Chapter 5 - Daniel’s Secret“No.”
“No.”
Marco tapped the paper.
“It’s there.”
“My father owned that shop for thirty-four years.”
“Which means he may have known.”
“He would’ve told me.”
Luca stood opposite her.
“Would he?”
Emily looked at him sharply.
“My father didn’t keep secrets from me.”
Daniel, sitting nearby, cleared his throat.
“Actually…”
Emily turned.
Daniel immediately looked guilty.
“What?”
“Dad had a safe.”
“I know.”
“No. Another safe.”
“What other safe?”
“In the garage floor.”
Emily stared.
“You’re kidding.”
Daniel shook his head.
“I saw him opening it once when I was fourteen.”
“And you never told me?”
“He made me promise.”
Emily pushed her chair back.
“Where?”
“Under the alignment machine.”
They left for Carter Auto thirty minutes later.
Luca insisted on six vehicles.
Emily called it ridiculous.
Then she remembered men had fired through Luca’s windows less than twelve hours ago and stopped arguing.
The shop looked exactly as she had left it.
Bent metal sign.
Two service bays.
Small office with peeling blue paint.
Her father’s coffee mug still sat beside the ancient computer.
Emily stopped in the doorway.
Memory hit without warning.
Her father laughing.
Her father singing badly to classic rock.
Her father teaching her to change brake pads.
Her father sitting in the same chair three weeks before his heart attack, telling her Daniel would eventually stop being an idiot.
Emily touched the desk.
Luca remained several feet away.
For once, he didn’t tell her to hurry.
Daniel led Marco to the alignment machine.
They removed four bolts and slid it aside.
Beneath it was concrete.
“Nothing,” Marco said.
Daniel knelt.
“Here.”
A tiny metal ring was embedded near the edge.
He pulled.
A square section of concrete lifted.
Underneath sat a steel box.
Emily stopped breathing.
Daniel whispered, “Told you.”
Luca crouched beside the box.
“Locked.”
Emily searched her father’s desk.
Top drawer.
Old pens.
Invoices.
Second drawer.
Flashlight.
Keys.
At the back was a brass key she had never seen.
It fit.
Inside the box were three things.
A pistol.
A ledger.
And a sealed envelope addressed:
EMILY AND DANIEL
Emily’s fingers trembled.
She opened it.
Her father’s handwriting filled two pages.
Kids, if you’re reading this, then either I finally found the courage to tell you the truth or I ran out of time.
Emily sat down.
Daniel moved beside her.
She continued.
When I bought Carter Auto in 1991, the previous owner showed me a tunnel below the shop. I thought it was just an old smuggling route. Years later, a man named Frank DeLuca came to see me.
Luca went completely still.
Emily looked up.
“Your father?”
“Yes.”
She read on.
Frank told me the tunnel had once been used by his family, but he wanted it sealed. He was trying to move his business away from certain things. He paid me to weld the entrance closed and promised no one would ever bother us.
Luca stared at the letter.
His father had died seventeen years ago.
But before we sealed it, Frank hid something below the shop. Not drugs. Not guns. Records.
Marco muttered, “Jesus.”
Emily continued.
Names, payments, judges, police officers, businessmen. Frank said the information could destroy people who would kill to keep it hidden. He didn’t trust his own organization anymore. He said one day his son might need it.
Everyone looked at Luca.
Emily’s voice grew quieter.
I promised to protect it until Luca DeLuca came asking. He never did.
Luca closed his eyes briefly.
Emily read the final paragraph.
If anyone ever comes for the shop, it means they learned what is below it. Do not fight alone. Find Luca. Tell him Frank kept his promise, and so did I.
Emily lowered the letter.
The room was silent.
Daniel looked at Luca.
“Our dad knew your dad?”
“Apparently.”
Emily stared at the paper.
“He knew you would help.”
Luca’s voice was low.
“He hoped.”
“No.”
Emily looked at him.
“He knew.”
Luca turned away.
For the first time since she met him, he appeared genuinely shaken.
Marco opened the ledger.
“It’s coded.”
Luca recognized the system instantly.
“My father’s.”
“You can read it?”
“Some.”
He took the ledger.
Page after page contained initials, dates, amounts, and locations.
Then Luca stopped.
One entry made his face harden.
V.M. — EAST RIVER — ARCHIVE
“Vincent’s father,” he said.
Marco leaned closer.
“Victor Moretti?”
Luca nodded.
Daniel frowned.
“Why would his father be in your father’s records?”
“Because Victor Moretti worked for mine.”
Emily suddenly understood.
“Vincent knew.”
“Maybe Victor told him before he died.”
Marco looked toward the shop floor.
“If Moretti gets that archive…”
“He can blackmail half the people listed,” Luca said.
“Or kill them.”
Emily stood.
“Then we destroy it.”
Luca looked at her.
