Chapter 10 – THE BOILER ROOM

The silence in the basement was absolute, broken only by the muffled, terrified sobs of Vanessa tied to the chair.

Hannah stared up at the catwalk. The man holding the detonator had her mother’s dark eyes. He had the same slight tilt to his chin that Hannah saw in the mirror every morning. It was a terrifying mirror image, twisted by decades of violence.

“Drop the guns, Luca,” Hannah whispered, not taking her eyes off Leo.

“Hannah, if he blows the boilers—” Daniel started.

“He won’t,” Hannah interrupted, stepping out from behind Luca’s broad shoulders. “He sat outside our mother’s room for a month. He watched her die. He didn’t bring me here to kill me.”

Luca hesitated, his jaw tight. Slowly, he lowered his Glock and placed it on the concrete floor. Daniel reluctantly followed suit.

Leo watched them from the catwalk, his face an unreadable mask. He slipped the detonator into his tactical vest and agilely climbed down the rusted metal ladder, dropping the last five feet to the floor with a heavy thud.

He walked slowly toward them, his eyes fixed entirely on Hannah.

“You shouldn’t have brought them, Hannah,” Leo said, his voice a low, rough rumble. “This is family business.”

“You kidnapped a woman, Leo,” Hannah said, her voice shaking but resolute. “You ambushed police officers. This isn’t family business. This is the Bellini business. It’s the exact thing our mother spent her entire life trying to protect us from.”

Leo stopped ten feet away. A flash of profound anger crossed his face.

“Our mother abandoned me,” Leo spat, the cold facade finally cracking. “Marcus Bellini took me when I was four years old. He locked me in a basement. He beat the weakness out of me. And where was the great Mary Collins? Serving coffee in a diner while I was turned into a monster.”

“She bought a ticket!” Hannah cried, stepping forward.

Luca instantly reached out to pull her back, but Hannah shrugged off his grip.

“She bought a train ticket to Seattle, Leo! For two passengers. Her and you.” Hannah’s voice broke into a sob. “She was coming to get you the night Antonio Moretti died. But Bellini’s men found her. If she had gone for you, he would have killed us all. She had to run to keep me alive, but she never stopped looking over her shoulder. She died of a broken heart because she couldn’t save you.”

Leo stared at her, his chest heaving. The hand resting near his sidearm twitched.

“Lies,” Leo whispered, but the absolute certainty in his voice was gone. “Marcus told me she chose the Moretti family over her own flesh and blood.”

“Marcus Bellini is a parasite,” Luca said, stepping up beside Hannah. “He used you as leverage to control your mother, and when that failed, he used you as a weapon against my family. He told you she abandoned you so you’d never hesitate to pull the trigger for him.”

Leo looked at Luca, his eyes darkening with lethal intent.

“And you’re any better, Moretti?” Leo sneered. “You let my sister scrub your floors while you live in a mansion built on the blood my mother spilled for your father.”

“I didn’t know,” Luca said softly. “But I know now. And I am standing here without a weapon, offering you a way out.”

“I don’t want a way out,” Leo snapped, holding out his hand. “I want the rosary. Give me the drive, Hannah. I give it to the feds, Bellini rots in solitary, and I take over the docks.”

Hannah reached into her pocket. Her fingers closed around the cold, antique silver.

She pulled the rosary out and held it up by the crucifix. The black onyx beads caught the dim light of the construction bulb.

Leo’s eyes softened for a fraction of a second as he recognized it.

“I’ll give it to you,” Hannah said, her voice trembling. “If you let Vanessa go.”

Leo scoffed. “Vanessa is insurance. Throw me the rosary.”

“No,” Hannah said, gripping the cross tightly. “You let her go, or I drop this down the floor grate, and it falls into the subterranean drainage system. You’ll never see the drive.”

Leo stared at her. He recognized the stubborn, unyielding defiance in her eyes. It was Mary Collins’s defiance.

With a disgusted sigh, Leo pulled a combat knife from his vest and walked over to Vanessa. He sliced the ropes binding her arms and ripped the duct tape from her mouth.

Vanessa gasped, coughing violently, tumbling out of the chair onto the concrete floor.

“Get out,” Leo growled at her.

Vanessa didn’t need to be told twice. She scrambled to her feet, terrified, and sprinted toward the stairwell without looking back.

“She’s gone,” Leo said, turning back to Hannah. “The rosary. Now.”

Hannah took a deep breath. She stepped forward and tossed the heavy silver rosary through the air.

Leo caught it with one hand.

He didn’t hesitate. He immediately pressed his thumb against the back of the crucifix, popping the hidden locket open.

He looked inside.

It was completely empty.

Leo’s head snapped up, absolute betrayal burning in his eyes.

“Where is the drive, Hannah?” he roared, reaching for the pistol at his hip.

But before his gun could clear the holster, the deafening sound of a massive steel door slamming shut echoed from the floor above them.

Then, the wail of sirens.

Not outside the building. Inside the stairwell.

Daniel smiled grimly. “While you were monologuing about C4, kid, I tapped the panic button on my radio. The FBI didn’t just catch Vanessa running out the door. They have the entire building surrounded.”

Leo realized he’d been played. He looked frantically at the catwalk, then at the boiler shadows.

He drew his weapon and aimed it directly at Luca.

“If I’m going down, the Moretti bloodline ends tonight,” Leo snarled, his finger whitening on the trigger.

Hannah didn’t think. She didn’t scream.

She threw herself directly in front of Luca just as Leo pulled the trigger.