Chapter 7 – The Betrayal At The Station

Lauren smiled, her red lipstick looking like a fresh wound in the flashing strobe lights.

“Hello, Maggie,” Lauren purred.

I pulled Lily behind my back, shielding her small body with my own.

“How did you get here?” I demanded, backing away slowly.

“You think Matteo’s security guards are loyal to him?” Lauren laughed. “I paid them triple to let me out of the estate the second you left for the airport. I took a commercial flight. Got here an hour before you did.”

Marco Moretti, a ruthless-looking man in his fifties, aimed the gun steadily at me.

“Give me the girl,” Marco commanded.

“She’s my daughter, Maggie,” Lauren said, taking a step forward. “Hand her over. You’re just the maid. This isn’t your fight.”

Lily buried her face in my coat, trembling violently.

“Mommy’s bad,” Lily whispered into my spine. “She locked me in the dark.”

My blood boiled.

“You’re a monster,” I spat at Lauren.

“I’m wealthy,” Lauren corrected. “Marco and I have an arrangement. He keeps Matteo busy on the upper concourse, I take Lily and the train ticket to Montreal, and Marco gets the Russo territory in New York without firing a shot.”

Marco stepped closer.

“Last chance, girl. Give me the kid.”

I scanned the corridor frantically.

There was no way out. The service doors were behind Marco. The stairs were blocked by his men.

I gripped the silver rosary around my neck.

“Matteo knows you’re here,” I bluffed.

“Matteo is currently surrounded by ten of my best men upstairs,” Marco sneered. “He’s a dead man walking.”

Suddenly, the radio clipped to Marco’s belt crackled to life.

But it wasn’t his men speaking.

It was Matteo’s voice.

“Marco. Look behind you.”

Marco froze.

He spun around.

Standing at the end of the corridor, flanked by fifty heavily armed Russo soldiers, was Matteo.

He wasn’t dead. He wasn’t surrounded.

He had brought an army.

Matteo walked forward, his black coat blowing back, a heavy rifle in his hands.

“You brought ten men to a war, Marco,” Matteo said, his voice echoing like thunder over the alarms. “I brought fifty. Yours are currently tied up in the ticketing office.”

Marco’s face went pale.

He raised his gun, aiming wildly at Matteo.

“I’ll shoot her!” Marco yelled, pointing the gun at me and Lily.

Before Marco’s finger could twitch on the trigger, a gunshot rang out in the confined basement.

It didn’t come from Matteo.

Marco gasped, dropping his weapon. He clutched his stomach and fell to his knees.

I stared in absolute shock.

Standing behind Marco, holding a smoking handgun, was Lauren.

She had shot her own ally.

Lauren quickly threw the gun onto the floor and kicked it away.

She threw her hands in the air, tears streaming down her face perfectly on cue.

“Matteo!” Lauren cried out, running toward him. “Thank God! Marco kidnapped me! He forced me to come here! He was going to kill Lily!”

Matteo didn’t lower his rifle.

He stared at the woman who had lied, stolen, and betrayed everyone.

“You shot him to save yourself,” Matteo stated.

“I shot him to save our daughter!” Lauren pleaded, dropping to her knees. “Anthony is weak, Matteo! You know he is! But we can be a family! You and me! Please!”

Matteo walked slowly toward her.

He looked down at Lauren with absolute disgust.

“You are a poison,” Matteo whispered.

He looked past her, toward me.

“Maggie. Bring Lily here.”

I held Lily’s hand tightly and walked past Marco’s bleeding body.

As we reached the safety of Matteo’s men, Anthony burst through the stairwell doors.

“Lily!” Anthony screamed.

He fell to his knees on the concrete floor.

Lily let go of my hand and ran to her father.

“Daddy!”

Anthony buried his face in his daughter’s neck, sobbing uncontrollably.

“I’m sorry, I’m so sorry,” Anthony cried. “I’ll never let anyone hurt you again.”

Lauren watched them from the floor.

She realized her leverage was completely gone.

“You can’t leave me here,” Lauren panicked, looking at Matteo’s soldiers. “Marco’s family will kill me for shooting him!”

Matteo turned his back on her.

“Then I suggest you run.”

He signaled his men.

They escorted us out of the basement, leaving Lauren completely alone in the terminal with a bleeding mafia boss and no allies.

As we walked out into the freezing Chicago dawn, Matteo placed a heavy hand on my shoulder.

He looked at me, a profound gratitude in his dark eyes.

“You didn’t run,” Matteo said quietly.

“She’s just a little girl,” I replied, shivering from the cold.

Matteo took off his heavy black coat and draped it over my shoulders.

“You’re safe now, Maggie. You’re coming home.”

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