Chapter 4 – THE SIGNET RING
The gold ring caught the flickering fluorescent light of the garage.
Arthur’s men hesitated, looking between the attorney and the bloody ring in an eight-year-old’s hand.
“You killed my father,” I said, my voice trembling with a sudden, overwhelming rage. “Vanessa’s family didn’t do it. You did.”
Arthur’s polite facade finally shattered.
“Thomas was a loose end!” Arthur shouted. “He was going to ruin everything your father built, Luca!”
“My father built an empire on my mother’s blood,” Luca snarled.
Before Arthur could order his men to fire, Marco moved.
He didn’t shoot Arthur.
He shot the main breaker box on the wall.
Sparks showered the garage, and the room plunged into absolute darkness.
“Get down!” Luca yelled, grabbing me and Ben.
He threw us behind the crushed front end of the black sedan.
Gunfire erupted.
The deafening roar of bullets hitting metal echoed in the cramped space.
I covered Ben’s ears, pressing my face against his hair.
“I’ve got you,” I whispered frantically. “I’ve got you, Ben.”
Luca returned fire, his shots precise and measured in the dark.
I heard two heavy thuds as Arthur’s men hit the concrete.
“Marco, the side door!” Luca ordered.
“Clear!” Marco yelled back.
Luca grabbed my hand.
“Run, Sarah. Now.”
We scrambled out from behind the car.
I scooped Ben into my arms and ran blindly toward the sliver of moonlight coming from the side exit.
We burst out into the freezing night air.
We sprinted across the overgrown lawn toward the tree line, leaving the gunfire behind us.
When we finally reached the dense woods at the edge of the property, Luca pulled us down behind a massive oak tree.
He was breathing heavily.
“Are you hurt?” he asked, running his hands over my arms and checking Ben.
“We’re okay,” I gasped. “We’re okay.”
Luca slumped against the tree.
“Marco has the car. He’ll circle around to pick us up on the main road.”
He looked at the gold signet ring I had taken from Ben.
“Arthur killed your father,” Luca said quietly. “And he tried to frame the Bellini family to start a war. He wanted me and Vanessa’s father to destroy each other so my father could consolidate power.”
I looked at him.
The powerful mafia boss I had served dinner to just hours ago looked completely broken.
“Luca,” I said softly. “What do we do now?”
He looked into the dark woods.
“We find the ledger. The real one. The one your father hid.”
“But I don’t know where it is,” I said helplessly. “We tore the apartment apart looking for Dad’s life insurance papers. We found nothing.”
Ben shifted in my arms.
“Sarah?”
I looked down.
“Yes, honey?”
“Dad didn’t hide it in the apartment.”
Luca immediately leaned in.
“Where did he hide it, Ben?”
Ben chewed his lower lip.
“He told me to put it somewhere safe. Somewhere nobody would ever look.”
“Where?” I asked.
Ben pointed to the little blue backpack he was still clutching.
“In the lining.”
I stared at him.
I grabbed the backpack and unzipped the main compartment.
I ran my fingers along the bottom seam.
It felt thicker than usual.
I pulled out my keys and used the sharpest one to slice the nylon fabric.
Inside, wrapped in a plastic grocery bag, was a small, black leather notebook.
Luca took it carefully.
He clicked on a small penlight from his pocket and opened the pages.
“This is it,” Luca breathed. “Dates, times, payments. Arthur’s payoffs to the police. My father’s offshore accounts. The bribes to the judge who ruled my mother’s death an accident.”
He looked up at me.
“Your father was a hero, Sarah. He compiled enough evidence to dismantle the entire Chicago syndicate.”
A wave of profound grief and pride washed over me.
My father hadn’t been a dirty cleaner.
He had been a man trying to buy his children a safe life with the truth.
Suddenly, Luca’s radio crackled.
“Boss,” Marco’s voice came through the static. “I’m on the main road. But we have a problem.”
“What is it?”
“Arthur isn’t chasing you. He called the police. He reported a kidnapping.”
My heart stopped.
“Who was kidnapped?” Luca asked.
“Ben,” Marco replied grimly. “Arthur told the cops that Sarah’s deranged boss took her little brother at gunpoint. They’re issuing an Amber Alert right now.”
The reversal was brilliant and terrifying.
Arthur was using the law to hunt us.
“If the police catch us,” Luca said, his jaw tight, “Arthur’s judges will ensure I go to prison, and Ben goes into the system.”
“They’ll put him in that boarding school,” I panicked.
“I won’t let that happen,” Luca said.
He stood up, helping me to my feet.
“We have the ledger. Now we need leverage.”
“Leverage against who?”
“Against the one person who hates Arthur as much as I do.”
Luca looked toward the city lights in the distance.
“We’re going to see Vanessa.”
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