Chapter 5 – THE PEARLS IN THE WATER

“Let him go!” Luca roared, pulling his gun so fast it was a blur.

But he couldn’t take the shot. Carlo was completely shielded behind Leo’s small body.

Leo was crying, his tiny hands desperately clutching Maria Moretti’s pearl bracelet against his chest.

“Drop the gun, Luca, or I open his throat right now!” Carlo screamed, backing toward the edge of the patio where a wooden staircase led down to the private boat dock on Lake Michigan.

Luca’s hands shook. He looked at his nephew’s terrified face. Slowly, agonizingly, Luca placed his weapon on the wet ground and kicked it away.

“Smart boy,” Carlo sneered. He began dragging Leo backward down the wooden stairs toward the dark, churning water of the lake. A small speedboat was tied to the dock, bobbing violently in the storm.

“Carlo, please!” Vanessa begged from the ground, her voice raw. “You have the money! Leave the boy!”

“The boy is the only reason Luca hasn’t blown my head off!” Carlo yelled back.

He reached the dock. He threw Leo into the back of the speedboat with a sickening thud. Leo screamed, curling into a ball.

Carlo fumbled with the mooring ropes with his good hand, his shoulder bleeding heavily.

“Emma,” Luca whispered, not taking his eyes off the dock. “When I move, you get the boy.”

“Luca, he has a knife,” I breathed.

“Trust me.”

Carlo finally untied the rope. He turned to climb into the boat.

In that split second, Luca sprinted.

He didn’t run down the stairs. He vaulted completely over the stone railing of the patio, dropping fifteen feet through the air directly onto the wooden dock below.

The impact cracked the wooden planks.

Carlo spun around, raising the switchblade.

But Luca didn’t stop. He hit Carlo with the force of a freight train, tackling the older man directly into the freezing, violent waters of the lake.

“Luca!” I screamed.

I bolted down the wooden stairs, ignoring the rain and the darkness.

The speedboat was drifting away from the dock, unmoored and rocking dangerously in the waves.

I didn’t think twice. I leaped off the edge of the dock, crashing painfully onto the fiberglass deck of the boat.

“Leo!” I yelled, crawling desperately toward the back.

The little boy was shivering in the corner, sobbing. I pulled him into my arms, wrapping my coat around him, holding him tight.

“I’ve got you,” I cried, pressing his face into my chest. “You’re safe now.”

But when I looked over the edge of the boat, my heart stopped.

The water was black and violent. There was no sign of Luca or Carlo.

“Luca!” I screamed into the storm. “Luca!”

Only the sound of the wind answered me.

Panic seized my throat. He couldn’t be dead. He couldn’t have survived all this just to drown saving us.

Suddenly, a hand slammed onto the edge of the dock.

Luca pulled himself up from the freezing water. He was gasping for air, shivering violently, but he was alive. He didn’t have a knife wound.

He stood up on the dock, staring down into the black water.

Carlo Bellini never came back up.

Luca looked up and saw me holding Leo in the drifting boat. He grabbed a spare mooring line from the dock and threw it perfectly, wrapping it around the boat’s cleat, and pulled us back to safety.

I scrambled out of the boat, holding Leo tight.

Luca collapsed onto the wooden planks. I fell to my knees beside him, wrapping my free arm around his freezing, soaking wet neck.

“You’re alive,” I sobbed, kissing his cold cheek.

Luca leaned his forehead against mine, his chest heaving. He looked down at Leo, who was still clutching the pearl bracelet.

“I told you I’d find you,” Luca whispered to the boy.

Leo reached out with a trembling hand. He opened his palm, offering the pearl bracelet to Luca.

“Grandma said this belonged to you,” Leo said softly.

Luca stared at the pearls. The jewelry that had belonged to the mother who loved him, the mother who had died trying to save her grandson.

Luca didn’t take the bracelet. Instead, he closed Leo’s small hand over the pearls.

“Keep it, Leo,” Luca smiled through his tears. “It belongs to family.”

Suddenly, the sound of heavy sirens pierced through the storm.

Flashing red and blue lights illuminated the dark woods above us. Daniel and the rest of the Moretti security team rushed down the stairs, followed closely by paramedics.

Daniel stopped when he saw Luca sitting on the dock, soaked and shivering, holding me and his nephew.

“Boss,” Daniel panted, breathless. “We secured the perimeter. Vanessa is in custody. Anthony is getting medical attention.”

Luca nodded slowly, helping me stand up.

He looked at Daniel, his dark eyes filled with a new kind of peace.

“The war is over, Daniel,” Luca said quietly. “Take us home.”

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