Chapter 5 - THE SILVER LETTER OPENER
The blade caught the firelight as it arced toward my face.
I didn’t have time to scream.
But I didn’t need to.
Before the sharp silver could reach me, Luca moved.
He didn’t draw his gun. It would have taken too long.
Instead, he threw his entire body between Vanessa and me.
The heavy silver letter opener plunged deep into Luca’s left shoulder.
He grunted, a harsh, guttural sound, as the momentum carried them both into the heavy bookshelves.
“Luca!” I screamed.
Vanessa ripped the blade out, her perfect red dress now splattered with dark blood, her face twisted into a mask of pure, ugly desperation.
She raised the blade again, aiming for his neck.
I didn’t think.
I didn’t care about my bruised arm. I didn’t care that she was a trained, ruthless killer and I was just a maid in a black uniform.
I grabbed the heavy crystal bourbon decanter from the desk.
I swung it with every ounce of strength I had left in my body.
The crystal connected with the side of Vanessa’s head with a sickening crack.
The decanter shattered.
Amber liquid and broken glass rained down onto the Persian rug.
Vanessa’s eyes rolled back.
She collapsed to the floor like a puppet with its strings cut, the bloody letter opener sliding from her hand.
Silence slammed back into the room, broken only by the crackle of the fireplace and Luca’s heavy breathing.
Luca leaned against the bookshelf, clutching his bleeding shoulder, his white shirt rapidly turning red.
I dropped to my knees beside him, my hands shaking violently as I pressed them over his to staunch the bleeding.
“You’re hurt,” I sobbed, tears blurring my vision. “Oh my god, Luca, you’re bleeding.”
He looked down at me.
Even in pain, his eyes were incredibly soft.
“You hit her with a decanter,” he breathed, a faint, breathless smile touching his lips.
“She was going to kill you!”
“She tried,” he corrected gently. He looked over my head, toward the two guards who were standing completely frozen near the door.
“Rocco,” Luca said, his voice suddenly snapping back to the terrifying authority of a boss.
Rocco jumped. “Yes, Boss.”
“If my nephew is not sitting on that leather sofa in exactly sixty seconds, I will bury you both under this house.”
Rocco and Dante didn’t hesitate. They bolted from the room.
I kept pressure on Luca’s wound. “We need to call an ambulance.”
“No hospitals,” Luca said, wincing as he straightened up. “We handle this in-house. The wound is superficial. It hit the muscle, not the artery.”
He looked down at Vanessa’s unconscious body.
“Tie her to the chair,” he ordered.
I grabbed the heavy silk drapery cords from the windows and bound Vanessa’s wrists and ankles to the heavy wooden chair. My hands were stained with Luca’s blood, but I tied the knots tight. So tight they would bruise. I didn’t care.
A minute later, hurried footsteps echoed in the hallway.
The study doors flew open.
Rocco walked in, carrying a small, sleepy boy wrapped in a plaid blanket.
“Mommy?”
“Leo!”
I scrambled up from the floor, my knees weak, and ran to them. I snatched Leo from Rocco’s arms, pulling my son against my chest, burying my face in his messy brown hair.
He smelled like sleep and the faint scent of vanilla soap.
He was alive. He was safe.
“I got scared, Mommy,” Leo mumbled into my neck, rubbing his eyes. “The big men said we were going camping, but it was dark.”
“I know, baby, I know,” I cried, rocking him back and forth. “Mommy’s here. It’s over.”
Leo blinked, looking over my shoulder.
He saw Luca, bleeding, leaning against the desk.
He saw Vanessa, tied to the chair, unconscious.
Leo didn’t scream. He just tightened his little arms around my neck.
“Mommy,” Leo whispered. “Is that the nice lady?”
I followed his gaze to Vanessa.
“She’s not a nice lady, Leo.”
“She gave me a present,” Leo said softly.
I pulled back, looking at my son’s face. “A present? When?”
“Today at school. She said if I kept it secret, she would take me to a castle.”
Leo reached into the pocket of his small pajama pants.
He pulled out an object and held it out to me.
I took it, my breath catching in my throat.
It was a heavy, solid gold pocket watch.
Intricately engraved. Worn smooth at the edges from years of use.
Luca saw it.
He pushed himself off the desk, ignoring his bleeding shoulder, and walked slowly toward us.
He stared at the gold watch in my trembling hand.
“Where did she get that?” Luca whispered.
I opened the clasp.
Inside the cover, an inscription was carved into the gold.
To Marco. Time is our only true wealth. - Dad.
It was Marco’s watch. The one he never took off. The one that had been missing from his body when the police pulled him from the river.
But that wasn’t what made Luca’s breath hitch.
Tucked inside the cover of the watch, folded into a tiny, perfect square, was a piece of paper.
I pulled it out and unfolded it.
It was a handwritten note.
Not in Vanessa’s handwriting.
In Marco’s.
I read the first line out loud, my voice shaking.
“If anything happens to me tonight, do not trust my brother.”
I stopped.
The room went dead silent.
I looked up at Luca.
His face had gone completely pale. The man who hadn’t flinched at a knife wound looked as if the floor had just dropped out from beneath him.
“Read the rest,” Luca demanded, his voice cracking.
I swallowed hard, pulling Leo closer to me as I read the words Marco had written the night he died.
“Luca thinks he can control Vanessa. He thinks he can tame her. But he doesn’t know what she is. She isn’t just manipulating him for the money.
Vanessa is an informant for the Feds.”
The words hung in the air like a death sentence.
“She has been feeding the FBI our accounts for three years,” the letter continued. “She orchestrated the raid on the docks. She set up Uncle Paulie. She is using Luca to get to the master ledger. If I don’t make it back tonight, it’s because she found out I know.”
I lowered the paper.
Vanessa hadn’t killed Marco out of jealousy.
She hadn’t killed him because of Maya.
She had killed him to protect her cover.
And suddenly, a low, chilling sound filled the study.
May you like
Vanessa was awake.
And she was laughing.
