Chapter 3 – THE MAN IN THE SHADOWS
“Lock the doors,” Luca commanded.
It wasn’t a shout, but the sheer authority in his voice sent his security detail into instant motion. Heavy deadbolts slammed shut. The forty dinner guests were frozen in a state of collective shock, watching a polite society dinner devolve into a nightmare.
I pulled Lily tighter against my chest. Her little heart was racing like a trapped bird’s.
“Who is the man with the spider tattoo?” I asked, my voice shaking.
Luca didn’t look away from the drawing. “His name is Elias. He runs a rival syndicate. He’s the man who murdered my sister.”
He finally looked at Charles, who was now weeping pathetically against the wall.
“You sold my sister’s jewelry to your wife,” Luca said, piecing it together. “And you used Lily as a Trojan horse to get inside my house tonight. You weren’t here to invest, Charles. You were here to open the front door.”
Vanessa backed away, horrified. “I didn’t know! I swear, Luca, I didn’t know he was working with Elias! I just wanted a child! I just wanted you to love me!”
“You wanted power,” Luca corrected coldly. “And you used a mother’s heartbreak to get it.”
He pulled his phone from his pocket, but before he could dial, the main hall plunged into total darkness.
The chandelier above the dining table clicked off.
Someone screamed.
“Hannah!” Luca’s voice cut through the dark. “Stay down!”
I curled my body entirely over Lily, shielding her small frame with my own. My breathing was ragged.
“Mommy, I’m scared,” Lily whimpered against my collarbone.
“I’m right here, baby,” I whispered fiercely into her hair. “I will never let you go again. Never.”
A heavy thud echoed from the front of the mansion. Someone was trying to breach the reinforced oak doors.
In the dim moonlight filtering through the tall windows, I saw Luca move. He reached into the inner pocket of his tailored jacket and pulled out a heavy black firearm.
He walked toward Charles, who was crawling toward the kitchen hallway.
Luca grabbed him by the collar and dragged him back.
“You’re going to fix this,” Luca growled, pressing the barrel under Charles’s chin. “Or you don’t walk out of this room.”
Suddenly, my phone buzzed in my apron pocket.
The screen glowed brightly in the dark room, illuminating Lily’s terrified face.
It was an unknown number.
I looked at Luca. He gave a sharp nod.
I answered, putting it on speaker.
“Hello?” I said, my voice barely a whisper.
A raspy, amused voice echoed from the phone.
“Hannah Brooks. It’s been a long time.”
My blood ran cold. I knew that voice.
“Who is this?” I demanded.
“You don’t recognize the man who gave you away at your wedding?” the voice mocked.
I stopped breathing.
My father.
The father who had walked out on me when I was fifteen years old.
“Dad?” I choked out.
“Tell Moretti to open the door, Hannah,” my father said, his voice dripping with malice. “Or I press this little button, and the car Charles drove here in—the one currently parked under the gas line—turns this entire mansion into ash.”
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