Chapter 7
The Man In The Shaft
“Dad!”
I ran toward the open elevator shaft.
Luca grabbed me around the waist.
“Emma, stop!”
“He's down there!”
A second cable snapped.
Metal crashed somewhere below us.
Dust exploded upward.
“Dad!”
“Emma!”
His voice.
Real.
Not a recording.
Not a photograph.
My father was alive.
Luca pulled me away as part of the platform collapsed into the shaft.
“Stairs.”
We ran down.
Two levels below, Michael and firefighters were forcing open a maintenance door.
My mother stood nearby.
Her face was completely white.
“You heard him?”
I nodded.
She pressed both hands over her mouth.
Fourteen years of grief hit her all at once.
Ethan put an arm around her.
The maintenance door finally opened.
A narrow passage ran behind the elevator.
At the end was a locked service cage.
Someone was inside.
“Emma?”
I stopped walking.
Dad stood behind the bars.
Older.
Thinner.
Blood on his temple.
But alive.
For a moment, neither of us moved.
Then I walked to the cage.
He wrapped his fingers around the bars.
“Baby girl.”
I slapped him.
Nobody stopped me.
The sound echoed through the corridor.
Dad closed his eyes.
“I deserved that.”
I hit his chest when Michael opened the cage.
Then again.
“You were alive!”
“I know.”
“Fourteen years!”
“I know.”
“Mom thought you were dead!”
“I know.”
“You let us bury you!”
His face crumpled.
“I know.”
Then I was crying.
And somehow I was hugging him.
He held me exactly the way I remembered.
One hand behind my head.
One around my shoulders.
“I'm sorry.”
I couldn't stop crying.
Behind me, my mother whispered his name.
“Daniel.”
Dad released me.
He looked at her.
Everything in his face broke.
“Margaret.”
She walked forward.
Then slapped him too.
Ethan muttered, “Family tradition.”
I laughed through my tears.
My mother hit Dad's chest.
“You coward.”
“I know.”
“You unbelievable coward.”
“I know.”
Then she hugged him.
Ethan stood several feet away.
Dad looked at him.
“My God.”
Ethan said nothing.
“You're a man.”
“You don't get to say that.”
Dad flinched.
“I know.”
Ethan's eyes filled with tears.
“You don't know anything about me.”
“No.”
“You don't know where I go to school.”
“Northwestern.”
Ethan froze.
Dad continued.
“Mechanical engineering. Scholarship. You broke your wrist sophomore year skateboarding even though your mother told you not to.”
Ethan stared.
Dad smiled sadly.
“I know more than I deserve to.”
Ethan punched him.
Not hard.
Then hugged him.
I turned away.
Luca stood against the wall.
Watching.
Alone.
Our eyes met.
For a moment, I forgot everything except what he'd done on the platform.
He had saved Victor Bellini.
Not because Victor deserved it.
Because I was watching.
Because Luca cared what I thought of him.
That realization frightened me more than the gunfire had.
Later, police filled the property.
Victor was arrested.
His lawyers arrived before the ambulance finished treating him.
Dad refused the hospital until he had spoken to Luca.
We sat inside an old office.
Dad looked at Luca for a long time.
“You look like Salvatore.”
“So I'm told.”
“You have his eyes.”
“You warned Emma not to trust me.”
Dad didn't apologize.
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because you're a Moretti.”
Luca smiled without humor.
“So were you.”
“No. I worked with your father.”
“For how long?”
“Three years.”
“And you let me believe he died naturally.”
Dad looked down.
“I was trying to survive.”
“I'm getting tired of that excuse.”
Dad's eyes flashed.
“You were twenty-five when Salvatore died. Angry, reckless, surrounded by men loyal to Antonio. If I'd approached you, we'd both be dead.”
“You don't know that.”
“I do.”
Dad leaned forward.
“Because Antonio ordered your death twice.”
Silence.
Luca stared.
“What?”
“The first time, Salvatore stopped it.”
“When?”
“You were twenty-one.”
Luca said nothing.
“The second time was after your father's funeral.”
Michael swore softly.
Dad continued.
“Antonio changed his mind because he realized you were more useful alive. You inherited the company. He could guide you from behind the scenes.”
Luca looked ill.
“What company?”
“All of it.”
Dad pointed toward him.
“You think you've been running Moretti Holdings for five years.”
His voice lowered.
“Antonio has been using you to wash the Bellinis' money the entire time.”
Luca stood.
“No.”
“Yes.”
“My accountants—”
“Report to Antonio.”
“My board—”
“Half were placed by Antonio.”
“My father—”
“Was trying to clean the business before he died.”
Luca paced.
“I shut down every operation I knew was illegal.”
“And Antonio moved the others.”
Dad looked at me.
“That's why Vanessa needed to marry him.”
I understood.
“The voting shares.”
Dad nodded.
“The Moretti family trust gives Luca complete control unless he dies or transfers shares to a spouse.”
Luca stopped.
“My prenup.”
“Had an amendment.”
“No.”
“Yes.”
“Vanessa signed exactly what my lawyers drafted.”
“Which lawyers?”
Luca's face changed.
Dad answered.
“Antonio's.”
For the first time, Luca looked truly betrayed.
Not angry.
Wounded.
His entire adult life had been designed by someone else.
I stood.
“Luca.”
He stepped away.
“I need air.”
He left.
I followed.
Outside, dawn was beginning to color the horizon.
He stood beside an ambulance.
His hands were bloodied from the fight.
I approached slowly.
“You okay?”
“No.”
It was the first completely honest answer he'd given me.
I stood beside him.
“My father lied to me for fourteen years.”
“Mine lied to me for five.”
“So we're both having a terrible week.”
He laughed.
Then looked at me.
“You should leave.”
I frowned.
“What?”
“Take your family and go somewhere safe.”
“You need help.”
“I have help.”
“Michael?”
“Yes.”
“Bruno?”
“Especially Bruno.”
I smiled.
Then realized he wasn't joking.
“You're sending me away.”
“I'm protecting you.”
“I hate when men use those words right before making decisions for me.”
His eyes darkened.
“Emma.”
“No.”
“You nearly died twice.”
“So did you.”
“This is my world.”
“And my father is involved.”
“Which is exactly why you should get out.”
I stepped closer.
“Do you want me gone?”
He stared at me.
That was not the question he'd expected.
“Answer me.”
His voice dropped.
“No.”
My heart kicked.
“Then stop pretending this is only about protecting me.”
“What else would it be about?”
I looked at his mouth.
That was a mistake.
His eyes changed.
He stepped closer.
“Emma.”
“Don't say my name like that.”
“Like what?”
“Like you're about to do something stupid.”
His hand touched my cheek.
“Your family seems to specialize in stupid things.”
Then he kissed me.
There was nothing gentle about the first second.
It was fear.
Relief.
Adrenaline.
Everything we hadn't said.
Then he slowed.
His thumb touched my jaw.
I kissed him back.
For one impossible moment, there was no mafia.
No conspiracy.
No dead fathers who weren't dead.
No Vanessa.
No Antonio.
Just Luca.
Then a gunshot cracked across the yard.
Luca jerked.
His body slammed into mine.
I screamed.
Blood spread across his shirt.
May you like
And on the roof of the building behind us, Antonio Moretti lowered a rifle.
Chapters 1–10