“No.”
“Why?”
“Because information is leverage.”
“So you want it.”
“Yes.”
The simple answer angered her.
“My father spent thirty years protecting this because he believed your father wanted it buried.”
“He protected it because my father said I might need it.”
“That doesn’t mean use it.”
Luca’s jaw tightened.
“You don’t understand what’s happening.”
“No. I understand perfectly. Moretti beat me, kidnapped my brother, and tried to kill me because people like you hide power in boxes and call it protection.”
Marco looked away.
Daniel whispered, “Emily.”
“No.”
She pointed at Luca.
“My father is dead. Your father is dead. And now we’re cleaning up secrets they left beneath our lives.”
Luca stepped closer.
“You think I asked for this?”
“I think you’re very comfortable controlling it.”
His expression hardened.
“Control keeps people alive.”
“Control nearly got Rosa killed last night.”
That landed.
Emily regretted it immediately.
But she didn’t take it back.
Luca stared at her.
Then an explosion rocked the building.
Glass shattered.
Daniel hit the floor.
Luca grabbed Emily and dragged her behind a hydraulic lift as gunfire tore through the garage door.
“Moretti!” Marco shouted.
Three vehicles smashed through the front entrance.
Armed men poured out.
Luca’s guards returned fire.
Emily covered her head.
Daniel crawled toward her.
“Stay down!”
Smoke filled the shop.
Luca fired twice.
A man dropped behind a truck.
Marco shouted through his radio.
“Rear entrance compromised!”
Emily looked toward the floor hatch.
The tunnel.
“They’re not here for us!”
Luca understood immediately.
“They want the archive.”
A masked man disappeared through the rear service bay.
Emily stood.
Luca grabbed her wrist.
“Where are you going?”
“He’s heading for the tunnel.”
“Emily—”
“That archive is under my property.”
“This is not the time to argue ownership.”
She pulled free.
“You don’t even know where the entrance is.”
She did.
Her father’s letter contained one final instruction at the bottom.
Under Bay Two. Red bolt.
Emily ran.
Luca swore and followed.
They reached Bay Two as the masked man found the hidden latch.
Emily grabbed a tire iron.
He turned.
She swung.
The iron struck his forearm.
His pistol fell.
He lunged for her.
Luca hit him before he reached her.
The fight lasted seconds.
Luca slammed the man against the wall, disarmed him, and drove him to the floor.
Emily stared.
“You followed me.”
“Obviously.”
“You told me to stay down.”
“You ignored me.”
“I noticed.”
Another explosion shook the shop.
Luca ripped the masked man’s face covering away.
Both he and Emily froze.
Anthony.
Blood ran from Luca’s cousin’s mouth.
“Surprise.”
Luca’s face became dangerous.
“You escaped.”
Anthony laughed weakly.
“I had help.”
“Where’s Moretti?”
“Close.”
Emily stared at him.
“You tried to kill us again.”
Anthony looked at her.
“No.”
“You brought these men here.”
“I brought them for the archive.”
“What’s the difference?”
“You were supposed to be gone.”
Luca grabbed Anthony by the jacket.
“You knew this was my father’s.”
Anthony smiled.
“I knew before you did.”
“How?”
“My father.”
Luca froze.
Anthony’s father, Peter DeLuca, had died only two years earlier.
Anthony continued.
“Frank didn’t trust his own brother. That’s why he gave the records to Carter.”
Luca’s grip loosened slightly.
“My father trusted Peter.”
“No. Your father knew Peter was selling him out.”
Marco arrived.
“Boss, we need to move. NYPD scanners are lighting up.”
Luca pulled Anthony upright.
“Take him.”
Anthony laughed.
“You’re still missing the point.”
Luca turned.
“What point?”
“Moretti doesn’t need the archive anymore.”
Emily’s stomach dropped.
“Why?”
Anthony looked straight at her.
“Because he already has part of it.”
“How?”
Anthony grinned through bloody teeth.
“Your father made copies.”
A phone began ringing.
Not Luca’s.
Not Marco’s.
Emily looked toward her father’s old office.
The sound came from the desk.
She walked slowly toward it.
Inside the bottom drawer, beneath a stack of invoices, was an old flip phone.
It should not have worked.
Yet it rang.
Emily answered.
“Hello?”
Vincent Moretti spoke.
“Your father was much smarter than you gave him credit for.”
Emily’s blood went cold.
“What do you want?”
“What I always wanted.”
“The property?”
“No.”
Moretti’s voice softened.
“The last page of the ledger.”
Emily looked at Luca.
He opened the ledger.
The final page had been torn out.
Emily whispered, “We don’t have it.”
Moretti laughed.
“Oh, Emily.”
Then he said the words that changed everything.
“Ask your brother.”
May you like
Emily turned toward Daniel.
Daniel’s face had gone completely white.
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