Chapter 9 – THE GHOST IN THE MAIL

The warm sunlight pouring into the mansion suddenly felt ice cold.

Luca stared at the pristine white note, his jaw locking so tight I could hear his teeth grind. He reached out and picked up the vintage diamond necklace from the velvet box.

“This belonged to my mother,” Luca whispered, his voice trembling with a terrifying, suppressed rage. “She was buried wearing this necklace ten years ago.”

My stomach violently churned. “They robbed your mother’s grave? Just to send a message?”

“They didn’t just rob it,” Luca said, his dark eyes darkening to pitch black. “They desecrated it to show me they can touch anything that belongs to me. Even the dead.”

Gabriel walked over, his happy smile fading when he saw our faces. “Mom? What’s wrong?”

I immediately masked my terror with a warm, reassuring smile. I turned and knelt in front of him, adjusting the collar of his little suit.

“Nothing’s wrong, sweetie,” I said smoothly. “Uncle Luca and I just got some boring business mail. Why don’t you go upstairs and show your new adoption papers to Maria in the kitchen? I bet she baked you a cake.”

Gabriel’s eyes lit up again. “Okay!” He snatched the papers off the table and ran down the hallway, completely oblivious to the nightmare that had just been dropped on our coffee table.

Once he was out of earshot, Luca slammed the wooden box shut with enough force to splinter the lid.

“Marco’s replacement,” Luca barked.

The new head of security, a towering man named Elias, stepped into the room immediately.

“Lock down the estate,” Luca ordered, his voice echoing with absolute authority. “Nobody enters or leaves. Put snipers on the roof. Triple the perimeter guard.”

“Yes, Boss,” Elias nodded, pulling his radio.

Luca turned to me, pacing the Persian rug like a caged tiger. “The Vipers didn’t die with Silvio. I should have known. Silvio was just a manager for them in Chicago. The real head of the Vipers is a woman named Carmine. And she’s demanding my shipping routes to clear Vanessa’s twenty-million-dollar gambling debt.”

“The shipping routes are how you bring in legitimate cargo,” I said, remembering the ledgers I had read. “If you give them to the Vipers, they’ll use your trucks to traffic drugs and weapons. The FBI will tear your family apart within a month.”

“Exactly,” Luca said. “It’s a trap. If I don’t pay, they take Gabriel. If I do pay, the feds arrest me and Gabriel goes back to an orphanage.”

“So we fight,” I said, crossing my arms. I wasn’t the scared maid cowering in the panic room anymore. I was a mother protecting her child.

Luca stopped pacing and looked at me, a mixture of awe and fear in his eyes.

“Carmine operates out of the shadows, Hannah. The Commission turned a blind eye to the Vipers because Silvio was paying them off. But with Silvio dead and the Commission backing off, Carmine is acting independently. She’s desperate. Desperate animals are the most dangerous.”

“Then we set a trap of our own,” I suggested. “The note says give them the shipping routes by midnight. Where does she want the transfer signed?”

Luca flipped the note over. Written on the back was an address.

The old cathedral on 5th Street. Come alone. Bring the deed.

“It’s a massive, abandoned church,” Luca said grimly. “She’ll have it rigged with a dozen shooters in the rafters.”

“You can’t go alone, Luca,” I pleaded, stepping forward and grabbing his arms. “They killed Vanessa in federal lockup. They’re ghosts.”

“I have to, Hannah,” Luca said softly, resting his forehead against mine. “I won’t let them near you or Gabriel. I’ll bring Elias and a heavily armed strike team. We’ll flank them before I even step foot in the nave.”

I didn’t like it, but I knew arguing with him when it came to protecting us was useless.

Hours passed in agonizing tension. The sun set, plunging the city into darkness. I stayed in Gabriel’s room, reading him stories and watching him play with his father’s old baseball glove.

At 11:00 PM, Luca kissed us both goodbye, wearing a Kevlar vest beneath his tailored suit. He walked out the front doors, taking three heavily armored SUVs with him into the night.

I sat in the living room, staring at the grandfather clock. 11:15. 11:30. 11:45.

The silence in the mansion was deafening, despite the dozen guards patrolling the grounds outside.

Suddenly, my cell phone vibrated on the coffee table.

It was an unknown number.

I answered it, my heart in my throat. “Hello?”

“Hello, Hannah.”

The voice was female. Smooth, cultured, and terrifyingly calm.

“Who is this?” I demanded.

“My name is Carmine,” the woman purred.

My blood ran cold. “Luca is meeting you at the cathedral.”

“I know,” Carmine chuckled softly. “I’m watching his black SUVs pull into the church parking lot right now from a very comfortable distance. Your new husband is predictable, Hannah. He brought an army to a ghost town.”

“If you’re not at the church,” I whispered, standing up slowly, “where are you?”

“Oh, my dear,” Carmine smiled through the phone. “I’m sitting in your kitchen.”

I dropped the phone.

I spun around, staring down the long, dark hallway that led to the west wing kitchen.

The mansion’s security alarms hadn’t made a sound. The guards outside hadn’t reported a breach.

I ran to the kitchen doors and pushed them open.

Sitting at the massive marble island, casually sipping a glass of Luca’s expensive scotch, was a striking woman in her fifties, wearing a white silk suit. Standing behind her were two massive men armed with suppressed submachine guns.

Lying unconscious on the floor near the pantry was Maria, the cook, and two of Elias’s interior guards.

Carmine smiled warmly at me.

“You have a lovely home, Hannah,” Carmine said, raising her glass. “Now, be a good maid, and go fetch the boy.”