Chapter 5 - THE PRICE OF LOYALTY
I didn’t call the police. In Luca Moretti’s world, the police were either on the payroll or a liability that got people killed.
I grabbed my purse, leaving a twenty-dollar bill on the table, and ran out of the diner. My chest heaved as I hailed a cab, my mind visualizing Lily’s terrified face. She would be wearing her mother’s cream cardigan. She would be clutching her pockets.
“Pier 4, shipyard. Fast as you can,” I told the driver.
During the ride, I dialed Luca’s private number. It went straight to voicemail. Marco must have jammed his signal or kept him in a secure meeting room. I was entirely alone.
The cab dropped me off at the edge of the abandoned docks. The smell of salt and rotting wood filled the air. Seagulls cried out, masking the sound of my footsteps as I walked toward warehouse number seven, the largest building on the pier.
The heavy metal door was ajar. I slipped inside. It was dark, illuminated only by shafts of dusty sunlight piercing through the broken skylights.
“I’m here!” I shouted, my voice echoing off the corrugated steel walls. “I have the envelope!”
From the shadows, a figure emerged. It wasn’t Marco. It wasn't the man with the scar.
It was Vanessa.
She looked a mess. Her perfect hair was wild, and a dark bruise was blooming across her cheekbone. She held a heavy black pistol in her right hand, but it was pointed at the ground.
“Vanessa?” I breathed, clutching the envelope to my chest. “Where is she? Where is Lily?”
“She’s safe,” Vanessa said, her voice shaking. “She’s in the trunk of my car outside. She’s scared, but she’s unharmed.”
“You took her? You sent the text?” My mind spun in violent circles. “Why?”
“Because Marco was going to take her,” Vanessa stepped into the light. “I went back to the house to get some things. I saw the guard with the scar walking toward the garden. I knew what Marco was planning. If he got Lily, Luca would sign over the entire enterprise to get her back. Then Marco would kill them both.”
“So you kidnapped her first?”
“I saved her life!” Vanessa snapped, tears finally spilling over her mascara. “I’m a lot of bad things, Hannah, but I am not a child killer. I loved Luca. I really did. But Marco… Marco has my brother. He told me if I didn’t push Luca into this marriage and keep him distracted, my brother would die.”
Another reversal. Vanessa wasn’t the villain. She was a hostage.
“You asked for the envelope,” I said, stepping closer. “The proof Elena died for.”
“Marco knows you went to the photo shop. His men followed you. I intercepted the radio chatter,” Vanessa explained rapidly. “We have to give him the envelope. It’s the only way he lets my brother go and lets us walk away.”
“If we give him this, Luca has no proof. Marco takes over. Luca dies,” I said.
Vanessa raised the gun, pointing it squarely at my chest. Her hand was trembling violently.
“I’m sorry, Hannah. But my brother’s life is worth more to me than Luca’s empire. Put the envelope on the ground.”
I stared down the barrel of the gun. Then, from the rafters above us, a voice echoed.
“You always were a terrible shot, Vanessa.”
We both snapped our heads up. Standing on the metal catwalk, fifty feet above us, was Luca. He looked down at us, a suppressed rifle resting casually against the railing.
He hadn't been jammed. He had been hunting.
Before either of us could speak, the warehouse doors blew open, and three black SUVs roared inside, screeching to a halt. Men poured out, armed to the teeth.
May you like
Leading them was Marco.
“Well, well,” Marco smiled, his eyes locking onto the envelope in my hand. “Looks like the maid found the missing puzzle piece.”
