Chapter 6 - The Man On The Sofa
“The three minutes are up. Light the match.”
Senator Sterling’s voice was as smooth and polished as it had been two hours ago when he was toasting Luca’s engagement.
I pressed my back against the siding of my mother’s house, my chest heaving.
Vanessa hadn’t just infiltrated Luca’s security detail. She had compromised his political allies. The entire engagement was a setup to dismantle the Moretti empire from the inside out.
One of the men struck a match. The flame flared bright in the dim living room.
I didn’t think.
I didn’t plan.
I just reacted.
I stepped in front of the window, raised the heavy pistol Luca had given me, and fired through the glass.
The window exploded inward.
The man holding the match screamed, dropping it as a bullet shattered the vase right next to his head. The match hit a dry spot on the floor, sputtering out harmlessly.
The two hitters scrambled for cover, pulling their own weapons.
Senator Sterling dove behind the sofa.
“Mom, get down!” I screamed through the broken window.
I crouched behind the thick brick pillar of the porch.
Wood splintered above my head as they fired blindly into the dark yard.
My hands were shaking violently. I had one magazine. Maybe twelve bullets.
I wasn’t a killer. I was a maid who made beds and polished silver.
“She’s alone!” Sterling yelled from inside. “Flank the door!”
I heard heavy boots running toward the front entrance.
I aimed the gun at the wooden door, squeezing my eyes shut.
Before they could open it, the roar of a high-performance engine shattered the quiet suburban street.
Tires squealed.
Headlights blinded me.
A sleek black car hopped the curb, tearing across my mother’s lawn, and smashed straight through the front door of the house.
The impact was deafening. The car took out the entire entryway, pinning one of the hitters beneath a pile of drywall and shattered timber.
The driver’s side door opened.
Luca stepped out into the smoke and dust.
He wasn’t wearing his suit jacket anymore. His white shirt was rolled up at the sleeves, and he held a shotgun.
The second hitter tried to aim at him.
Luca didn’t even flinch. He fired once, hitting the man in the shoulder and spinning him to the floor.
Silence fell over the ruined house.
Luca stepped over the rubble, walked into the living room, and looked down behind the sofa.
Senator Sterling was cowering on the floor, covered in dust.
Luca grabbed him by the collar and hauled him to his feet.
“You look out of place in the suburbs, Senator.”
“Luca, please,” Sterling begged, his political polish completely gone. “Vanessa blackmailed me. She has photos. Offshore accounts. I didn’t have a choice.”
Luca shoved him backward into the wall.
He turned to my mother, pulled a knife from his pocket, and cut her loose.
My mother sobbed, collapsing into my arms as I ran inside.
“Claire, oh my god, Claire.”
“It’s okay, Mom. It’s over. You’re safe.”
Luca watched us for a moment. His eyes softened.
But only for a moment.
“It’s not over,” Luca said quietly.
I looked up at him. “What do you mean? You stopped them.”
“When I realized you and Matteo weren’t in the cellar, I checked the security cameras,” Luca said. His jaw was clenched so tight it looked like it might shatter.
“Vanessa didn’t leave the estate, Claire. She waited for you to run. She knew you would come here to save your mother.”
My stomach dropped. “Matteo…”
Luca pulled a folded piece of paper from his pocket. It was the same brochure for the psychiatric facility Vanessa had shown at dinner.
But this time, the bottom had been signed.
May you like
Not by Luca. By a judge.
“Vanessa is the legal emergency proxy,” Luca said, his voice terrifyingly hollow. “While I was driving here, she loaded my son into an armored transport van. They are taking him to the facility tonight. And if I step foot on that property to take him back, they will have me arrested for kidnapping.”
