Chapter 8 - THE ROSARY
Panic exploded in my chest.
I grabbed Leo, pulling him tight against me.
Daniel immediately drew his weapon, moving to the window. He peered through the blinds.
“Three black SUVs down below,” Daniel confirmed, his voice pure ice. “They’ve blocked the exits.”
Luca didn’t panic.
He stood perfectly still, staring at the phone.
Then he reached into his pocket and pulled out the silver rosary we had found snagged inside the piano.
“Victor,” Luca said calmly into the phone. “Do you remember what you lost the night you murdered my father?”
Silence on the other end of the line.
“I found it, Victor,” Luca continued, his voice dropping to a lethal whisper. “My mother kept it. The silver rosary you dropped in the study. The one with your fingerprints baked into the metal, soaked in my father’s blood.”
My mother gasped.
“If your men take one step toward this building,” Luca said, “that rosary goes to the FBI director, who happens to be a very close, personal friend of mine. You’ll die in federal prison.”
A long, agonizing silence followed.
Victor Bellini was weighing his options.
“You have five seconds to tell them to leave,” Luca said, checking his watch. “Five. Four. Three…”
“Pull out,” Victor snarled off-speaker.
Daniel watched out the window.
“They’re moving,” Daniel said, lowering his gun. “The SUVs are backing out. They’re gone.”
I collapsed onto the couch, pulling Leo onto my lap, burying my face in his hair.
We were safe.
Luca hung up the phone. He looked at the silver rosary in his hand, then gently placed it on the table.
He walked over to me.
For the first time all evening, the hard, terrifying mafia boss softened.
He knelt down in front of me, bringing himself to eye level with Leo.
“You’re a very brave boy,” Luca told my son softly.
Leo blinked, then reached out and touched Luca’s expensive silk tie. “You broke the door,” Leo observed.
Luca smiled, a genuine, warm smile. “I did. But I’ll buy you a new one. A much better one.”
He looked up at me.
“It’s over, Emily. The Bellinis are finished. I’m turning the evidence over to the feds tonight.”
I touched my bruised throat. “What happens now?”
May you like
Luca stood up and looked at my mother, then at Daniel, and finally back to me.
“Now,” Luca said, “we go home.”
