The Man In The Black Car

The kitchen was dead silent, save for the heavy, ragged sound of Vanessa breathing.

I stared at the photograph on the floor. My father. Alive. Bruised and broken, but alive. The man I had grieved for five years, whose watch I had just held in my hand, was sitting in a concrete basement waiting to die.

“Vanessa,” Luca said. His voice was no longer angry. It was a soft, dangerous purr. “Lower the weapon. Ray has nothing to do with this.”

“I need leverage!” Vanessa cried, her finger twitching on the trigger. “If I don’t walk out of here with the girl, they kill my father!”

“If you pull that trigger, I will kill you myself,” Luca promised.

He didn’t shout. He didn’t draw his own weapon. He just stared at her with a terrifying, absolute certainty that made the air in the room feel heavy.

Vanessa’s hand shook so violently I thought the gun would go off by accident. Ray squeezed his eyes shut, his hands gripping the edge of the granite counter. His blood sugar was still recovering. He didn’t have the strength to fight back.

I had to do something.

I still had my father’s heavy wool coat draped over my arm. The coat with the key sewn into the lining.

I took a slow step forward.

“Stop!” Vanessa shrieked, swinging the gun toward me.

“You want me?” I asked, keeping my voice as calm and steady as I used to when talking my father down from a diabetic rage. “Fine. Let Ray go. Put the gun down, and I’ll walk out that door with you.”

“Nora, no,” Luca snapped, stepping forward.

“Stay back, Luca!” I yelled. It was the first time I had ever raised my voice at him, and it shocked him enough to freeze his boots to the floor.

I looked back at Vanessa. “Dominic wants the ledgers. That’s why he took your father. He’s using your family to flush me out. If you bring me to him, you get your dad back.”

Vanessa swallowed hard, her eyes darting between me and Luca. “You’ll come willingly?”

“Yes,” I lied.

I took another step closer. I was four feet away from her.

“Drop the gun, Vanessa.”

She hesitated. Then, slowly, she lowered the weapon, aiming it at the floor.

That was all the opening I needed.

I didn’t walk with her. I threw the heavy wool coat directly over her head.

Vanessa screamed as the thick, musty fabric blinded her. In the same second, I lunged forward, grabbing her wrist with both hands and twisting it upward with every ounce of strength I had.

The gun fired, the bullet shattering a glass cabinet above the sink, showering the counter in crystal shards.

Vanessa dropped the gun. It clattered against the tile.

Before she could pull the coat off, Marco crossed the kitchen in three massive strides, tackling her to the floor. He pinned her arms behind her back, snapping a pair of tactical cuffs onto her wrists.

I backed away, chest heaving, my hands completely numb.

Ray slumped against the counter, exhaling a massive breath.

Luca was beside me in a second. He grabbed my shoulders, his dark eyes checking me over frantically for blood. “Are you hit? Nora, look at me. Are you hit?”

“I’m okay,” I gasped. “I’m okay.”

He pulled me against his chest, wrapping his arms around me in a crushing embrace. For a moment, I forgot who he was. I forgot he was a Mafia boss. He was just a man, holding onto me like I was the only solid thing in a collapsing house.

“Never do that again,” Luca whispered into my hair, his voice rough. “Never risk your life in my house.”

He pulled back, his expression hardening back into the cold, calculating leader. He looked down at Vanessa, who was crying into the tile floor.

“Lock her in the wine cellar,” Luca ordered Marco. “Nobody speaks to her. Nobody gives her water. She stays there until I decide what to do with her.”

Marco dragged Vanessa to her feet and pulled her out of the kitchen.

I bent down and picked up the photograph of my father. My vision blurred with tears.

“He’s alive,” I whispered.

Luca stepped beside me, looking at the photo over my shoulder. “We will get him back, Nora. You have my word on that.”

“How?” I asked desperately. “Dominic has an army. And he has Vanessa’s father’s men backing him now. We don’t even know where he’s holding him.”

“Actually,” a small voice said from the doorway.

We both turned.

Lily was standing there. She had climbed down from the stool in the library and followed us. She was holding a child’s drawing—a piece of construction paper covered in blue and black crayon scribbles.

She walked over and handed it to me.

“The bad man who came to my room,” Lily said softly. “He was talking on his radio. I heard him say where they were going to take me.”

I looked at the drawing. It was a picture of a massive, square building with tall smokestacks, surrounded by water. And drawn crudely on the side of the building were the letters: S - L - A - G.

“The old South Works slag plant,” Luca said, a fierce light igniting in his eyes. “It’s been abandoned for a decade. It sits right on the edge of the lake.”

I looked at Lily, completely amazed. “You drew this from memory?”

She nodded proudly. “Uncle Luca says a Moretti always remembers their surroundings.”

Luca knelt down and kissed her forehead. “You did perfectly, piccola. You’re the bravest girl I know.”

He stood up, pulling his phone from his pocket. “Ray. Call the safehouse. Tell the night crew we are mobilizing.”

Ray nodded, his color finally returning. “Yes, boss.”

Luca looked at me. “Get the coat. We’re going to the plant.”

“You’re taking me with you?” I asked, shocked.

“Dominic wants a trade,” Luca said, checking the magazine of his weapon and sliding it back into the holster. “He thinks he’s trading your life for your father’s. But we aren’t trading anything.”

He looked me dead in the eyes, the full, terrifying weight of the Chicago syndicate burning in his gaze.