Chapter 5 - THE SILVER ROSARY
Salvatore Bellini stepped into the study, his expensive tailored suit immaculate, his silver hair perfectly coiffed.
Behind him stood three heavily armed men wearing black tactical gear.
They had bypassed the mansion’s security entirely.
“Put the gun down, Luca,” Salvatore commanded. His voice was smooth, cultured, and absolutely lethal. “Or my men will paint this beautiful mahogany room with your brains.”
Luca didn’t lower his weapon. He didn’t even turn around.
He kept his gun leveled steadily at Vanessa, who was cowering on the floor.
“How did you get past Daniel?” Luca asked, his voice dead calm.
Salvatore chuckled. “Daniel is a loyal dog. But loyal dogs can be put to sleep. A generous donation to his second-in-command was all it took to leave the back gates wide open.”
My blood ran cold.
The security team had been compromised. We were completely trapped.
“Dad!” Vanessa cried, scrambling toward her father’s expensive leather shoes. “He knows! He found the boy!”
Salvatore looked down at his daughter with utter disgust.
“You always were a disappointment, Vanessa,” Salvatore sneered. “I told you to get the child out of the country tonight. You couldn’t even handle a simple exfiltration.”
“The maid brought the dog inside!” Vanessa sobbed, pointing at me. “She ruined everything!”
Salvatore’s cold, gray eyes slowly turned toward me.
Then he looked past me, to the leather sofa.
He saw Leo.
The little boy was clutching Bruno so tightly his knuckles were white, his face buried in the dog’s fur.
“Well,” Salvatore sighed, adjusting his silk tie. “It seems the family reunion happened a bit ahead of schedule. No matter. We can handle this the messy way.”
He raised his suppressed pistol, aiming it directly at Leo.
“No!” I screamed, throwing myself in front of the sofa, shielding the little boy with my own body.
Bruno let out a vicious, blood-curdling roar, his teeth bared, ready to launch himself at the men.
“Stop!” Luca roared, spinning around and aiming his gun at Salvatore’s chest.
“If you shoot me, Luca, my men will execute the girl and your bastard son,” Salvatore said calmly. “Lower your weapon. Kick it across the rug.”
Luca stared at the three tactical rifles pointed at my back.
He looked at me. He looked at his son.
Slowly, agonizingly, Luca lowered his gun. He dropped it to the floor and kicked it across the Persian rug. It stopped near Salvatore’s feet.
“Good boy,” Salvatore mocked.
He gestured to his men. “Take the child. Kill the maid and the dog.”
“Wait!” Vanessa shrieked, grabbing her father’s arm. “You said we were just going to take the boy to Switzerland! You said we’d hold him until Luca signed over the shipping ports!”
Salvatore slapped her.
The sound cracked like a whip. Vanessa crumpled to the floor, holding her bleeding cheek.
“I told you what you needed to hear so you wouldn’t lose your nerve,” Salvatore said coldly. “I’m not keeping a six-year-old hostage for the next decade. I’m eliminating the Moretti bloodline tonight. Once Luca and the boy are dead, the syndicate falls to me.”
One of the armed men stepped forward, grabbing my arm and violently yanking me away from the sofa.
“Leave her alone!” Leo screamed, his small voice echoing in the study.
The man raised the butt of his rifle to strike me.
But as he swung, Leo reached into his pocket and threw something directly at Salvatore’s face.
It was small, metallic, and heavy.
It struck Salvatore perfectly in the cheekbone, clattering to the hardwood floor.
Salvatore flinched, swearing loudly.
Everyone stopped.
I looked down at the floor.
Resting on the polished wood was a heavy, antique silver rosary.
The crucifix was beautifully detailed, but the silver beads were deeply tarnished.
Luca stared at the rosary, his breath catching in his throat.
“Where did you get that?” Salvatore demanded, his eyes widening in sudden, terrifying panic.
Leo stood up on the sofa, his small fists clenched.
“I took it from the bad lady’s purse,” Leo declared bravely, pointing at Vanessa. “My mommy told me the bad man who crashed our car dropped it on the road!”
