Chapter 5 – THE ROSARY IN THE DARK

“Carmine answered?” I repeated, the horror setting in.

“He intercepted the secure line,” Luca said, his voice dropping to a dangerous whisper. “He knew exactly what protocol I’d use. The panic room isn’t a sanctuary. It’s a trap.”

Above us, we heard a heavy, mechanical grinding sound.

I looked at the steel ceiling.

“What is that?” Amelia asked, covering her ears.

Luca’s jaw clenched. “They’re cutting through the ventilation shaft. They’re going to pump gas in to force us out.”

Answer one: Carmine didn’t need to break down the door. He just had to wait us out.

Open two: How did Carmine know the exact schematics of a safe room built exclusively for Luca?

Luca pushed himself off the floor, wincing as the knife wound stretched. He walked over to a small metal desk bolted to the wall.

He opened the bottom drawer and pulled out a heavy steel lockbox. He punched in a code, and the lid popped open.

Inside wasn’t a weapon. It was a delicate silver rosary.

Caroline’s rosary.

Luca stared at it for a second, his eyes softening, before pulling out a set of blueprints hidden beneath it.

“Carmine thinks he knows this room,” Luca said, tracing a line on the paper. “But Caroline designed it. She didn’t trust my security team. She built a backdoor.”

Reversal. The late wife had foreseen the betrayal of the mafia family before her own husband had.

Luca pressed his hand against a seemingly solid concrete panel at the back of the room. He pushed the third stone from the left, then the fifth.

With a low hiss, a section of the wall slid inward, revealing a dark, narrow dirt tunnel.

“It leads to the old aqueducts under the estate,” Luca explained, grabbing a flashlight. “It comes out three miles away, near the river.”

Smoke began to filter through the air vents above us. White, acrid gas that burned the back of my throat.

“Move,” Luca ordered.

I pushed Amelia into the tunnel, climbing in right behind her. Luca followed, sealing the concrete door shut just as the panic room filled with smoke.

The tunnel was damp and freezing. We crawled for what felt like hours, the silence broken only by our heavy breathing and the distant sound of water.

“Sophie,” Amelia whispered in the dark, her hand gripping mine tightly. “Are they going to kill us?”

“No,” I promised her, my voice shaking. “Your dad is going to get us out.”

We finally reached the end of the tunnel. Luca pushed open a rusted iron grate, and we spilled out into the freezing night air.

We were standing in a muddy ravine by the river.

“There’s a safe house ten miles south,” Luca said, checking his wound. The bandage was soaked through. “We need a car.”

We scrambled up the embankment to the main road. The storm had broken, and freezing rain was pouring down.

A pair of headlights pierced the darkness, driving slowly down the deserted road.

Luca stepped out of the shadows, raising a hand.

The car, an older model sedan, screeched to a halt. The driver rolled down the window. It was a young kid, maybe nineteen, looking terrified.

“I need your car,” Luca said, pulling a massive wad of cash from his pocket and throwing it through the window. “Take the money. Run.”

The kid didn’t argue. He snatched the money, abandoned the car, and sprinted into the woods.

We piled in. I put Amelia in the backseat, strapping her in securely. Luca took the wheel.

He slammed on the gas, the tires spinning in the mud before catching the pavement.

“We’re going to make it,” I whispered, holding Amelia’s cold hand.

But as we rounded the first bend, high beams flooded the rearview mirror.

Two black SUVs were riding our bumper.

“They tracked the phone,” Luca cursed, throwing the device out the window.

Gunfire erupted. A bullet shattered the back window, sending glass raining over Amelia and me.

“Get down!” I screamed, throwing my body entirely over Amelia to shield her.

Luca swerved violently, dodging another volley of bullets. He was bleeding heavily, his face pale, his hands gripping the wheel so hard his knuckles were white.

“Sophie,” Luca yelled over the roaring engine. “There’s a bridge coming up. The river is deep. When I say jump, you take her and jump.”

“What? No!” I cried. “You have to come with us!”

“I can’t outrun them like this,” Luca said, his voice breaking. “I have to draw them off.”

“Daddy, no!” Amelia screamed from beneath me.

We hit the bridge. The black SUVs were pulling up alongside us, preparing to ram us off the road.

Luca slammed the brakes, throwing the car into a violent spin. We crashed hard against the concrete barrier.

The airbags deployed with a deafening pop.

“Go!” Luca roared, shoving his door open. “Take her and go!”

I unbuckled Amelia, grabbed her in my arms, and scrambled out of the car.

I looked back at Luca. He wasn’t following us. He was pulling a heavy assault rifle from the trunk.

“Take care of my daughter, Sophie,” Luca said, looking at me with absolute trust.

Then he turned to face the incoming SUVs.

I grabbed Amelia and jumped over the bridge into the freezing black water below.

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