Chapter 3 – The Hostage In The Rain

The world tilted on its axis.

“My mother?” I choked out, my hands going completely numb. “No… no, she’s at home. She’s asleep.”

Luca grabbed my shoulders, steadying me as my knees threatened to give out.

“Emma, look at me,” he commanded, his voice a solid anchor in the middle of my panic. “We will get her back. I swear to you on my life.”

He turned to the bleeding guard. “How did they get to Emma’s mother? She lives in the suburbs. It takes forty minutes to drive there.”

“They didn’t go to her house, sir,” the guard explained, wiping blood from his eyes. “Her mother was here. At the service gate. She was dropping off a package for Emily.”

My heart stopped.

The package.

Tomorrow was my birthday. My mother always brought me homemade muffins the night before.

“They grabbed her when they ambushed Vanessa’s escort,” the guard continued. “Dominic’s right-hand man called the gate phone a minute ago. He said if you want the old woman alive, you bring the ledgers to the abandoned rail yard by midnight.”

“The union ledgers,” Luca muttered, his jaw clenching. “Dominic needs them to prove he didn’t steal the money two years ago. He needs them to overthrow me with the Commission.”

“Daddy, I’m scared,” Oliver whimpered, clutching my apron.

Luca crouched down and pulled Oliver into a tight hug. “You are safe, buddy. I have twenty men surrounding this house. Nobody is getting in.”

He stood up and looked at me. “I’m going to the rail yard.”

“I’m coming with you,” I said immediately.

“Absolutely not. It’s too dangerous.”

“She’s my mother!” I yelled, tears finally spilling over my cheeks. “She is the only family I have left! I am not sitting in a mansion while she gets a bullet to the head!”

Luca stared at me. He saw the fierce, desperate fire in my eyes.

“Fine,” Luca said. “But you stay in the car. And you do exactly what I say.”

He turned to his head of security. “Put Oliver in the basement safe room. Lock it down. Do not open that door for anyone but me.”

Ten minutes later, we were tearing through the rain-slicked streets of Chicago in a heavily armored SUV.

The silence in the car was suffocating. I stared out the window at the blurred city lights, praying to a God I hadn’t spoken to in years.

“Emily,” Luca said quietly from the driver’s seat.

I looked at him.

“My wife’s name was Clara,” he said softly, his eyes fixed on the road. “She was a school teacher. She hated this life. She hated the violence. She stayed because she loved me, and because she wanted to protect Oliver.”

He tightened his grip on the steering wheel.

“I failed her. I let Vanessa into our lives because she was the daughter of a powerful boss. I thought it would bring peace to the families. Instead, it brought a murderer into my home.”

“You didn’t know,” I whispered.

“I should have,” Luca replied bitterly. “But I will not fail you. Your mother is innocent in all of this.”

We pulled up to the abandoned rail yard. The rusted train cars loomed in the darkness like metal skeletons.

Two black sedans were parked near the center tracks, their headlights cutting through the pouring rain.

Standing in front of the cars was a tall man in a dark trench coat. Even from a distance, I could see the thick silver scar on his jaw.

Dominic.

And kneeling in the mud beside him, with a gun pressed to her head, was my mother.

“Mom!” I screamed, lunging for the door handle.

Luca locked the doors from the driver’s console. “Stay here.”

He grabbed a heavy metal briefcase from the backseat and stepped out into the rain.

“Dominic!” Luca’s voice boomed across the empty yard. “I have the ledgers. Let the woman go.”

Dominic smiled. “Not so fast, little cousin. First, you toss the briefcase over. Then, we discuss Vanessa.”

“Vanessa is your problem now,” Luca shot back, walking slowly toward them.

“Actually,” Dominic chuckled, stepping aside to reveal the open trunk of one of the sedans.

My blood ran cold.

Lying in the trunk, bound and gagged, was Vanessa Bellini.

“Vanessa wasn’t just a spy, Luca,” Dominic yelled over the rain. “She’s the one who stole the union money two years ago. She framed me so you would exile me, leaving her a clear path to marry you.”

Luca stopped walking.

“I didn’t cause your wife’s crash, Luca,” Dominic said, his smile fading. “Vanessa did. But there’s something you still don’t know.”

Dominic reached into his coat and pulled out a small, waterproof envelope.

“Vanessa didn’t just push Clara’s foot off the brake,” Dominic yelled. “She was paid to do it.”

He threw the envelope onto the muddy ground.

“Open it, Luca! Look at the bank transfer! Look at who paid your beautiful fiancée to murder your wife!”

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