Chapter 5 - The Shadow at Teterboro
A suffocating silence hung on the other end of the line. For five agonizing seconds, all Luca could hear was the faint whine of jet engines idling on an asphalt runway.
“Luca,” Julian’s voice lost its aristocratic polish, dropping into a cold, venomous rasp. “You always had an annoying habit of arriving uninvited.”
“You hired my fiancée to murder our father’s widow,” Luca said, his voice flat, devoid of emotion. “You fed her digitalis. You tried to forge her name to steal the ancestral estate.”
Julian let out a bitter, mocking laugh. “*Our* father? He was never my father, Luca! He kept me hidden in boarding schools like a dirty secret while you lived in that marble palace! Eleanor spent thirty years making sure I received scraps from the family table while you inherited the kingdom!”
“You received four hundred million dollars in trust assets when you turned thirty,” Luca answered, his voice icy. “You threw it away on bad real-estate speculation in Dubai and high-stakes baccarat in Monaco. Don’t dress up your greed as childhood trauma, Julian. You’re pathetic.”
“We’ll see who’s pathetic when the dawn comes, little brother,” Julian hissed. “You think Vanessa and Vance were my only pawns? Check your shipping manifests at the Port of Newark, Luca. You’ll find something very interesting in container 408-Bravo. If I go down, Moretti International goes down with me. You’ll be wearing federal orange before the week is through.”
The call went dead.
Agent Chen immediately unclipped her radio. “Command, this is Chen. Alert Port Authority Police and DHS at Newark Terminal 4 immediately. Flag container 408-Bravo for hazardous materials and contraband sweep. And dispatch tactical units to Teterboro Airport, Hangar 9. Suspect Julian Moretti is attempting to flee the country.”
Luca slipped the evidence bag back to Chen. His face was carved from granite. “He won’t be at Teterboro.”
Chen paused, her radio halfway to her mouth. “He just said his flight leaves in forty minutes.”
“Julian is a narcissist, but he isn’t stupid,” Luca said, walking toward the hall closet and pulling out his heavy leather driving gloves. “Teterboro was the bait to draw your federal agents north. If he’s shipping contraband through Newark, he’s overseeing the loading personally from the private logistics dock at Bayonne.”
“Luca, wait,” Chen commanded, stepping in front of him. “You cannot go after him. This is an active federal investigation. If you interfere, you compromise the prosecution.”
Luca looked down at the special agent. His gaze was so intensely fierce that Chen instinctively took half a step back.
“My mother is fighting for her life in an intensive care unit because of that man,” Luca said, pulling the leather gloves tight over his knuckles. “He doesn't get to board a freighter to an extradition-free country while she chokes on poison. You do your job, Agent Chen. I’m going to do mine.”
Luca brushed past her, descended the sweeping stone steps of the estate, and climbed into his matte-black armored Mercedes-AMG G63.
May you like
The twin-turbo engine roared to life, shattering the stillness of the winter night, and the vehicle shot down the winding driveway like a missile into the blinding snow.
***
