Chapter 15 - The Moretti War
Carlo did not attack the villa.
He surrounded it.
Then he called.
Luca answered on speaker.
“Give me the child.”
“No.”
“I don’t need Emma.”
I felt Luca’s entire body go cold.
“You will never say that sentence again.”
Carlo laughed.
“You sound like your father.”
“I learned what not to become from him.”
Another laugh.
“You think fatherhood makes you noble?”
“No.”
Luca looked toward Grace.
“It makes me dangerous.”
The call ended.
Carlo’s men remained beyond the gates.
Italian authorities were coming.
But someone delayed them.
Moretti influence still reached deep.
Alessandra studied the old tunnels beneath the villa.
“There is a sea exit.”
Luca shook his head.
“He expects it.”
“Then what?”
I looked at Brittany.
“Carlo believes she is still loyal?”
Brittany stared.
“He tried to kill me.”
“He doesn’t know you survived.”
Her eyes narrowed.
“What are you thinking?”
Twenty minutes later Brittany called Carlo.
She cried.
Begged.
Said Luca left her alive because he believed she knew nothing.
Then she gave him the lie.
“Emma is taking the baby through the sea tunnel.”
Carlo reacted immediately.
Three vehicles left the front perimeter.
Another group moved toward the cliffs.
Exactly what Luca wanted.
Italian police arrived five minutes later.
The remaining men surrendered.
But Carlo was not among them.
He had never been outside.
Luca realized first.
“The chapel.”
We ran.
The vault door stood open again.
A hidden passage behind the records room had been exposed.
Carlo had entered from beneath the property.
He had been inside the entire time.
A scream echoed upstairs.
Sofia.
I ran.
Luca caught my arm.
“No.”
“That’s my daughter.”
We reached the nursery.
The bassinet was empty.
Sofia lay beside the bed, conscious but bleeding from the temple.
“He took her.”
Everything inside me stopped.
“No.”
Luca’s face became something I had never seen.
Fear.
Pure fear.
A phone rested inside the bassinet.
It rang.
Luca answered.
Carlo’s voice filled the room.
“You spent your life collecting buildings, Luca.”
A baby cried in the background.
Grace.
May you like
My knees weakened.
“Now let’s see what you’ll trade for one little girl.”
