Chapter 6 - The Man Beside Her BedEmily woke to the sound of arguing.
Emily stared at her brother.
“Daniel?”
He backed away.
“I don’t have anything.”
The phone remained against Emily’s ear.
Moretti laughed softly.
“You should ask him why your father sent him to Boston three days before he died.”
Emily stopped breathing.
She remembered.
Daniel had disappeared for a weekend.
He claimed he was visiting a college friend.
“Daniel.”
Her brother looked toward the floor.
Moretti said, “I’ll call again.”
The line died.
Luca handed the phone to Marco.
“Trace it.”
Marco shook his head.
“He’ll be moving.”
“Try.”
Emily walked toward Daniel.
“What happened in Boston?”
“Nothing.”
“Don’t lie to me.”
“I’m not.”
“Dad sent you somewhere.”
Daniel’s eyes filled with frustration.
“Because he knew you’d react exactly like this.”
“Like what?”
“Like everything was your responsibility!”
Emily recoiled.
Daniel continued.
“Dad knew he was sick.”
“What?”
“He’d had chest pain for months.”
Emily’s face drained.
“He told me it was sudden.”
“He lied.”
“Why?”
“Because you were already working sixty hours a week trying to keep the shop alive. He didn’t want you worrying.”
Emily felt betrayed by a dead man and hated herself for it.
“What did he ask you to do?”
Daniel reached beneath his shirt.
A thin chain hung around his neck.
Attached was a tiny brass key.
Emily had seen it a hundred times.
She thought it belonged to their mother.
Daniel removed it.
“Bus station locker.”
“Where?”
“South Station.”
“What’s inside?”
“I don’t know.”
Luca spoke.
“Your father gave you a key and sent you to Boston?”
Daniel nodded.
“He told me to put an envelope in locker 214 and never open it.”
Marco swore.
“Did you?”
“Yeah.”
“Who else knew?”
“Nobody.”
Luca glanced at Anthony.
Anthony smirked.
“Apparently somebody did.”
They moved before police reached Carter Auto.
Anthony was placed in a separate vehicle under guard.
Emily sat beside Daniel in Luca’s SUV.
She couldn’t look at him.
Daniel finally said, “Say something.”
“What do you want me to say?”
“That you don’t hate me.”
Emily turned instantly.
“I could never hate you.”
“You look like it.”
“I’m angry.”
“At me?”
“At everyone.”
Daniel stared out the window.
“Dad made me promise.”
“I know.”
“You always say promises matter.”
“They do.”
“Then why am I in trouble for keeping one?”
Emily had no answer.
Luca sat across from them.
“Because sometimes promises conflict.”
Daniel looked at him.
“My dad said if anything happened, I should trust Emily.”
Luca’s eyes moved to her.
“He was right.”
“And he said Emily should trust you.”
Emily looked away.
Luca noticed.
The convoy stopped at a private airfield.
Emily frowned.
“Why are we here?”
“Boston.”
“You have a plane?”
Daniel glanced toward the black jet outside.
Emily sighed.
“Of course you have a plane.”
Luca nearly smiled.
They were airborne twenty minutes later.
Anthony traveled separately.
Marco remained in New York to contain the aftermath at Carter Auto.
For the first thirty minutes, nobody spoke.
Emily sat by the window.
Luca eventually took the seat opposite her.
“You’re angry with me.”
“I’m angry with every man currently breathing.”
“That seems broad.”
“Give me time.”
He leaned back.
Emily looked at his scarred hands.
“You knew your father hid things.”
“Yes.”
“But not this.”
“No.”
“Does it bother you?”
“More than I expected.”
“Why?”
Luca looked toward Daniel, who had fallen asleep across the cabin.
“My father died believing I hated him.”
Emily’s anger softened.
“What happened?”
“He wanted me out of the organization.”
“And you didn’t want out?”
“I was twenty-one.”
“That’s not an answer.”
“At twenty-one, I thought power was the opposite of fear.”
“What do you think now?”
Luca glanced out the window.
“Power is usually fear with better tailoring.”
Emily almost smiled.
“What did you fight about?”
“He had started dismantling parts of the business. Men around him thought he was weak. I thought he was surrendering everything he built.”
“And then?”
