Chapter 5 - An Unlikely Alliance
*“Luca,”* Salvatore Bellini repeated, his gravelly voice dripping with false paternal affection. *“My daughter hasn't answered her phone in two hours. And I just received a rather frantic call from Senator Higgins claiming that your engagement dinner was terminated before dessert. Care to explain what the hell is going on in that house?”*
Luca leaned over the desk, his knuckles resting against the dark wood. He didn't blink.
“Your daughter is currently in my cellar, Salvatore.”
A dead silence fell over the line. For five agonizing seconds, all that could be heard was the faint static of the encrypted line.
*“Excuse me?”* Salvatore’s voice lost all its warmth, dropping into a venomous hiss. *“You have my daughter in a cellar? Have you lost your goddamn mind, boy? You don't lay hands on a Bellini. Not unless you want five hundred men marching down Michigan Avenue to turn your mansion into a tomb.”*
“She didn't tell you, did she?” Luca said calmly.
*“Tell me what?”*
“She tried to steal the key,” Luca replied, swirling the miniature brass vault key between his fingers. “She had Bruno locked in a maintenance shed to die of dehydration. She kept Bella hidden for two years in an iron cage. But she was sloppy, Salvatore. She thought my housekeeper wouldn't notice an old dog scratching at a door.”
On the other end of the line, Salvatore’s breath hitched. *“The key… you found the key.”*
“I have the key. I have the microchip. And more importantly, I have the audio confession my father recorded forty-eight hours before your personal physician poisoned his IV drip.”
A violent crash echoed from the receiver—the sound of furniture being overturned in Salvatore’s office.
*“You listen to me, Luca,”* Salvatore snarled, all pretense of civility gone. *“You might have that little piece of metal, but you don't leave Chicago alive. You think the Commission will let a twenty-something street orphan rule the North Side? The other families already agreed to back me. By tomorrow morning, the Bellini syndicate will absorb every dock, every warehouse, and every casino you own. Hand over Vanessa and the key, and maybe I’ll let you bleed out in an alley instead of a slaughterhouse.”*
“Come get her yourself,” Luca said softly.
He didn't wait for a response. He smashed his thumb down on the disconnect button, severing the call.
Luca looked over at Marco. “Sound the alarm. Mobilize all four perimeter squads. Call in the lieutenants from the south docks. I want the estate locked down tighter than Fort Knox.”
“Yes, Boss,” Marco said, unholstering his weapon and sprinting out of the room.
The tension in the air was suffocating. I stood by the fireplace, clutching Luca’s heavy overcoat around my shoulders, my pulse racing in my ears.
“Mr. Moretti,” I said, my voice trembling slightly. “What should I do? If a war is starting—”
“You stay right here,” Luca said, turning to face me. He walked over, closing the distance between us until he stood just inches away. “No one enters this penthouse without my clearance. You are safe here.”
“I’m scared,” I admitted honestly, looking into his eyes. “Not just for myself… but for my brother. If Salvatore Bellini knows I was the one who found Bruno…”
Luca’s expression softened with an intensity that took my breath away. He reached into his pocket and pulled out his private cell phone. He dialed a three-digit speed dial.
“Dante,” Luca spoke into the receiver. “Take Squad Three to St. Jude’s Hospital. Find Leo Sullivan in Room 412. Move him to the private medical wing at my compound in Lake Forest under armed escort. Then go to 742 Elm Street, pick up Mrs. Sullivan, and bring her to the same location. If anyone follows you, eliminate them.”
He hung up and looked at me. “Your family is being moved to the most secure compound in the state. By midnight, they will have twenty armed guards outside their doors.”
Tears welled up in my eyes. The crushing weight that had sat on my chest for months—the unpaid bills, the threat of eviction, the fear of losing my brother—suddenly vanished, replaced by an overwhelming sense of gratitude.
“Why are you doing this for me?” I whispered. “I’m just a girl who cleans your floors.”
Luca looked at Bruno, who was now sleeping peacefully beside his daughter, their steady breathing filling the quiet room.
“For five days, I was surrounded by men who smiled to my face and plotted to put a knife in my back,” Luca said quietly. “My fiancée, the woman I was supposed to marry, was starving my father’s dog to death in a dark shed. And you—a girl who had nothing, who risked her job, her safety, and her life—carried a dying animal into a room full of monsters just because it was the right thing to do.”
He took a step closer, his eyes locked onto mine.
“You aren't just a housekeeper, Emma. You have more courage than every man sitting at that banquet table tonight.”
Before I could reply, the room plunged into pitch-black darkness.
May you like
The mansion’s power had just been cut.
***
