Chapter 5 – THE CHILD’S DRAWING

The element of surprise is a lethal weapon.

Before Carlo’s men could even register where the attack was coming from, Luca dropped two guards near the SUVs.

“Lily! Run!” my mother screamed over the gunfire.

Lily, terrified but incredibly brave, scrambled under a rusted metal workbench, covering her ears.

I didn’t think. I didn’t hesitate. I vaulted through the shattered window, ignoring the glass slicing into my palms, and sprinted straight for the metal barrel where the hitman had draped my coat.

A guard stepped into my path, raising his rifle.

I squeezed the trigger of the heavy handgun Luca had given me.

The recoil snapped my wrist back violently, but the bullet caught the guard in the shoulder, spinning him to the ground.

I reached the barrel and grabbed my grey winter coat, my fingers desperately tearing at the inner lining.

I felt the hard, cold beads.

I ripped the fabric open and pulled out the heavy silver rosary.

“I have it!” I yelled to Luca.

Carlo, realizing he was exposed, grabbed Vanessa by her blood-soaked coat and dragged her behind the engine block of one of the SUVs.

“Kill them!” Carlo roared to his remaining men. “Don’t let them leave with that rosary!”

Bullets began pinging off the metal barrel next to me.

Luca laid down a punishing wave of suppressing fire, advancing meticulously across the room until he reached the workbench where Lily was hiding.

He reached under and scooped my tiny, trembling daughter into his arms.

“I’ve got you, little one,” Luca promised, shielding her with his body.

He grabbed my mother’s chair with his free hand, kicked the wooden legs until they splintered, and dragged her behind a massive steel support beam.

I crawled across the concrete, clutching the rosary to my chest, and slid in beside them.

“Mom!” I cried, hugging her tight.

“I’m okay, sweetheart,” she gasped, though her lips were blue and she was struggling to breathe. The stress was triggering her heart condition.

“We are pinned down,” Luca said grimly, ejecting his magazine and clicking his final one into place. “I have ten rounds left. We can’t shoot our way out of this.”

I looked down at the heavy silver rosary in my hands.

“What is so important about this?” I asked, my voice shaking.

“The beads,” my mother wheezed, pointing a trembling finger. “Look at the beads, Megan.”

I held the rosary up in the dim light.

They weren’t traditional smooth beads. They were tiny, intricately carved metal cylinders.

“They aren’t prayer beads,” Luca realized, his eyes widening. “They’re cryptex cylinders. It’s a combination lock.”

“Anthony gave it to me,” my mother whispered. “He told me the ledger proving Carlo’s treason was hidden in a place where only a child could find it. But you need the combination from the rosary to open it.”

“What’s the combination?” Luca asked urgently.

My mother shook her head, tears spilling down her cheeks.

“He never told me. He said the answer was already given to the one person Carlo would never suspect.”

“Who?” I asked.

“Me,” Lily whispered.

Luca and I both looked down at my six-year-old daughter.

She was clutching a crumpled piece of paper in her tiny hands.

It was the other half of the torn drawing we had found in the apartment.

“Lily, sweetheart,” I said gently, brushing her hair back. “What is that?”

“The nice man gave it to me,” Lily sniffled, holding up the drawing.

I looked at it.

It wasn’t just a child’s drawing of stars.

It was a meticulous sketch of a constellation.

“Orion,” Luca breathed, recognizing the pattern.

“The nice man at the diner,” Lily said softly. “He sat in the booth with Grandma. He told me if I ever saw a scary man with a scar, I should draw the stars for him.”

I looked at my mother in absolute shock.

“Mom? Anthony Moretti met Lily?”

My mother nodded weakly. “Three weeks ago. When I went to the diner to leave the card for Luca… Anthony’s old friend, an enforcer who remained loyal, was watching the place. He slipped Lily the paper while I was talking to June.”

Luca examined the rosary. He looked at the constellation on the drawing.

“Orion’s belt has three stars,” Luca muttered, his mind racing. “The coordinates. It’s a numerical cipher.”

He rapidly twisted the metal cylinders on the rosary, aligning the notches with the numbers corresponding to the star pattern.

With a soft, mechanical click, the large silver crucifix at the bottom of the rosary popped open.

Inside was a tiny, gold micro-SD card.

“The ledger,” Luca said, a fierce, triumphant light in his eyes.

Suddenly, the gunfire stopped.

The silence in the warehouse was deafening.

“Luca!” Carlo’s voice echoed across the concrete. “You have nowhere to run! Hand over the rosary, and I’ll let the women live. I give you my word as a Moretti!”

“Your word is worth nothing, Carlo!” Luca shouted back. “You killed Vanessa’s mother! You tried to kill my father!”

“And now I’m going to kill you!” Carlo snarled.

We heard the distinct metallic clink of a grenade pin being pulled.

“He’s flushing us out!” Luca yelled.

He shoved the micro-SD card into my hand.

“Megan, listen to me,” Luca said, his voice urgent and intense. “There is an old maintenance tunnel beneath that grate behind you. It leads to the river. Take your mother and Lily and go.”

“I’m not leaving you!” I cried, grabbing his jacket.

“You have the evidence!” Luca insisted, his dark eyes burning into mine. “Take it to the Commission. End this. I will hold them off.”

“You’ll die!”

Luca offered a small, sad smile.

“My father died protecting your mother. It’s only fitting I do the same for you.”

Before I could argue, a small, metal canister bounced across the floor and landed ten feet from us.

Smoke immediately began pouring from it.

“Go!” Luca roared, standing up and firing into the smoke to draw their attention.

I grabbed Lily’s hand, hauled my mother to her feet, and pulled the heavy iron grate open.

We dropped into the dark, damp tunnel just as the warehouse erupted into absolute chaos above us.

We ran blindly through the dark, the sounds of gunfire fading behind us.

When we finally emerged by the muddy banks of the Chicago River, I looked back at the warehouse.

Flames were licking the roof.

I clutched the gold memory card in my hand, tears streaming down my face.

Luca had sacrificed himself.

But as I looked at the gold chip, I realized I had no idea how to get to the Mafia Commission.

I was just a maid.

And then, a black limousine silently pulled up to the riverbank.

The back door opened.

Sitting inside, holding a chipped blue coffee mug, was June Harper.

“Get in, sweetheart,” June said softly. “We have a wedding to crash.”