Chapter 4 - THE GHOST IN THE CELLAR
The pitch-black wine cellar felt like a tomb.
The sound of Teresa Moretti's voice echoing in the darkness paralyzed everyone in the room.
I held my breath, pressing myself flat against the cold stone floor beneath the wine rack, my heart hammering so loudly I was terrified Thomas would hear it.
"Teresa?" Thomas breathed, genuine shock bleeding into his voice for the first time. He spun around in the dark, his dress shoes crunching on the broken glass. "That's impossible. I locked the doors. I watched the car go under."
"You locked the doors of a car my husband bought for me," Teresa’s voice floated through the dark, calm and utterly terrifying. "A car equipped with an emergency trunk release."
I realized what had happened. When Thomas drove the car into the river and jumped out, Teresa hadn't panicked. She hadn't tried to break the windows. The sharp, resilient seventy-two-year-old woman had climbed over the back seat, pulled the emergency release in the trunk, and escaped before the car sank into the freezing depths.
"Where are you, old woman?" Thomas growled, raising his gun, sweeping the darkness blindly.
"I'm right behind you," Teresa whispered.
Thomas whipped around and fired twice into the dark.
Thwip. Thwip.
The bullets shattered a row of expensive Cabernet, showering the floor with glass and dark liquid.
He had missed.
Vanessa was sobbing hysterically near the center of the room, clutching her bleeding shoulder. "Thomas, please, just let me go! I won't tell my father! I won't tell Luca!"
"Shut up, Vanessa," Thomas snapped, his composure completely shattering as he realized he was being hunted in the dark by an elderly woman.
I lay frozen under the rack. My ribs throbbed with a fiery, agonizing pain, making it difficult to draw a full breath. I needed to do something. I couldn't just wait for Thomas to find Teresa in the dark.
My hand brushed against a heavy, unbroken bottle of Merlot that had rolled near me when Vanessa crashed into the rack.
I wrapped my fingers around the neck of the bottle.
"You can't hide forever, Teresa," Thomas called out, his voice tight with adrenaline. "I have a flashlight on my phone. I'm going to turn it on, and I'm going to put a bullet between your eyes."
He reached into his ruined, wet suit jacket.
I couldn't let him turn on a light.
I gripped the bottle, gritted my teeth against the searing pain in my ribs, and hurled it as hard as I could toward the sound of his voice.
The heavy glass bottle flew through the darkness and collided violently with the wooden rack directly above Thomas's head.
The impact sounded like a bomb going off in the enclosed space. The entire rack shook, sending a dozen heavy bottles cascading down onto Thomas.
Thomas cried out as the heavy glass rained down on his head and shoulders, knocking him to his knees in the dark. He dropped his phone before he could turn on the light.
"Now, Emily!" Teresa’s voice commanded sharply from the shadows.
I didn't hesitate. I scrambled out from under the rack, crawling blindly across the floor covered in broken glass and spilled wine, desperate to reach the heavy oak door.
"You little bitch," Thomas snarled, recovering quickly. I heard the unmistakable sound of him raising his pistol in the dark.
Suddenly, a bright, blinding light cut through the pitch-black cellar.
The heavy oak door was violently kicked open from the outside.
Standing in the doorway, illuminated by the hallway lights, holding a massive tactical flashlight and a heavy assault rifle, was Luca Moretti.
His suit was soaking wet with river water. His face was pale, his eyes wild with absolute, terrifying panic. He had gone into the river. He had searched the car. He had thought his mother was dead.
The beam of Luca’s flashlight swept the room.
It hit Thomas, who was kneeling in the broken glass, aiming his suppressed pistol blindly into the dark.
It hit Vanessa, sobbing and bleeding on the floor.
And then, the beam found Teresa.
She was standing calmly near the back brick wall, dripping wet from the river, holding a heavy iron fire poker she had grabbed from the hallway upstairs.
Luca stopped breathing.
The terrifying mafia boss completely shattered at the sight of his mother alive. He dropped the flashlight onto the floor and let out a raw, agonizing sound of pure relief.
"Mom," Luca breathed, dropping to his knees in the doorway.
But Thomas wasn't finished.
Blinded by the flashlight, but realizing Luca was in the doorway, Thomas swung his pistol toward the light.
