help me. If the FBI takes me, they’ll put me in prison for stealing the ledger.”
Luca looked at the man who had abandoned my daughter. His expression hardened into stone.
“Take him to the hospital,” Luca ordered the approaching paramedics. “And then hand him over to the feds.”
“No!” Jason screamed, reaching out for me. “Rachel, we’re a family! Tell him to let me go!”
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I looked at the father of my child. I felt no anger. No sadness. Only absolute pity.
“You’re not my family, Jason,” I said softly, grabbing Luca’s hand and holding it tight. “You never were.”
