Chapter 4 - The Keys in the Driveway
Luca stopped the car thirty feet from the gates.
My heart slammed against my ribs as I recognized the keychain dangling from the lead enforcer’s hand. It was a faded plastic daisy. My keychain.
I had left it in my locker in the staff breakroom.
“Stay in the car,” Luca ordered.
He stepped out into the humid night air, buttoning his suit jacket with a chilling calmness.
“Dominic,” Luca called out to the lead man. “You’re blocking my driveway.”
Dominic smiled, a cold, empty expression.
“Just running an errand for Ms. Bellini, Mr. Moretti. She realized her housekeeper left without her belongings.”
He tossed the keys onto the asphalt. They clattered near Luca’s shoes.
“Ms. Bellini asked us to inform Julia that her services are no longer required. And that she should return to her apartment. Immediately.”
I sat frozen in the passenger seat.
If I went back to my apartment, I would be entirely alone. Unprotected.
Luca didn’t look at the keys. He looked at Dominic.
“Julia works for me. Not Vanessa.”
“Vanessa is the lady of this house in three days,” Dominic countered, stepping closer. “She’s just cleaning up the staff. She also mentioned the gatehouse is off-limits tonight.”
Luca tilted his head. “Is it?”
“We have men inside.”
Luca’s expression didn’t change, but the air around him seemed to drop ten degrees.
“You brought Bellini men onto my property?”
“Just securing the perimeter for the wedding.”
Luca reached into his jacket. Dominic’s men instantly reached for their waistbands.
But Luca didn’t pull a gun. He pulled his phone.
He pressed a single button.
Less than ten seconds later, the front doors of the mansion swung open. A dozen of Luca’s men—men loyal only to the Moretti bloodline—poured out onto the lawn, weapons drawn, flanking the gates from the inside.
Dominic’s smug smile vanished.
“Pick up the keys, Dominic,” Luca said softly.
Dominic hesitated, eyeing the guns trained on him. Slowly, humiliatingly, he bent down and picked up my plastic daisy keychain.
He handed it to Luca.
“Tell Vanessa’s father,” Luca said, taking the keys, “that if a single Bellini soldier is found on my property after tonight, I won’t send them back in cars. I’ll send them back in boxes.”
Dominic swallowed hard. He signaled his men, and they backed away, climbing into their SUVs and speeding off into the dark.
Luca got back into the car. He handed me my keys.
“Are you okay?” he asked.
“I’m fired,” I whispered, my voice shaking. “She fired me.”
“She doesn’t have the authority to fire you,” Luca said fiercely.
He drove us through the gates and pulled up to the grand entrance.
He helped George and Ellen out of the back seat.
“Take them to the East Wing guest suites,” Luca told his head of security. “Post two men at their door. Nobody gets in.”
As George passed me, he grabbed my hand and gave it a tight, grateful squeeze.
Luca turned to me.
“Come with me.”
We walked into the grand foyer. The engagement dinner was over. The guests were gone. The house was dead quiet.
Luca marched straight up the sweeping staircase toward the master suite.
I followed, my pulse racing.
He threw open the bedroom doors.
Vanessa was standing near the fireplace, packing a large leather duffel bag.
She froze.
She looked at Luca, then her eyes darted to me.
“I told security to throw her out,” Vanessa snapped, trying to maintain her authority.
Luca didn’t yell. He walked over to her packed bag, reached inside, and pulled out a heavy, velvet box.
He snapped it open.
Inside rested a diamond-encrusted silver bracelet.
My breath hitched.
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“My mother’s bracelet,” Luca said, his voice devoid of all emotion. “The one she was supposed to be buried with. Why is it in your bag, Vanessa?”
TITLE: The Safe in the Attic
