Chapter 7 - THE BRACELET
The vault exploded into chaos.
Luca didn’t hesitate. He grabbed the heavy metal lockbox drawer from the table and hurled it directly at the nearest gunman’s face.
Metal crunched against bone. The man went down screaming.
“Run!” Luca roared, grabbing my hand.
We dove behind a massive row of safety deposit boxes just as bullets sparked against the marble walls, tearing chunks of stone into the air.
My deaf ear throbbed agonizingly with the concussive echoes.
“Emma, stay down!” Luca shouted over the gunfire.
He drew his own weapon, leaning out to fire two precise, lethal shots. Another guard dropped.
But Vanessa’s head of security was advancing, laying down suppressing fire.
We were trapped. There was no back exit to the vault.
I looked down. Sofia’s silver bracelet lay on the floor near my knee. I picked it up, clutching it so tightly the metal cut into my palm.
“They’re going to kill my mother,” I cried, the reality of our impending death settling over me.
“No, they aren’t,” Luca said, his eyes burning with a fierce, protective fire. He reloaded his magazine. “When I move, you grab the ledger and run up the stairs. Don’t look back.”
“I won’t leave you!”
“You have to save your mother, Emma!”
Before I could argue, the vault lights suddenly plunged into absolute darkness.
The emergency alarm began to blare.
Someone had cut the main power.
In the pitch black, confusion reigned. The guards stopped shooting, shouting to each other in the dark.
Luca grabbed my waist, pulling me tight against his side. “Move. Now.”
We crept through the dark, guided only by the faint red glow of the emergency exit sign at the top of the stairs. We bypassed the disoriented guards, slipping past them with inches to spare.
We burst through the side door and into the rainy alley.
Waiting in a running, unmarked black SUV was Luca’s most trusted captain, a man named Dante.
“Get in!” Dante yelled. “I saw them breach the bank. I cut the grid.”
We threw ourselves into the backseat. Dante floored the accelerator, tearing out of the alley just as the guards burst through the doors behind us.
I sat back against the leather seat, gasping for air, clutching the heavy ledger to my chest.
Luca looked at me, his chest heaving. He reached out and gently brushed a wet strand of hair from my bruised face.
“Are you hurt?” he asked softly.
“I’m okay,” I whispered.
He looked at Dante in the rearview mirror. “Pier 4. Hit it with everything we have.”
Dante nodded. “I’ve already called the men, Boss. We have twenty cars en route. We’ll tear the pier down to the water.”
The stakes had reached their peak. This wasn’t a negotiation anymore. It was a war.
I looked down at the silver bracelet in my hand.
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Sofia’s child was waiting in the dark. My mother was waiting.
And Vanessa Bellini was about to find out exactly what happens when you corner a desperate daughter and a mafia boss who has nothing left to lose.
