Chapter 6 - THE MASTER LEDGER
Vanessa’s laughter was a wet, jagged sound.
Blood trickled down the side of her face from where the decanter had struck her, matting her perfect hair, but her eyes were bright. Feverish.
“Well,” Vanessa rasped, pulling uselessly against the heavy silk cords binding her to the chair. “The cat is finally out of the bag.”
Luca stood frozen, staring at the handwritten note in my hand.
Everything he had believed for six years had just been shattered.
“You’re a rat,” Luca whispered, the disgust in his voice thick enough to choke on. “You sold out my family. You killed my brother to cover your tracks. And you were going to marry me to get the master ledger.”
“I’m a survivor,” Vanessa spat, the elegant facade finally dropping completely. “Your family is a sinking ship, Luca! The Feds were closing in. They offered me immunity and a new life if I delivered the ledger. Marco found out. He was going to kill me.”
“Marco wouldn’t have killed you,” Luca roared, stepping toward her, his uninjured hand balling into a fist. “He would have dragged you to me!”
“And what would you have done?!” Vanessa screamed back. “You were blind! You thought I was just some social climber you could control! I played you, Luca. I played you for years!”
I pulled Leo behind me, shielding him from the venom in her voice.
“You’re done, Vanessa,” Luca said, his voice dropping back to that terrifying, lethal calm. “I’m turning you over to the families. When they find out you’re the leak… they won’t be as quick about it as I would.”
Vanessa smiled. A cruel, triumphant smile.
“You can’t touch me, Luca.”
“Watch me.”
“If I don’t check in with my handler by midnight tonight,” Vanessa said smoothly, “a dead-man’s switch activates. Every file I’ve collected on the Moretti family goes directly to the District Attorney. The extortion, the bribes, the offshore accounts. You’ll spend the rest of your life in federal prison.”
Luca’s jaw clenched.
He looked at the grandfather clock in the corner.
It was 11:15 P.M.
“Forty-five minutes,” Vanessa taunted. “Cut me loose. Give me the ledger. Let me walk out that door, and I’ll tell my handler the operation is still green. You buy yourself a few more months of freedom.”
She looked at me, then at Leo.
“And you get to keep your little maid and her bastard alive.”
Luca turned away from her.
He walked to the heavy oak desk. He opened the bottom drawer and pulled out a clean towel, pressing it hard against his bleeding shoulder.
He looked at me.
“Nora. Take Leo. Go to the garage. Get in the black armored SUV.”
“I’m not leaving you here,” I said instantly.
“You have to,” Luca said, his voice softer now, meant only for me. “If the Feds raid this house tonight, child protective services will take him. They’ll put him in the system. You’ll never see him again.”
That hit me harder than the knife.
“What are you going to do?” I whispered.
Luca looked at Vanessa.
“I’m going to give her exactly what she wants.”
Vanessa’s smile widened. “Smart boy.”
Luca walked over to the massive oil painting of his father hanging above the fireplace.
He reached behind the heavy frame and pulled a hidden lever.
A section of the mahogany bookshelf slid open with a soft hiss, revealing a massive, steel-reinforced wall safe.
Luca punched in a twelve-digit code.
The heavy door clicked open.
He reached inside and pulled out a thick, leather-bound book.
The master ledger.
The holy grail of the Chicago underworld.
Every name. Every bribe. Every drop of blood the Moretti family had spilled or paid for in thirty years.
Vanessa’s eyes locked onto it like a starving animal.
“Bring it here,” she demanded.
Luca walked over to her. He held the heavy book in his good hand.
“You think this saves you?” Luca asked quietly.
“It buys my freedom,” Vanessa sneered. “Now cut me loose.”
Luca reached into his pocket. He pulled out a sleek, black folding knife.
He flipped the blade open.
He stepped behind Vanessa’s chair and sliced through the silk cords binding her wrists.
Vanessa immediately snatched the ledger from his hand, clutching it to her chest as she stood up. She rubbed her bruised wrists, her eyes blazing with triumph.
“You always were weak when it mattered, Luca,” she mocked, backing toward the study doors. “Marco was the real man in the family. It’s a shame I had to drown him.”
Luca didn’t react to the bait.
He just stood by the fire, holding the bloody towel to his shoulder.
“Go to the garage, Nora,” Luca said again, not looking at me.
I grabbed Leo’s hand. I didn’t want to leave Luca, but I had to protect my son.
We hurried toward the doors.
As Vanessa opened them to leave, she paused.
She looked down at the heavy leather ledger in her hands.
She frowned.
She ran her hand over the embossed cover.
Then, she flipped the book open.
She stared at the first page.
Then the second.
Then she started frantically tearing through the pages, her face twisting in horror.
I stopped in the doorway, pulling Leo close.
Vanessa looked up, her eyes wide, wild, and terrified.
“It’s empty,” Vanessa whispered.
Every single page of the thick, leather-bound book was completely blank.
Luca smiled. A genuine, terrifying smile.
“Did you really think I’d keep the master ledger in a wall safe behind a painting?” Luca asked. “I’m a mafia boss, Vanessa. Not a villain in a comic book.”
Vanessa dropped the blank book to the floor.
“Where is it?” she screamed. “Where is the real ledger?!”
Luca looked at me.
“It’s safe,” Luca said softly. “It’s been safe for six years.”
He looked back at Vanessa.
“Marco didn’t just find out you were a rat, Vanessa. Before he confronted you, he took the real ledger. And he gave it to the only person in the world he trusted completely.”
Vanessa’s eyes darted wildly around the room.
Then, they landed on me.
Or rather, on the child holding my hand.
“No,” Vanessa breathed, stepping backward. “No, he couldn’t have.”
I looked down at Leo.
And then, I remembered the very first thing my sister Maya had handed me seven years ago, right before she went into hiding.
A heavy, locked safety deposit box key.
“Keep this safe, Nora,” Maya had cried. “It’s Leo’s inheritance. It’s Marco’s insurance.”
I had sewn that key into the lining of Maya’s red coat. The very coat that was sitting on my bed upstairs.
“Rocco,” Luca said, his voice echoing in the sudden silence.
May you like
Rocco stepped into the doorway, blocking Vanessa’s escape.
“Take her to the basement,” Luca ordered. “And cancel her phone plan. She’s going to miss her midnight check-in.”
