Chapter 5 - THE WOLF IN THE FOLD
"Lorenzo," Evelyn breathed, grabbing his coat. She pointed down through the rusted grating of the fire escape.
Lorenzo’s eyes followed her trembling finger. Below, bathed in the sickly yellow glow of a streetlamp, his most trusted lieutenant, Marcus, was standing shoulder-to-shoulder with Celeste’s lead enforcer. They were pointing up at the building.
The betrayal hit Lorenzo visibly. His jaw clenched so tight a muscle ticked in his cheek, but his voice remained deadly calm. "Back inside. Now."
He pushed Evelyn and Leo through the window they had just climbed out of, sliding the heavy glass shut.
"He's giving us to them," Evelyn whispered, pulling Leo tight against her chest. The boy buried his face in her neck, sensing the sheer terror radiating from his mother.
"Marcus is ambitious, but he's not stupid," Lorenzo muttered, scanning the dark apartment for a secondary exit. "Celeste couldn't have bought him alone. She has backing. Someone inside my own family."
"How do we get out?"
"We don't use the stairs," Lorenzo said. He walked to the kitchen and grabbed a heavy cast-iron skillet. "Stand back."
With three brutal swings, he smashed a hole through the cheap drywall separating the kitchen from the adjacent, abandoned unit. He kicked away the wooden studs, creating a crawl space.
"Go," he ordered.
Evelyn pushed Leo through first, then scrambled after him. Lorenzo followed, his broad shoulders barely clearing the jagged plaster. They crept through the dark, empty apartment to the front door, slipping into the opposite stairwell just as they heard Mrs. Higgins' door get kicked in across the hall.
They descended in total silence, exiting through the building's shared laundry room into a back alley, two streets away from the SUVs.
Lorenzo led them to a rusted chain-link fence, lifting it so Evelyn and Leo could slide under. "I have a safe house in Little Italy," he whispered. "Off the books. Only three people know about it."
"Let me guess," Evelyn said, her voice bitter. "Marcus is one of them?"
"No," Lorenzo said, hailing a passing, beat-up taxi and tossing the driver a hundred-dollar bill. "Drive. Anywhere but here."
Once in the backseat, Leo finally spoke. He tugged on Lorenzo’s blood-stained sleeve. "That man downstairs. The one with the shiny jacket. He was at the park yesterday."
Lorenzo froze. "What?"
Evelyn looked at her son in shock. "Leo, what are you talking about?"
Leo dug into his pajama pocket and pulled out a folded, crumpled drawing. He handed it to Lorenzo. It was a crude sketch of a man with a distinctive scar over his eye, wearing a jacket with a dragon patch.
"He gave me a piece of candy and asked if my mommy had a special key," Leo said innocently.
Evelyn felt the blood drain from her face. "A key? I don't have a key."
Lorenzo stared at the drawing, his dark eyes turning lethal. "It's not Marcus. Marcus is just a middleman." He looked at Evelyn. "The man with the scar is Uncle Carmine's bodyguard. My own uncle is working with Celeste to take the city."
May you like
Lorenzo reached into his pocket and pulled out Arthur’s silver money clip. He pressed a hidden mechanism on the side. The back panel slid open, revealing a tiny, intricate brass key.
"Your father didn't just leave a lighter," Lorenzo said softly. "He left the key to the empire. And they've been watching you for weeks to find it."
