Chapter 6 - THE COAT
Luca didn’t speak.
His knuckles turned white around the cheap plastic of the burner phone.
“I asked you a question, Vanessa,” the disguised voice repeated.
“This isn’t Vanessa,” Luca said.
His voice was terrifyingly calm.
Cold as the marble floor of the train station.
There was a sharp intake of breath on the other end of the line.
Then, a click.
The line went dead.
Luca slowly lowered the phone.
He looked at the pink knitted coat resting in the open briefcase.
“She’s being blackmailed,” I whispered, putting the pieces together. “Vanessa isn’t planning a coup against you. She edited those audio files to frame you so she could extort money from your own syndicate. To pay the ransom.”
Luca closed his eyes for a second.
“She didn’t trust me.”
“Would you have believed her?” I asked softly. “If she came to you five years later and said the baby she claimed was dead was actually alive, and she needed two million dollars?”
Luca didn’t answer.
Because we both knew the truth.
He wouldn’t have.
He packed the medical files and the pink coat back into the briefcase and slammed it shut.
“We need to find Daniel.”
“You think Daniel is the blackmailer?”
“His name was on the ticket.”
We drove back to the mansion in absolute silence.
When we pulled through the massive iron gates, it was past 1:00 AM.
The house was completely dark, except for one light.
The light in the guest house.
Where I had left Leo.
My heart leaped into my throat.
“Luca,” I gasped.
He slammed on the brakes before the car even fully stopped, throwing the door open.
We sprinted across the lawn.
The front door of the guest house was wide open.
The two guards Luca had left were unconscious on the grass.
“Leo!” I screamed, tearing into the house.
I ran into the bedroom.
The bed was empty.
The blankets were thrown on the floor.
“Leo! Leo!”
Tears blurred my vision. I dropped to my knees, looking under the bed.
Nothing.
Luca grabbed my shoulders, pulling me up.
“Caroline, breathe. Look.”
He pointed to the kitchen counter.
There was a gold bracelet resting on the granite.
I recognized it instantly.
It belonged to Vanessa.
I grabbed it.
It was heavy, encrusted with diamonds.
“She took him,” I sobbed. “She found out we left, and she took my son.”
“No,” Luca said, stepping closer to the counter.
He pointed to the floor.
There were scuff marks. A struggle.
“Vanessa didn’t take him.”
He knelt down and picked up something small from the rug.
It was a black security earpiece.
The kind Daniel wore.
Suddenly, my phone buzzed in my pocket.
It was a text from an unknown number.
Bring the briefcase to the old warehouse on 4th Street. Come alone, Luca. Or the boy and the girl both disappear.
I stared at the screen.
“They have Leo. And they have Mia.”
Luca took the phone from my hand.
He looked at the message, then up at me.
His eyes were completely different now.
The businessman was gone.
The Mafia Boss was back.
“Get in the car, Caroline.”
May you like
“The text said you have to go alone.”
“You’re a mother,” Luca said, his voice hard as steel. “And I am an uncle. Nobody tells us how we fight for our blood.”
