Chapter 13 - The Warehouse on Pier 44
We sprinted across the wooded grounds toward the estate’s private boathouse on the lake.
The boathouse doors were splintered open.
Inside, the smell of gasoline was overpowering.
Valentina Vance stood on the wooden dock beside Luca’s high-speed motor yacht, holding a flare gun pointed directly at the exposed fuel tanks.
Her hair was wild, her designer dress torn and filthy, her eyes blazing with the madness of total defeat.
“Stay back, Luca!” she shrieked, her voice echoing off the corrugated metal roof. “If I go down, I’m taking this entire estate with me!”
Luca leveled his weapon directly at her chest.
“Put the flare down, Valentina. It’s over. Falcone is ruined. The Commission has recognized my authority. You have nowhere left to run.”
“You think I care about Falcone?” she screamed, tears of rage streaming down her face. “I spent seven years playing the submissive little nurse! I wiped Sarah’s vomit! I smiled at your stupid, ignorant daughter! I deserved that fifty-million-dollar trust! It was mine!”
“You never cared about anyone but yourself,” I stepped forward, matching her glare. “You stole my sister’s baby. You tried to poison a dying woman’s final days.”
Valentina sneered at me.
“And you’re just the pathetic little replacement! Do you think Luca will ever love you? You’re just a ghost of the sister who died in a charity bed!”
“Claire is family,” Luca said, his voice steady and thunderous. “And in this house, family is sacred.”
Valentina screamed in pure hysteria and pulled the trigger on the flare gun.
Luca didn't hesitate.
A single, clean shot from his pistol echoed across the water.
Valentina’s eyes widened in shock as the flare gun dropped harmlessly into the cold lake water with a quiet hiss.
She stumbled backward, clutching her shoulder, and collapsed onto the wooden planks of the dock.
Marco and three guards rushed into the boathouse, immediately disarming her and securing the fuel lines.
May you like
Luca lowered his weapon, never taking his eyes off the fallen woman.
“Call the federal marshals,” Luca ordered Marco calmly. “Hand over the Swiss records, the extortion logs, and Dr. Harris’s testimony. She will spend the rest of her life in a maximum-security federal penitentiary where the Moretti name will never be spoken again.”
