Chapter 5 - THE LION'S DEN
Gunfire tore through the reinforced windows, peppering the interior walls with heavy caliber rounds.
“Get down!” Luca roared, shoving Sofia and Adrian behind the massive oak dining table as it splintered under the barrage.
Marco and the other two guards returned fire, their weapons flashing in the dim, dust-choked air.
“It’s a full assault team!” Marco shouted over the deafening noise. “At least a dozen men outside!”
Sofia pressed her hands over her ears, her heart hammering against her ribs. She was a waitress. A sister seeking justice. She wasn't a soldier. But as she watched Luca Moretti reload his weapon with terrifying calm, she realized she was in the belly of the beast.
“They think I ordered the hit on their boss’s nephew last week,” Luca yelled to Marco. “Dante fed them the coordinates and the motive!”
“We can’t hold this box, Boss!” Marco yelled back, taking a round to the shoulder. He grunted, sliding down the wall.
Luca looked at the back exit. It was heavily reinforced, leading to an underground drainage tunnel that emptied a mile away.
“Adrian!” Luca grabbed his son’s shirt. “Take off the watch!”
Adrian was frozen in terror. His hands were shaking too badly to work the clasp.
Sofia crawled over, her fingers nimble despite the fear. She unlatched the platinum band and pulled it off Adrian’s wrist.
“Throw it!” Luca ordered.
Sofia chucked the watch into the center of the living room.
“Move! To the tunnel!” Luca commanded.
He laid down covering fire. Sofia grabbed Adrian’s arm and hauled him toward the steel door at the back. They slipped inside the dark, damp tunnel, followed seconds later by Luca and his two remaining guards, hauling a bleeding Marco.
Luca slammed the heavy door shut and threw the deadbolt just as a grenade detonated in the living room they had just vacated.
The tunnel was pitch black. They used the flashlights on their phones to navigate the waist-deep, freezing water.
For thirty minutes, no one spoke. The only sound was ragged breathing and the sloshing of water.
When they finally emerged from the grate a mile away, the sky was beginning to turn a bruised purple with the dawn. Luca had a secondary extraction vehicle stashed in a nearby storage unit.
Once they were safely inside the armored SUV, speeding back toward the heart of Chicago, the adrenaline began to wear off, leaving a cold, heavy dread in its place.
“They will burn the city down looking for us,” Adrian whispered, staring at his empty wrist.
“Let them search,” Luca said, wrapping a bandage tightly around Marco’s shoulder. “They won't find us. We’re going underground.”
“We can’t hide forever,” Sofia said from the back seat.
“We aren't hiding,” Luca said, his eyes meeting hers in the rearview mirror. “We are hunting. The Morellos are muscle, but Dante is the brain. If we cut off the head, the body dies.”
“Dante is supposed to be on a flight to Zurich tomorrow morning,” Sofia reminded him.
“He won't make it to the airport,” Luca said. “Tonight is the Charity Gala at the Symphony Center. Half the politicians and judges in this city will be there. Dante has been managing my security for it for months. He has to show up to ensure his cover remains intact until the flight.”
“You’re going to a public gala with a target on your back?” Adrian asked, horrified.
“No,” Luca said. “I’m not going. She is.”
He pointed at Sofia.
Sofia’s eyes widened. “Me? I’m a waitress, not a spy!”
“You infiltrated my restaurant. You tracked offshore accounts. You spotted a fake bomb trigger under pressure,” Luca listed, his tone demanding obedience. “Dante knows my men. He knows my face. But he thinks you’re just collateral damage. He doesn't know you survived the safe house.”
“What do you want me to do?” Sofia asked, her voice trembling slightly.
“I need you to get close to him,” Luca said. “He carries a master ledger on a flash drive on his keychain. It has every dirty cop, every payoff, every offshore account he’s stolen. I need that drive. Without it, he has no leverage in Zurich. With it, I can destroy him.”
“And how do I get it?” she asked.
Luca reached into his pocket and pulled out a delicate, diamond-encrusted bracelet.
“My wife’s,” Luca said softly. “It has a localized magnetic pulse emitter hidden in the clasp. You brush this against his pocket, it will fry his phone and his comms. He’ll be deaf and blind to his men for exactly three minutes. That’s your window to take the drive.”
Sofia stared at the beautiful, deadly piece of jewelry.
“If I do this,” Sofia said, meeting Luca’s gaze, “You promise me Dante answers to the law for my brother. You don't execute him in an alley.”
Luca hesitated. His instinct was blood. But he looked at the woman who had saved his son twice in one night.
“You have my word,” Luca lied.
But as Sofia reached for the bracelet, a small, folded piece of paper slipped from her pocket. It was a child’s drawing. A stick figure of a man holding a little girl’s hand.
Luca saw it before she could snatch it back.
“What is that?” Luca asked.
Sofia swallowed hard. “It’s my niece. Leo’s daughter. She’s seven. She thinks her daddy is still coming home.”
Luca stared at the drawing. He thought of the photograph Dante had left him. The picture of Isabella holding a baby.
And suddenly, Luca realized the terrifying truth.
The baby in the photograph wasn't Adrian.
The baby had a birthmark on her left cheek.
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Luca’s blood turned to ice. Isabella hadn't just had one child.
She had given birth to twins.
