Chapter 4 - The Guard Who Never Blinked
“Sorry, boss. But Gregori isn’t coming.”
Russo’s voice was completely steady.
He had worked for Luca for five years.
He had eaten at his table.
He had guarded his son.
Now, his gun was aimed directly at Luca’s heart.
I grabbed Matteo and shoved him behind me, pressing us both against the cold plaster wall.
Matteo was trembling so hard his teeth were chattering.
Luca didn’t raise his hands.
He just looked at the gun, then at Russo.
“How much did she pay you?” Luca asked calmly.
Vanessa stepped out from against the wall, her confidence returning.
She smoothed the front of her red silk gown.
“It’s not about money, Luca. It’s about the territory. My family wanted the Chicago ports six years ago. Victoria wouldn’t let you sell them to us.”
The truth finally clicked into place.
Vanessa wasn’t just a socialite.
She was mob royalty from New York.
A rival family.
“So you killed my wife,” Luca said, his voice void of emotion.
“It was an accident,” Vanessa smiled. “She was supposed to be scared. The brakes were just supposed to fail in the driveway.”
She looked at Matteo, hiding behind me.
“But she decided to take the boy for ice cream.”
Matteo let out a choked sob.
He remembered the crash.
He had been in the backseat.
“And now?” Luca asked, his eyes never leaving Russo’s finger on the trigger.
“Now, I’m your grieving fiancée,” Vanessa said. “You’re going to suffer a tragic heart attack tonight. Matteo is going to a psychiatric facility on Monday because he can’t handle the grief. And I inherit the estate. And the ports.”
She turned to Russo.
“Shoot him.”
Russo tightened his grip.
But Luca Moretti didn’t build an empire by being slow.
Before Russo could pull the trigger, Luca’s hand snapped out like a viper.
He grabbed the hot barrel of the gun, forcing it upward just as it fired.
Pfft.
The suppressed bullet shattered the crystal chandelier above us.
Luca drove his knee upward into Russo’s stomach with sickening force.
The giant man doubled over.
Luca stripped the gun from his hand and struck him across the temple with the heavy steel grip.
Russo collapsed to the floor, unconscious.
Vanessa screamed.
She turned and ran down the hallway toward the kitchen.
Luca didn’t chase her.
He immediately spun around to check on us.
“Are you hurt?”
“No,” I gasped. “We’re okay.”
Luca handed me the gun.
My hands shook as I took it. I had never held a weapon in my life.
“Take Matteo to the basement,” Luca ordered. “Lock the steel door from the inside. Do not open it for anyone but me.”
“What about you?” Matteo cried.
Luca wiped a smear of Russo’s blood from his knuckles.
“I’m going to find my fiancée.”
I grabbed Matteo’s hand and pulled him down the back stairs.
We reached the wine cellar and bolted the heavy steel door just as Luca said.
We sat in the dark on the cold stone floor, listening to the silence of the house above us.
Ten minutes passed.
Then twenty.
Suddenly, my cell phone buzzed in my apron pocket.
The screen glowed in the dark.
It was my mother.
I answered it quickly. “Mom? I can’t talk right now.”
“Claire,” my mother’s voice was shaking. “There are two men in our living room.”
May you like
My heart stopped.
“They said they work for a woman named Vanessa,” my mother cried softly. “They said if you don’t bring the boy out of the basement right now, they’re going to burn our house down with me inside it.”