“He was shot outside our old butcher shop.”
“I’m sorry.”
“I took control three days later.”
“Because you wanted revenge?”
“Because whoever killed him expected the organization to collapse.”
Emily watched him.
“Did you find who did it?”
“I thought I did.”
“Thought?”
“The man confessed.”
“You don’t believe him anymore?”
Luca stared at the ledger on the table.
“Not after learning my uncle Peter may have betrayed my father.”
Emily understood.
“Anthony’s father.”
“Yes.”
“So this archive could tell you who killed him.”
“Maybe.”
“And that’s why you won’t destroy it.”
Luca met her eyes.
“Yes.”
Emily wanted to tell him vengeance would not give his father back.
But after what Moretti had done to Daniel, she understood the hunger for answers too well.
Two hours later, they entered South Station through a private security entrance.
Locker 214 was still there.
Daniel inserted the key.
Nothing happened.
“Stuck,” he said.
Luca motioned to a guard.
The lock was opened.
Inside sat one manila envelope.
Emily removed it.
Written across the front:
FOR LUCA DELUCA ONLY
She handed it to him.
Luca opened it.
Inside was the missing ledger page.
And a photograph.
Luca stared at it so long Emily became worried.
“What?”
He turned the photograph toward her.
It showed three men outside Carter Auto.
Emily’s father.
Luca’s father.
And Peter DeLuca.
Behind them was a fourth man stepping from a car.
Emily recognized him from news photographs.
Victor Moretti.
The date printed on the bottom was seventeen years ago.
Two weeks before Frank DeLuca was murdered.
Luca unfolded the ledger page.
Four initials appeared beside large payments.
P.D.
V.M.
H.B.
F.C.
At the bottom, Frank had written:
If I die, Peter ordered it. Victor arranged it. H.B. paid for it. F.C. protected them.
Luca sat down.
Emily whispered, “Your uncle killed your father.”
Luca’s face went empty.
Daniel stared.
“Anthony’s dad?”
“Yes.”
Emily touched Luca’s arm.
He did not move.
For a moment she expected him to pull away.
Instead his hand covered hers.
His scars were rough against her skin.
Then footsteps echoed outside the locker corridor.
Luca stood instantly.
Three of his guards raised weapons.
A woman screamed in the station.
A fire alarm began ringing.
“Move,” Luca ordered.
Smoke poured through the hallway.
Daniel coughed.
Emily grabbed him.
A figure appeared through the haze.
Gunshot.
One of Luca’s guards fell.
Chaos exploded.
Luca shoved Emily behind a concrete pillar.
“Stay here.”
“Where are you—”
Another shot struck the wall.
Daniel shouted.
Then someone grabbed him from behind.
Emily screamed.
“Daniel!”
A masked attacker dragged him toward a service door.
Emily ran.
Luca caught her waist.
“No!”
“They have him!”
Luca fired.
The attacker dropped.
Daniel crawled free.
Another man appeared behind Luca.
Emily saw the gun first.
“Luca!”
She slammed into him.
The bullet meant for Luca tore across Emily’s side.
For half a second, she felt nothing.
Then fire exploded beneath her ribs.
She collapsed.
Luca caught her.
His face changed.
“Emily?”
She looked down.
Blood spread across her shirt.
“Daniel?”
“He’s safe.”
“Good.”
Her knees gave out.
Again.
But this time Luca didn’t allow her to touch the floor.
He lifted her into his arms.
“Stay with me.”
Her vision blurred.
“You always give orders?”
“Yes.”
“Annoying.”
“Emily.”
She tried to smile.
Then her eyes closed.
Something inside Luca broke.
He carried her through the station while his men surrounded him.
Outside, an ambulance waited.
A wounded attacker crawled behind a parked car.
Luca saw him.
He stopped.
The man looked up.
Fear filled his face.
Luca held Emily tighter.
“Who sent you?”
The attacker laughed.
“You know.”
Luca did.
Vincent Moretti.
The paramedics took Emily.
Luca climbed into the ambulance beside her.
As the doors closed, he called Marco.
“Find Moretti.”
“We’re trying.”
“No.”
Luca looked down at Emily’s blood covering his hands.
May you like
His voice became colder than Marco had ever heard it.
“I’m done trying.”
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