Chapter 7 - THE FATHER AND THE DAUGHTER
The sight of Enzo pressing a gun to Vanessa’s head froze the blood in my veins.
“She’s your daughter!” Luca yelled, aiming his weapon down at the warehouse floor.
“She’s a traitor,” Enzo spat. “She knew about the bastard. She kept the lockbox. She defied my orders.”
Vanessa was weeping, her red engagement dress torn at the shoulder.
“Luca, don't listen to him,” she cried out. “Protect Leo!”
Leo, standing behind Luca in the office, stepped forward.
“No,” the boy said, his voice cracking. “I won't let her die for me.”
Answer one. Open two.
Enzo was willing to murder his own daughter to erase the stain of his wife’s infidelity.
But why the rush now? Why tonight?
“You’re dying, aren't you, Enzo?” Frank Marino rasped from the leather sofa.
Enzo’s eyes snapped up to the old foreman.
“What did you say?”
Frank pressed the bloody bandage against his side and smiled grimly.
“I recognized the tremor in your hand at the dinner. Liver failure. You’re trying to clean up your legacy before you drop dead, so your rivals don't know you were cuckolded by a forklift mechanic.”
Reversal.
Enzo wasn't acting out of strength. He was acting out of desperate, pathetic pride.
Enzo’s face twisted in rage.
“Kill them all,” Enzo ordered his men. “Leave the boy for me.”
His men raised their weapons.
But before a single shot could be fired, the warehouse plunged into absolute darkness.
The heavy floodlights shut off.
The hum of the generator died.
“What the hell?” Enzo shouted.
In the pitch black, I heard the heavy, mechanical roar of an engine coming to life.
It was the rusted forklift on the warehouse floor.
The headlights flared on, blinding Enzo and his men.
Behind the wheel was Marco, Luca’s head of security. He had slipped in through the back loading dock.
Marco didn't hesitate. He slammed the forklift into the side of Enzo’s lead sedan.
The impact was deafening. The car crushed inward, scattering Enzo’s men.
“Get down!” Luca ordered us.
Gunfire erupted. Muzzle flashes lit up the dark warehouse like strobe lights.
Luca kicked out the glass of the office window, returning fire with deadly precision.
I pulled Frank down to the floor, shielding him as bullets shattered the walls around us.
Leo stayed crouched beside me, terrified but remarkably calm.
“Emma,” Leo whispered, pulling something from his canvas bag. “If something happens to me… give this to Luca.”
He pressed a heavy, brass locket into my hand.
“What is this?” I asked.
“My mother gave it to me the night I was born,” Leo said. “Before she died.”
Down on the floor, the battle was ending. Marco and Luca’s men had completely overwhelmed Enzo’s thugs.
The gunfire ceased.
Luca walked down the metal stairs to the warehouse floor.
Enzo was pinned beneath the wreckage of his car, his leg trapped. He was bleeding, grasping for his dropped gun.
Luca kicked the gun away.
He looked down at the man who had tormented his family for two decades.
“It’s over, Enzo.”
Enzo laughed, coughing blood.
“You think you won, Luca? You think that boy is your brother?”
Luca stopped.
“What are you talking about?”
Enzo grinned, a horrifying, bloody smile.
“Isabella lied to Michael. She lied to everyone.”
Enzo pointed a shaking finger toward the office where Leo was hiding.
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TITLE: THE LOCKET'S TRUTH
