Chapter 6 - THE BETRAYAL AT PIER 9
The roar of the SUV’s engine masked the sudden, chaotic movement in the shadows.
"Uncle Ray!" I screamed, stunned to see the older man stepping into the line of fire.
Raymond didn't look at me. His weathered face was set in grim determination as he aimed the heavy shotgun at Vanessa’s chest.
Vanessa didn't look terrified. She looked furious.
"You stupid old man," Vanessa hissed over the wind. "You were supposed to stay at the estate and keep Luca distracted!"
My blood ran cold. Keep Luca distracted?
Before Raymond could pull the trigger, the front passenger door of the SUV swung open. A man stepped out, moving with terrifying, practiced speed. He didn't aim at Vanessa.
He aimed his pistol directly at Raymond's head.
"Drop the shotgun, Raymond," the man ordered.
It was Henrique Almeida. The Portuguese banker from the dinner party.
"No," Raymond growled, his hands tightening on the weapon. "You lied to me, Henrique. You said you just wanted the ledgers to protect the offshore accounts. You didn't say anything about killing Maria!"
"Plans change, old friend," Henrique said smoothly, cocking the hammer of his pistol.
I stood frozen in the halogen light, my mind spinning. The banker wasn't just a guest. He was working with Vanessa. And Raymond—Luca’s trusted uncle—had helped them.
"Drop it!" Henrique barked.
Raymond hesitated, his eyes darting toward my mother, who was still kneeling on the concrete, trembling.
"I'm sorry, Antonio," Raymond whispered to the empty air.
He lowered the shotgun.
Henrique smiled. He stepped forward and snatched the weapon from Raymond’s hands, tossing it into the dark water of the lake.
"Rachel," Vanessa said, her voice dripping with venom, "bring me the key. Now."
I took a step backward. The plan was falling apart. Luca couldn't shoot Vanessa without risking Henrique shooting Raymond. We were deadlocked.
"I said now!" Vanessa shrieked, raising her gun again.
"Get down!" a voice roared from the darkness.
It was Luca.
I threw myself onto the freezing concrete, covering my head.
The night erupted in gunfire.
The deafening crack-crack-crack of suppressed automatic weapons tore through the pier. Luca’s men, hidden among the shipping containers, opened fire on the two Bellini thugs holding my mother. They dropped instantly, the precision of the Moretti guards terrifying to witness.
Henrique panicked. He fired blindly into the shadows and dove behind the SUV for cover.
Vanessa screamed, wildly firing her weapon toward the darkness where Luca’s voice had come from, but she was shooting blind.
Through the chaos, a shadow broke from the containers.
Luca Moretti moved with a speed that defied his massive frame. He didn't shoot. He closed the distance between the shadows and the light in three strides, tackling Vanessa to the ground before she could reload.
The sleek handgun clattered across the pavement.
Luca pinned her down, pressing his forearm against her throat. His dark eyes were wide with a fury that bordered on demonic.
"You brought my family into this!" Luca roared, his face inches from hers.
Vanessa gasped for air, clawing at his arm, her perfect makeup smeared with dirt and grease.
"Luca, stop!" Raymond yelled, running toward them. "Don't kill her! If you kill her, her father will burn Chicago to the ground!"
Luca ignored him. He drew his weapon and pressed the barrel directly between Vanessa’s eyes.
"Give me one reason," Luca whispered, his voice shaking with rage.
"Because she doesn't have the ledgers," a calm, accented voice called out.
Luca froze.
From behind the SUV, Henrique Almeida stepped out. He was holding my mother by the hair, his pistol pressed hard against her temple. My mother was weeping silently, her hands still bound in zip ties.
"Let her go, Henrique," Luca growled, keeping his gun aimed at Vanessa but turning his head toward the banker.
"I think not," Henrique said, his smile perfectly polite despite the chaos around him. "Vanessa was a useful idiot. A spoiled heiress who thought she could outsmart her own father. She wanted the ledgers to blackmail the Commission. I want them because I'm the one who forged them."
Vanessa’s eyes widened in shock beneath Luca’s arm. "You?"
"Your father, Carlo Bellini, paid me very well to hide his embezzlement twenty years ago," Henrique explained, pulling my mother slightly tighter against him. "But Antonio Moretti found out. He stole my original drafts to use as leverage against Carlo. If those ledgers go public, Carlo goes to prison, yes. But I will hang from a bridge in Lisbon for betraying the European cartel."
Henrique looked directly at me.
"Bring me the copper key, Rachel," Henrique demanded gently. "Or I will paint this SUV with your mother's brains."
I scrambled to my feet, my knees bruised and bleeding. I held the copper key out, my hand shaking violently.
"Don't do it, Rachel!" Luca yelled. "If you give him that key, he kills her anyway!"
"He's right," my mother suddenly spoke up, her voice surprisingly strong despite the gun to her head.
She looked at me, her hazel eyes completely calm.
"Rachel, listen to me," my mother said, switching from English to rapid, flawless Portuguese. “Do not give him the key. The key doesn't open a safety deposit box.”
Henrique frowned, his grip tightening on her hair. "What is she saying? Speak English!"
I stared at my mother, understanding dawning on me. “What does it open, Mom?” I asked in Portuguese.
“It opens the false bottom of Antonio's casket,” she replied.
My breath hitched. The ledgers were buried with Luca's father.
“Throw the key into the lake,” my mother ordered, tears welling in her eyes. “If he doesn't have it, he has to keep us alive to dig it up.”
Henrique lost his patience. "English, you stupid woman!" he roared, raising the gun to strike her.
"I said," my mother yelled in English, throwing her weight backward against him, "throw it!"
I didn't hesitate. I wound my arm back and hurled the tiny copper key as hard as I could toward the dark, churning water of Lake Michigan.
"No!" Henrique screamed, lunging forward to watch the key disappear into the black waves.
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The distraction was all the opening Luca needed.
He fired.
