Chapter 6 - THE TORN COAT
The ambulance sirens faded into the distance as they took Sal away.
Luca stood in the rain, staring at the blood-stained brass key in his hand.
The Palmer House.
It was a historic, luxury hotel in the center of the city. A place where politicians and wealthy elite rubbed shoulders.
It was the last place anyone would expect a mafia hostage exchange to happen.
“He’s smart,” Luca muttered, his hair plastered to his forehead by the rain. “He wants a public place. Lots of witnesses. No gunfire.”
He looked at the armed guards standing in the driveway.
“Stand down,” Luca ordered.
The men looked confused.
“Sir?” one of them asked.
“If we roll into the Palmer House with twenty men carrying rifles, the police will lock down the building. Dominic will slip out the back with the boy.”
Luca wiped the rain from his face.
“I’m going alone.”
“No, you’re not,” I said, stepping up beside him.
Luca turned to me, ready to argue.
“Emma, stop.”
“If Vanessa is there, she won’t let you near that boy,” I said, my voice steady despite the cold. “She hates you. But she thinks I’m just a maid. She thinks I’m weak. Let me help you.”
He stared at me.
He saw the determination in my eyes. He saw that I wasn’t backing down.
Slowly, he nodded.
“Get in the car.”
We took a discreet sedan, not one of the heavily armored SUVs.
Luca drove.
The city lights blurred past us in the rain.
“When we get there,” Luca said, his voice tight. “You follow my lead exactly. Dominic is a ghost. He doesn’t leave loose ends. If things go wrong, you run. Do you understand me?”
“I understand.”
We pulled up to the Palmer House.
The lobby was stunning. Gold leaf ceilings, massive crystal chandeliers, marble columns.
It was packed with people attending a late-night gala.
We blended right in.
We walked to the elevators and pressed the button for the fourth floor.
The ride up was suffocatingly quiet.
Room 402.
We found the door at the end of a long, dimly lit hallway.
Luca didn’t knock.
He slid the blood-stained brass key into the lock.
It clicked.
He pushed the door open, stepping inside with his hand inside his jacket, resting on his weapon.
The room was luxurious. Heavy velvet drapes, antique furniture.
But it was empty.
No Dominic. No Vanessa.
Just a single lamp burning in the corner.
“We’re too late,” I whispered, stepping inside.
Then, a sound came from the bathroom.
A soft, muffled sob.
Luca drew his gun and moved silently across the plush carpet.
He kicked the bathroom door open.
I gasped.
Sitting on the tile floor, her wrists bound with zip-ties to the plumbing of the sink, was Vanessa.
Her beautiful red evening gown was torn. Her makeup was smeared across her face.
She looked up at us, her eyes wide with absolute terror.
“Luca,” she sobbed, struggling against the plastic ties.
Luca didn’t lower his gun.
“Where is he?” Luca demanded.
“He took him,” Vanessa cried, tears spilling down her cheeks. “He took Leo.”
She had named the boy after his father.
“Where?”
“I don’t know! He just wanted the ledger!”
Luca stepped closer, his eyes cold.
“You gave him the ledger?”
“I didn’t have a choice!” she screamed. “He said he would kill my son!”
“You brought this on yourself, Vanessa. You lied to me for four years.”
Vanessa stopped crying.
She looked up at Luca, a bitter, twisted laugh escaping her throat.
“I lied to you?” she spat. “You think I wanted to hide my son in a cheap house in Addison? You think I wanted to pretend to love you?”
She pulled against the zip-ties, her wrists bleeding.
“I was protecting him from you!”
Luca froze.
“From me?”
“Your uncle told me everything,” Vanessa sneered. “He told me what you did to Leo. He told me you cut his brakes because you didn’t want to share the empire.”
My blood ran cold.
Dominic hadn’t just killed Leo. He had convinced Vanessa that Luca did it.
He used her grief and fear to turn her into a weapon.
Luca lowered his gun.
The absolute devastation on his face was heartbreaking.
“Vanessa,” Luca whispered. “I loved my brother. I would have burned the city down to save him.”
Vanessa stared at him.
For the first time, doubt flickered in her eyes.
“Dominic killed him,” Luca said softly. “And now he has your son.”
He reached down and pulled a pocket knife from his belt, cutting the zip-ties around her wrists.
Vanessa rubbed her bleeding arms, staring at the floor.
“He’s going to kill him,” she whispered, the reality finally setting in. “Once he has the ledger decoded, he doesn’t need the boy. He’s going to kill him.”
“Where did he take him?” I asked, kneeling beside her.
Vanessa shook her head.
“He didn’t say. But his men…”
She looked up, panicking.
“His men were packing heavy coats. Duffel bags. They were talking about a train.”
Luca’s head snapped up.
“A train?”
“Yes. A private railcar.”
Luca looked at me, his eyes wide.
“The family owns a private rail line that runs north to a hunting lodge in Wisconsin. It’s completely off the grid.”
He turned back to the door.
But before he could take a step, the hotel room phone began to ring.
Loud. Piercing.
We all froze.
Luca walked over to the nightstand and picked up the receiver.
He didn’t say hello.
He just listened.
I watched the color completely drain from his face.
He hung up the phone.
“What?” I asked, terrified.
Luca looked at me, his eyes hollow.
“That wasn’t Dominic.”
May you like
He looked down at his trembling hands.
“That was the hospital. Sal didn’t make it.”
