Chapter 3 – THEY KNEW ABOUT MY BROTHER
The photograph slipped from my fingers and fluttered to the marble floor.
My knees gave out. I hit the ground hard, gasping for air as if the room had suddenly flooded with water.
My sweet, funny, profoundly deaf seven-year-old brother. He was supposed to be at home with my mother, safely tucked into bed.
“Ella.” Luca was suddenly kneeling in front of me, his large hands gripping my shoulders. His touch was firm, grounding. “Look at me.”
I couldn’t. My eyes were glued to the photo on the floor.
“They have him,” I choked out, a sob tearing through my throat. “Whoever tried to take Noah… they have my brother. That’s why they wanted me fired. That’s why…”
“Look at me!” Luca commanded, his voice vibrating with authority.
I forced my eyes up to meet his.
“Nobody has your brother,” Luca said softly. “Look at the date stamp on the bottom corner of the photo.”
I looked down. Printed in tiny white numbers was a date. October 14th.
Last week.
“This is a surveillance photo,” Luca explained, his voice low enough that only I could hear. “They were watching your house. They wanted to use him as leverage if you didn’t cooperate. But they don’t have him right now.”
He stood up, pulling me with him. He didn’t let go of my hand.
“Daniel,” Luca barked.
“Boss.”
“Send four cars to Ella’s mother’s house. Now. Bring her mother and the boy to the safehouse downtown. Nobody touches them. If anyone tries, leave them in the street.”
“On it,” Daniel said, already sprinting toward the door.
I exhaled a shaky breath, tears spilling over my cheeks. “Thank you,” I whispered.
Luca didn’t smile. He just turned his attention back to the room.
Most of the guests had backed against the walls, terrified. Claudia was standing near the fireplace, clutching her ruined designer dress, her eyes darting nervously toward the hallway.
“Going somewhere, my love?” Luca asked.
Claudia froze. “I… I need to clean myself up, Luca. This is insanity. I have a concussion.”
“You have a scratch,” Luca corrected coldly. “And you have a lot of explaining to do.”
“I didn’t do this!” she shrieked, her perfect facade completely crumbling. “I told you, I was trying to send him to boarding school! That’s all! I didn’t hire an SUV or men in the dark!”
“Then who asked you to map my cameras?”
Claudia clamped her mouth shut. She looked terrified. Not of Luca, but of something else.
“Who, Claudia?” Luca took a step toward her.
“If I tell you,” she whispered, her voice shaking, “he will kill me.”
Before Luca could force the answer out of her, Noah pulled urgently on my skirt.
I looked down.
Noah was holding the black wool peacoat that the guards had brought in. He had been digging through the inner lining.
He pulled something out and held it up to me.
Look, he signed.
I took the object from his small hands. It was a thick, glossy envelope. An airline ticket jacket.
I opened it.
Inside was a one-way, first-class ticket for a private charter plane leaving Chicago tonight at 11:00 PM. The destination was Palermo, Italy.
But it wasn’t a ticket for Noah.
I stared at the name printed on the boarding pass, my mind failing to process the letters.
“Luca,” I said, my voice shaking.
He turned to me. “What is it?”
“The ticket. It’s… it’s not for your son.”
I handed it to him.
Luca read the name. His dark eyes flicked up to mine, filled with a sudden, horrifying realization.
The name on the ticket was Ella Brooks.
Someone wasn’t just trying to kidnap the heir to the Moretti empire. They were planning to frame me for it.
And just as Luca opened his mouth to speak, my cell phone, tucked deep in my apron pocket, began to ring.
I pulled it out.
The caller ID said Mom.
I answered it frantically on speakerphone. “Mom? Are you okay? Is Leo—”
“Hello, Ella,” a deep, smooth male voice purred through the speaker.
It wasn’t my mother.
It was Luca’s brother, Michael.
“Such a shame the lights came back on so quickly,” Michael sighed over the phone. “But don’t worry. If you want to see your mother and brother breathing tomorrow… check the inside pocket of the boy’s jacket. I left a little gift for my big brother.”
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