Luca’s head snapped toward Vanessa.
“My father’s rosary,” Luca whispered.
Twelve years ago, Luca’s father had been murdered in an alley. The police had never found the killer. The only thing missing from the body was a custom silver rosary.
Salvatore’s face drained of color.
“Shoot them!” Salvatore screamed at his men. “Shoot them all now!”
But the distraction was exactly what Luca had been waiting for.
In a fraction of a second, Luca didn’t dive for his gun on the floor.
He whistled.
A sharp, piercing, two-note whistle.
Bruno didn’t hesitate.
The seventy-pound German shepherd launched himself off the sofa like a gray missile.
Bruno slammed into the chest of the guard holding me, his massive jaws locking onto the man’s forearm with a sickening crunch. The guard screamed, dropping his rifle.
Luca moved with terrifying speed.
He lunged forward, grabbing the dropped rifle from the air before it hit the ground. He rolled across the Persian rug, coming up on one knee.
Pffft. Pffft.
Two suppressed shots echoed in the study.
The remaining two tactical guards collapsed to the floor, instantly neutralized.
Salvatore scrambled backward, raising his pistol wildly toward Luca.
But Luca was already standing.
He walked slowly toward Salvatore, the rifle aimed squarely at the older man’s head.
“Drop it, Salvatore,” Luca ordered. His voice was no longer human. It was the voice of the devil himself.
Salvatore’s hands shook. He looked at his dead men. He looked at the massive dog standing over the screaming guard.
The gun slipped from Salvatore’s fingers.
Luca didn’t shoot him.
He simply stepped forward and struck Salvatore across the jaw with the heavy stock of the rifle. The billionaire crumpled to the floor, unconscious.
The study was suddenly very quiet, save for the crackle of the fire and the whimpering of the guard Bruno was pinning down.
“Out,” Luca commanded the guard.
Bruno released the man, who scrambled out the door, clutching his bleeding arm, fleeing into the night.
Luca lowered the rifle.
He looked at Vanessa, who was curled into a ball in the corner, sobbing hysterically.
Then, he walked over to the silver rosary on the floor.
He picked it up, his thumb tracing the tarnished silver beads.
“He killed my father,” Luca whispered. “And then he killed my wife.”
He turned around and looked at Leo.
The little boy was standing on the sofa, trembling, his brave facade finally crumbling.
I rushed over to the sofa and pulled Leo into a tight hug. He buried his face in my shoulder, crying softly.
Luca walked over and dropped to his knees in front of us.
He didn’t look like a mafia boss anymore. He looked like a father who had just moved heaven and earth to save his child.
He gently placed his large, tattooed hand over Leo’s dark curls.
“You are the bravest boy I have ever met,” Luca said, his voice thick with tears.
Leo looked up, wiping his eyes with his small, dirty sleeve.
“Are the bad men gone?” Leo asked.
“They’re gone,” Luca promised. “They are never coming back.”
Luca looked at me.
His dark eyes held a depth of gratitude I had never seen in another human being.
“You saved my son, Emma,” Luca said softly.
“He saved us,” I corrected, smiling through my tears.
Suddenly, the flashing red and blue lights of police cruisers illuminated the massive windows of the study. Dozens of sirens wailed down the long driveway.
Daniel had survived the coup, and he had called the police.
Luca stood up, slipping the silver rosary into his pocket.
“It’s over,” Luca said.
But as he said the words, a loud, heavy knock sounded at the mahogany doors.
Not the police.
Not Daniel.
The door slowly creaked open.
Standing in the hallway, dripping wet from the rain, was an older woman leaning heavily on a wooden cane.
I stopped breathing.
“Mom?” I whispered.
My mother, who had supposedly been asleep in our cramped apartment across the city, stepped into the bloodstained study.
May you like
She looked at Luca, then at the unconscious Salvatore on the floor.
“I’m sorry, Emma,” my mother said, tears spilling down her weathered cheeks. “But there’s one more secret you need to know.”
