Chapter 7 – THE BLOOD ON THE TRACKS
“Emily, take Bella to the back of the car. Now.”
Luca didn’t yell. His voice was a flat, terrifying absolute. He pulled off his suit jacket, pressing it hard against Elena’s bleeding side.
I grabbed Isabella’s hand and dragged her behind a row of passenger seats, shielding her eyes.
The three Syndicate men walked down the aisle, their knives glinting in the flickering fluorescent lights of the train car.
“Give us the microfilm, Moretti,” the lead man sneered. He had a jagged scar across his throat. “And we’ll let the kid live.”
Luca slowly stood up. He didn’t raise his gun. He simply dropped it on the floor and kicked it away.
“You want it?” Luca said softly. He pulled the tiny roll of microfilm from his pocket and held it up. “Come and get it.”
The three men charged.
What happened next was too fast for me to fully process. Luca didn’t fight like a man trying to survive. He fought like a father protecting his world.
He dodged the first knife, grabbed the man’s wrist, and twisted it with a sickening snap. He used the first man as a shield as the second one lunged.
I covered Isabella’s ears as the brutal sounds of bone breaking and bodies slamming into seats echoed through the car.
Within thirty seconds, the three men were unconscious on the floor.
Luca was bleeding from a cut on his cheek, but he didn’t stop. He knelt back down beside Elena.
“Stay with me, Elena,” he begged, his hands covered in her blood. “We’re going to get you a doctor.”
Elena shook her head weakly. “The Ledger, Luca. You have to destroy it.”
“What?” Luca asked. “No. This is our leverage. It’s the only way to clear our family name.”
“Vanessa wants it to buy her way into the Syndicate,” Elena rasped, coughing weakly. “If it exists… they will never stop hunting us. Destroy it. Let it go.”
Luca looked at the microfilm in his hand. Decades of mafia power, billions in leverage, all coiled in a tiny piece of plastic.
Without hesitating, he walked over to the shattered window of the train door and tossed it out into the rainy darkness.
It was gone.
“Okay,” Luca whispered, kneeling back down. “It’s gone. You’re safe.”
The train suddenly screeched, the brakes locking violently. We were thrown forward as the massive machine ground to a halt on the tracks.
Through the windows, I saw we were in an abandoned rail yard outside the city.
Surrounding the train were a dozen black SUVs. Dozens of armed men were pouring out.
And leading them, holding an umbrella against the rain, was Vanessa.
She had a megaphone.
“End of the line, Luca!” she called out merrily. “Bring out the Ledger, or we light the train on fire!”
Luca looked at me. His eyes were defeated.
“I threw it away,” he whispered. “I have nothing to bargain with.”
“Maybe you don’t,” a new voice said from the shadows of the train car.
We all whipped around.
Standing at the opposite end of the car was Rosa, the old nurse. She was holding a heavy, rusted metal canister.
“Rosa!” I gasped. “How did you get on the train?”
“I know the rail yards,” she said, walking toward us with surprising speed. She looked out the window at Vanessa’s men.
“Your grandmother was a very clever woman, Emily,” Rosa said, opening the metal canister. “Did you really think she hid the real Ledger in a piece of jewelry a child could lose?”
Rosa pulled out a thick, leather-bound book from the canister. The real Naples Ledger.
“The microfilm was a decoy,” Rosa smiled. “This is the real one. And I already sent copies to the FBI thirty minutes ago.”
Suddenly, the wail of police sirens pierced the night air. Not just one. Dozens.
Red and blue lights flooded the rail yard. FBI tactical teams swarmed from the shadows, surrounding Vanessa and the Syndicate men.
Vanessa dropped her megaphone, her face a mask of pure terror, as handcuffs were slapped onto her wrists.
I looked at Rosa in shock.
“Who are you really?” I asked.
Rosa smiled warmly, reaching out to touch my cheek.
“I am your great-aunt, Emily,” she said softly. “Sophia’s sister. And it’s time you came home to your real family.”
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