Chapter 5 – THE GOLD POCKET WATCH

The echo of the sniper’s rifle shattered the silence, plunging the room into absolute chaos.

“Get down!” Silvio roared, tackling Luca to the floor as a second bullet shattered a crystal vase on the mantelpiece, missing Luca’s head by inches.

I dropped to the floor instantly, curling myself into a tight ball behind the heavy mahogany sofa. My heart hammered against my ribs, the sound deafening in my own ears.

Leo was screaming, crawling frantically toward the hallway, entirely abandoning his weapon on the Persian rug.

“They’re shooting from the east ridge!” Silvio yelled into his radio, drawing his own sidearm and returning fire blindly through the shattered window to provide cover. “Secure the perimeter! Find that sniper!”

I squeezed my eyes shut, terrified, but my hand brushed against something hard and metallic on the carpet.

I opened my eyes.

Lying just inches from my fingers was the heavy gold pocket watch Uncle Matteo had dropped when he was killed.

Without thinking, I grabbed it, shoving it deep into the pocket of my black dress, terrified that whatever secret it held would be lost in the bloodshed.

“Elena, crawl to the door!” Luca yelled over the deafening sound of returning gunfire. He was crouched behind an armchair, his dark eyes locked onto me with fierce, desperate protection.

I didn’t hesitate. I stayed low, scrambling across the expensive rug, avoiding the glass shards sparkling like diamonds in the dim light.

Luca grabbed my arm as soon as I was within reach, pulling me roughly into the hallway, shielding my body with his own massive frame until we were clear of the fatal sightlines.

We pressed our backs against the cool marble wall of the corridor, both of us breathing heavily.

“Are you hit?” Luca demanded, his hands quickly checking my shoulders and arms for blood, his eyes wide with a terrifying vulnerability I had never seen in him.

“I’m okay. I’m okay,” I gasped, grabbing his hands to stop his frantic searching. “I’m not hurt.”

Luca let out a sharp, ragged exhale, resting his forehead against the marble wall for a fraction of a second, closing his eyes to rein in the adrenaline.

“Boss, the perimeter is locked down,” Silvio reported, rushing out into the hallway, his face grim. “The sniper is gone. They used a suppressed high-caliber rifle. Professional hit.”

“They weren’t trying to kill me,” Luca stated, his voice turning to ice as he opened his eyes, the ruthless mafia boss fully returning. “They had a clear shot at me when I was standing in the center of the room. They intentionally shot Matteo.”

“Why?” I whispered, my voice shaking.

“Because Matteo was about to tell me who actually cut my mother’s brakes twenty-five years ago,” Luca said softly.

He looked down the hallway, toward the grand staircase where Leo had fled.

“And whoever it is,” Luca realized, his jaw clenching with lethal intent, “is still inside this family.”

I reached into my pocket, my fingers closing around the cold metal of the gold watch.

“Luca,” I said quietly, pulling the watch out and holding it up in the dim light. “Matteo was trying to pull this out of his pocket right before he was shot.”

Luca stared at the heavy, ornate timepiece. He slowly took it from my hand.

“This was my father’s watch,” Luca murmured, tracing the intricate engravings on the gold casing. “He never took it off. Matteo must have taken it from his body before the morticians arrived.”

Luca pressed the small button on the top. The gold lid popped open with a soft click.

The watch face was beautiful, frozen precisely at 3:15. But that wasn’t what caught Luca’s attention.

“The glass is missing,” Luca noted, running his thumb over the exposed hands of the clock.

He turned the watch over, examining the inside of the gold lid.

“Elena, look at this,” he said, angling the lid toward the hallway sconce.

I leaned in.

Micro-engraved into the smooth gold interior of the lid, so small it was almost invisible to the naked eye, was a tiny, intricate grid of numbers and letters.

“It’s a cipher,” Silvio grunted, peering over Luca’s shoulder. “Old school syndicate code. The old Don used to use these to hide offshore bank routing numbers.”

“He didn’t just hide money,” Luca said, his eyes narrowing as he studied the sequence. “My father was a paranoid man. He kept records of everything. Blackmail. Payoffs. Kill orders.”

Luca looked up, his dark eyes burning with absolute certainty.

“The name of the man who cut my mother’s brakes is in this code,” Luca stated. “Matteo knew it. That’s why he stole the watch. He was trying to protect himself.”

“But who has the key to the cipher?” I asked, my mind racing.

Luca closed the watch with a sharp snap.

“My father only trusted one place with his most dangerous secrets,” Luca said, his voice dropping into a dangerous rumble. “His private safe. The one hidden behind the false wall in his locked office.”

The very office Leo had been trying to break into earlier that afternoon.

“Leo doesn’t have the combination,” Luca realized. “He was choking you because he thought you were trying to figure it out.”

“Do you know the combination?” I asked.

Luca shook his head slowly. “No. When my father died, he took it to the grave. I’ve had three master safecrackers look at it. It’s a custom biometric and analog hybrid. It requires a specific numerical sequence and a physical key.”

Luca looked down at the tarnished silver bracelet still wrapped around my wrist—the bracelet belonging to my mother.

Then, his eyes dropped to my neck, to the bruises partially hidden by my black silk scarf.

“Elena,” Luca said softly, a sudden, wild realization flashing in his eyes. “When Leo attacked you in the hallway… what exactly did he say to you?”

I swallowed hard, remembering the terrifying pressure of his hands.

“He said, ‘One word to Luca, and you’ll disappear before morning,’” I recalled, my voice trembling slightly.

“But before that,” Luca pressed gently, stepping closer. “Why did he attack you? You said you were looking for Mia’s kitten. Where exactly was the kitten?”

I thought back to the afternoon.

“The kitten was batting at something on the floor near the office door,” I explained. “It looked like a piece of string. When I bent down to pick it up, Leo stepped out of the office and grabbed me.”

Luca’s breath hitched. “It wasn’t a piece of string, Elena. What was it?”

I closed my eyes, trying to visualize the moment before the violence.

“It was… it was a thin, black leather cord,” I remembered. “Like a necklace.”

“A rosary,” Luca breathed, the color draining from his face. “My father never went to church, but he always carried a black leather rosary in his pocket. He claimed it was a good luck charm from his grandfather.”

Luca looked at Silvio. “Leo didn’t break into the office to steal the train ticket. He broke in to steal the rosary.”

“Why?” I asked, confused.

“Because the beads on that rosary aren’t for praying,” Luca stated, turning on his heel and marching down the hallway toward the East Wing. “They are the analog key to my father’s safe. Leo has the combination. We need to find him before he opens it.”

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