Chapter 6 - THE MUSIC BOX
The words hung in the damp air of the tomb, more chilling than the cold stone around us.
“My sister,” Luca repeated, his voice dangerously soft.
Mia.
Luca’s younger sister was only sixteen. She was the one untouched, innocent thing in the Moretti family—kept entirely sheltered in a private boarding school in Switzerland. She had only flown into Chicago two days ago for the engagement party.
“How did she get past the gate, Daniel?” Luca’s voice was a low, terrifying rumble that promised violence.
“Vanessa told the guards you had ordered her to take Mia to a secure hotel downtown after the incident at the party,” Daniel explained, sounding sick with failure. “She used your override code, Boss. She knew the protocol.”
“Track the town car.”
“We did. The GPS was disabled ten blocks from the estate. They vanished.”
Luca hung up the phone. He didn't throw it. He didn't scream. The grief that had broken him moments ago was instantly incinerated by a cold, calculating rage.
He stood up, grabbing the heavy ledgers from his mother’s casket and shoving them into a canvas duffel bag he found in the emergency kit of the SUV.
“We’re leaving,” Luca ordered, tossing the bag over his shoulder.
I scrambled to my feet, following him out of the mausoleum into the pouring rain.
“Mr. Moretti, why would Vanessa take Mia?” I asked, sliding into the passenger seat. “If she knows you’re onto her, she should be running for her life.”
Luca slammed the SUV into gear, tearing out of the cemetery.
“Because Vanessa is smart,” Luca said grimly, his knuckles white on the steering wheel. “She knows these ledgers exist. Her father, Don Bellini, knows my father kept proof of the hit on my mother. They’ve been hunting for them for twenty years.”
He merged onto the highway, pushing the heavy vehicle past ninety miles an hour.
“Vanessa didn't just want to marry me for the money. She wanted access to my father’s private files to find the ledgers and destroy them before I ever saw them. Now that she knows Salvatore is alive—and likely told me everything—she needs leverage.”
“Mia,” I whispered, my heart breaking for the young girl I had served breakfast to just yesterday morning. She had been so excited to be a bridesmaid.
“She’s going to trade Mia for the ledgers,” Luca confirmed.
My phone buzzed again.
This time, the caller ID was blocked.
Luca glanced at the screen, then at me. “Answer it. Put it on speaker.”
I swiped the screen. “Hello?”
“Hannah, darling,” Vanessa’s voice purred from the speaker, sounding entirely composed and dripping with venom. “Put my fiancé on the line.”
“I’m listening,” Luca said, his voice remarkably calm.
“I suppose you’ve had a busy night, Luca,” Vanessa laughed lightly. “Visiting old friends in burning apartments. Digging up family history. I hope you found what you were looking for.”
“Where is my sister, Vanessa?”
“She’s right here,” Vanessa said cheerfully. “She’s a bit tied up at the moment, but she’s perfectly safe. For now.”
I heard a muffled sob in the background. It was Mia.
Luca’s jaw clenched so tight I thought his teeth would crack. “Name your price.”
“Straight to business. I always loved that about you,” Vanessa mused. “The ledgers, Luca. All of them. Bring them to the old Bellini slaughterhouse in the Meatpacking District. You have one hour. Come alone. If I see a single security detail, or if you call the police, I’ll send Mia back to you in pieces.”
The line went dead.
Luca stared straight ahead, the rain lashing against the windshield.
“The slaughterhouse,” Luca murmured. “It’s a fortress. Her father will have fifty armed men waiting inside.”
“You can’t go alone,” I said, panic rising in my throat. “It’s a suicide mission. They’ll take the ledgers and kill you both.”
“I have to go,” Luca said simply. “She’s my sister.”
He looked at me, his dark eyes intense. “But I’m not taking you. I’m dropping you at the safe house on the North Side. You’ve done enough tonight, Hannah. You’re out of this.”
“No,” I said firmly.
Luca frowned. “Excuse me?”
“I’m not going to a safe house,” I insisted, surprising myself with the fierce determination in my voice. “You need a distraction. If you walk through the front door, they’ll gun you down before you even make a trade.”
“I am not letting a housekeeper walk into a mafia stronghold!” Luca yelled, the stress finally cracking his calm exterior.
“I’m the one who found the watch!” I yelled back. “I’m the one who pulled you out of the fire! Stop treating me like a liability, Luca!”
The silence in the car was sudden and heavy. I had just yelled at the boss of the Chicago syndicate. I waited for him to explode.
Instead, Luca stared at me, a slow, dangerous smile touching his lips.
“You’re terrifying when you’re angry, Hannah,” he said softly.
“I’m serious,” I said, crossing my arms. “I have an idea. But you have to trust me.”
Thirty minutes later, we pulled into a dark alley two blocks away from the massive, looming brick structure of the Bellini slaughterhouse. The smell of old rust and decay hung heavy in the air.
Luca turned off the headlights. He reached into the backseat and unzipped the canvas duffel bag containing the ledgers.
He didn't pull out a book. He pulled out a small, ornate wooden music box.
“What is that?” I asked.
“It belonged to my mother,” Luca explained quietly, winding the small key on the side. A fragile, haunting melody began to play. “My father kept it in the casket with the ledgers. It’s the only thing of hers I have left.”
He carefully placed the music box back into the duffel bag and zipped it shut.
He turned to me, handing me a small, heavy black pistol.
“The safety is off,” Luca instructed, his eyes burning into mine. “Keep it in your pocket. Do not pull it out unless you are going to pull the trigger. Do you understand?”
I nodded, my hands shaking as I slipped the cold metal into my apron pocket.
“You go to the service entrance in the back,” Luca said, laying out the plan. “You tell the guards Vanessa hired you to bring the photographer’s equipment. Act terrified. Act like the stupid, clumsy maid she thinks you are. They’ll laugh at you, and they’ll bring you to her to confirm.”
“And while they’re distracted by me?” I asked.
“I take out the snipers on the roof,” Luca said grimly. “And I come in from above.”
He reached out and gently gripped the back of my neck, pulling me slightly closer. His thumb brushed against my cheek, warm and steady.
“If things go wrong, Hannah... you run,” Luca whispered, his voice thick with a sudden, desperate emotion. “Don't wait for me. You run, and you don't look back.”
“I’ll see you inside,” I promised, my voice trembling.
I stepped out of the SUV into the freezing rain, gripping the handle of the heavy canvas duffel bag.
I walked down the dark alley toward the towering slaughterhouse, my heart pounding a frantic rhythm against my ribs.
I reached the rusted metal door of the service entrance. Two massive men in dark suits were smoking cigarettes beneath the awning, automatic rifles slung casually over their shoulders.
I took a deep breath, channeled every ounce of fear I was genuinely feeling, and knocked on the metal door.
The guards turned, raising their weapons.
“Please!” I cried, holding up the duffel bag, making my voice shake. “Miss Bellini sent me! I have the equipment from the party! Please don't shoot!”
The guards looked at me in my ruined maid’s uniform, soaked in rain and covered in soot.
One of them laughed cruelly.
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“Well, look what the cat dragged in,” the guard sneered, grabbing my arm roughly. “Let’s go see the boss, sweetheart.”
He shoved me through the metal doors, leading me directly into the belly of the beast.
