Chapter 7 - THE LEDGERS
I dropped the phone. It clattered against the wooden floorboards.
"She has my mother," I choked out, a sob tearing through my throat. "She's going to kill her."
Luca was already moving. He picked up his phone, barking orders in rapid Italian to his security team. He grabbed a heavy black coat from the back of a chair and pulled his firearm from his holster, checking the magazine.
"We are going to get her back," Luca said, his voice a lethal promise.
"I have to go with you," I said, wiping my eyes.
"No. It’s too dangerous. You stay here with Ben."
"You don't understand, Mr. Moretti! I know where the ledgers are!"
Luca stopped. "You do?"
"My mother told me to never open the old sewing box under her bed. She said it was full of toxic mothballs. I never touched it. That has to be where they are."
"If we go to the apartment to get them, we lose time," Luca said. "Vanessa wants a trade. We give her what she wants, but on my terms."
He opened a drawer in the kitchen and pulled out a thick, leather-bound notebook. It looked identical to a financial ledger.
"A decoy," I realized.
"Exactly." Luca handed it to me. "I will have my men surround the warehouse. You will walk in and make the exchange. The moment your mother is safe, my men will take Vanessa and Dominic down."
"What about Benjamin?" I looked toward the bedroom.
"My two best guards are stationed at the front and back doors of this cabin. No one gets in. He is safe here."
I nodded, gripping the fake ledger tightly to my chest.
Thirty minutes later, Luca’s bulletproof SUV pulled up a block away from the abandoned docks. The smell of salt water and rotting wood filled the air. The warehouse loomed in the fog, its massive metal doors rusted open.
Luca turned to me in the dark cab of the vehicle.
"Are you ready?"
"I have to be."
"Claire." He reached out, his warm, strong hand resting over mine. "I will not let anything happen to you. I swear on my son's life."
I looked into his dark eyes, finding a sudden, overwhelming sense of safety there. "I trust you."
I stepped out of the car and walked alone into the foggy warehouse.
The interior was massive, lit only by a few flickering overhead bulbs. In the center of the concrete floor stood Vanessa. She was flanked by two armed men.
And next to her, tied to a wooden chair, was my mother.
"Mom!" I cried, running forward.
"Ah, ah, ah," Vanessa stepped in front of her, raising a sleek silver pistol and pointing it directly at my mother's chest. "Not another step, housemaid."
My mother looked terrible. She had a bruise on her cheek, and she was crying. "Claire, I'm so sorry. I tried to keep it hidden."
"It's okay, Mom," I said, holding up the leather notebook. "I brought it. Just like you asked. Let her go."
Vanessa's eyes gleamed greedily at the book. "Slide it across the floor."
"Let my mother stand up first."
Vanessa rolled her eyes and gestured to one of her men. He cut the ropes around my mother's wrists. She stood up, stumbling slightly.
I slid the fake ledger across the smooth concrete. It stopped right at Vanessa's feet.
She bent down, picked it up, and opened the cover.
I grabbed my mother’s arm and pulled her behind me.
Vanessa flipped through the blank pages. Her smile vanished.
Her head snapped up, her face twisted in pure, unadulterated fury.
"It's fake," she hissed.
Before I could blink, Vanessa raised the gun and pointed it directly at my face.
"Kill them both," she ordered her men.
But suddenly, the massive metal doors of the warehouse slammed shut.
The lights cut out completely, plunging us into pitch blackness.
"What the hell?" Vanessa screamed.
A single spotlight clicked on from the rafters, illuminating Vanessa and her men like actors on a stage.
And walking out from the shadows, surrounded by a dozen armed men in black tactical gear, was Luca.
"It's over, Vanessa," Luca said, his voice echoing off the walls.
Vanessa panicked. She aimed her gun at Luca.
But a voice behind Luca made everyone freeze.
"Vanessa. Put the gun down."
It was a man’s voice. Weak, defeated, and chained.
Luca stepped aside.
Two guards dragged a man forward and threw him onto his knees.
It was Dominic Bellini. His face was bloodied, his hands bound.
Vanessa gasped, dropping her gun to the floor. "Dominic!"
Luca walked forward, towering over Vanessa.
"Your brother confessed," Luca said quietly. "He confessed to running Caroline off the road. He confessed to the embezzlement. And he confessed that you were in the car with him when he did it."
Vanessa shook her head, tears streaming down her face. "Luca, please. I did it for us. Caroline was weak! She was going to ruin everything!"
"She was my wife," Luca roared, the sound shaking the very foundation of the building.
He signaled to his men. "Take them both. The police are waiting outside."
As the guards dragged Vanessa and Dominic away, Vanessa screamed curses, her perfect facade destroyed forever.
Luca turned to me and my mother. He immediately holstered his weapon and rushed over.
"Are you both okay?" he asked, checking my mother for injuries.
"We're fine," I sobbed, hugging my mom tightly. "Thank you. Thank you."
My mother looked at Luca, tears in her eyes. "You have your wife's eyes, Mr. Moretti. Fierce, but kind."
Luca smiled softly. "Let's go home."
But just as we turned to leave, Luca’s phone rang.
He answered it. "Speak."
I watched as the color drained from Luca's face. The phone slipped from his hand and shattered on the concrete floor.
"Luca?" I asked, panicked. "What is it?"
He looked at me, a look of pure terror in his eyes.
"The guards at the cabin..." he whispered. "They were found unconscious in the woods."
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"Oh my god," I gasped.
"Benjamin is gone."