Before Thomas could pull the trigger, the entire wine cellar erupted in deafening gunfire.
Daniel and three massive security guards flooded into the room behind Luca, their assault rifles roaring in the enclosed space.
Thomas's body jerked violently as a dozen bullets ripped through him. He collapsed backward into the wine racks, dead before he hit the stone floor.
The gunfire stopped. The silence that followed was heavy and ringing.
Luca scrambled to his feet and ran across the cellar, throwing his arms around his mother, burying his face in her wet shoulder.
Teresa dropped the iron fire poker, wrapping her arms tightly around her son.
"I'm here, Luca. I'm here," Teresa whispered, kissing the side of his head. "I'm safe."
I stayed huddled on the floor, clutching my ribs, tears of overwhelming relief streaming down my face. We had survived.
Vanessa, however, was not relieved.
She was sitting in a pool of Thomas's blood and expensive red wine, staring at Luca and Teresa in absolute horror. Her own assassin was dead. Her father’s betrayal was exposed.
Luca slowly pulled back from his mother. He looked at Vanessa.
The relief vanished instantly, replaced by a cold, apocalyptic rage that made the temperature in the room plummet.
Luca walked over to Vanessa. He didn't yell. He didn't pull a weapon.
He just looked down at the woman he had almost married.
"You tried to kill my mother," Luca stated, his voice a lethal, quiet whisper.
"Luca, please!" Vanessa sobbed, crawling backward, her hand slipping in the blood and wine. "It was my father! He ordered Thomas to do it! I didn't know!"
"You told the caterer you were sending her away before dessert," Luca reminded her coldly. "You locked a woman in a shed. You lied to my face."
"I was trying to protect our wedding!" Vanessa screamed frantically.
"Daniel," Luca said, without looking away from her.
"Yes, Boss," Daniel answered grimly.
"Take her to the safe house," Luca ordered. "Put her in the basement. She doesn't get a phone. She doesn't get a lawyer. She waits there until I am ready for her."
"No! Luca, you can't!" Vanessa shrieked as two massive guards dragged her to her feet by her ruined red dress. "My father will burn this city to the ground! He’ll kill you all!"
"Let him try," Luca replied smoothly.
Vanessa was dragged out of the wine cellar, screaming obscenities until the heavy oak door closed behind her.
The cellar was quiet again.
Luca turned and walked over to me. He knelt down on the wet floor, completely ignoring his ruined, wet suit.
He looked at my face, pale and strained with pain. He looked at the way I was clutching my side.
"You distracted him," Luca realized, looking at the smashed wine bottles near Thomas's body. "You bought my mother time in the dark."
I nodded slowly, wincing. "I... I threw a bottle."
Luca reached out, his large, warm hand gently touching my shoulder. His dark eyes were filled with a profound, terrifying gratitude.
"You saved her life, Emily," Luca whispered.
"I was just trying to survive, sir," I managed to say, my teeth chattering as the adrenaline finally crashed, leaving me shivering and exhausted.
Luca frowned, noticing how badly I was trembling.
"We need to get you to the hospital," Luca said, standing up and offering me his hand. "Your ribs are broken."
"No hospital," I panicked, gripping my side. "Sir, I can't afford a hospital bill. Please, I just want to go home."
Luca stared at me, a mixture of disbelief and deep, agonizing sorrow flashing across his face.
"Emily," Luca said softly, his voice thick with emotion. "You just fought off a cartel assassin in a pitch-black basement to save my mother's life. You will never have to worry about a bill again."
He didn't wait for me to take his hand.
He leaned down, carefully sliding one arm under my knees and the other behind my back, lifting me effortlessly off the floor.
I gasped in pain, but the warmth of his chest was instantly comforting.
"Daniel," Luca ordered as he carried me out of the cellar. "Call my personal doctor. Have him meet us at the safe house. We aren't going to the hospital."
"Why not, Boss?" Daniel asked, following us up the stairs.
May you like
Luca looked down at me, his jaw clenching with lethal determination.
"Because the police will ask questions we can't answer yet," Luca stated coldly. "And because Don Bellini thinks my mother is dead. I want him to keep believing that until I am standing in his living room."
