Chapter 3 - The Unlocked Safe
The heavy mahogany door to the master suite was locked from the inside, the deadbolt fully engaged.
Luca did not bother knocking; he kicked the door directly beside the brass lock with the heel of his heavy dress shoe.
The solid oak splintered with an explosive crack, the door flying inward to slam against the wall.
Vanessa screamed, dropping a designer leather duffel bag onto the Persian rug beside the king-sized bed.
Piles of crisp hundred-dollar bills, three European passports, and dozens of diamond jewelry boxes lay scattered across the silk duvet.
"Get away from me, Luca!" Vanessa shrieked, backing toward the open French balcony doors as the cold night wind whipped her hair across her face. "You touch me and my father will bring the entire North Side coalition down on your head!"
Luca stepped across the threshold, lowering his weapon until it pointed directly at the floor between them.
"Your father owes eighteen million dollars to the docks union in Boston, Vanessa," Luca said, his voice terrifyingly calm. "He doesn't have the power to protect a stray cat, let alone a treasonous daughter."
Matteo moved silently past Luca, kicking the open duffel bag aside and securing the balcony entrance to cut off her only escape.
"You tried to murder Rex," Luca stated, each syllable falling like a lead weight in the cold room. "Explain why."
Vanessa laughed hysterically, her eyes wild with panic and mascara running down her flushed cheeks.
"It was a dog, Luca! Just a filthy, shedding, slobbering dog!" she cried out. "You spent more time brushing his coat than you spent looking at me! You loved that mongrel more than you ever loved your own flesh and blood!"
Luca took a slow, measured step forward, the sheer aura of his presence forcing Vanessa to stumble back against the vanity mirror.
"I asked you once, Vanessa, and I will not ask you a second time," Luca said, his eyes black voids of deadly promise. "Why did you need him dead before Friday?"
Vanessa pressed her lips tightly together, crossing her arms defensively and glaring at him with venomous hatred.
"Look through her phone, Matteo," Luca instructed without shifting his gaze.
Matteo walked over to the nightstand, picking up Vanessa's gold-plated smartphone, but it was shattered on the carpet where she had deliberately stomped it.
"She destroyed her personal device, Boss," Matteo reported.
"She has a second one," Luca said coldly. "Check behind the decorative baseboards near the private safe."
Vanessa gasped, her eyes darting toward the dressing room in sheer terror.
Matteo walked into the walk-in closet, knelt near the base of the floor-to-ceiling shoe rack, and pulled away a magnetic wooden panel.
A heavy digital wall safe was exposed, its green electronic keypad blinking in the darkness.
"Input her mother's maiden name followed by the year she made her debutante ball," Luca said, never taking his eyes off his trembling wife. "She never had the imagination to create a real cipher."
Matteo punched in the six digits, and a mechanical beep sounded as the heavy steel bolts retracted.
Inside the safe lay three burner flip phones, a small silver vial containing clear liquid, and a thick manila envelope sealed with black wax.
Matteo retrieved the items and handed the envelope directly to Luca.
Luca broke the black wax with his thumb and pulled out a stack of high-resolution architectural schematics.
My breath hitched in my throat as I watched from the hallway threshold, clutching a damp towel meant for Rex.
The schematics depicted the grand ballroom of the Drake Hotel, marked with red grease-pencil circles around the primary ventilation shafts and the main stage.
At the top of the first page, printed in bold block letters, was the official event header: THE MORETTI COALITION INAUGURAL GALA — FRIDAY, OCTOBER 24TH.
"Friday night," Luca whispered, his voice turning into an icy razor. "The night the heads of all five families gather to sign the peace charter and name me head of the city council."
Luca flipped through the pages, his jaw hardening into solid iron as he found a typed manifest of imported industrial shipments.
"A shipment of military-grade hexogen plastic explosives arrived at the South Side railyards three days ago," Luca read aloud, his eyes scanning the technical notes. "Disguised as high-end floral display stands for the banquet centerpieces."
Luca looked up from the paper, his gaze boring into Vanessa's soul.
"Hexogen has a distinct chemical signature that standard bomb-sniffing police dogs often miss due to the stabilizer oils," Luca murmured. "But Rex was trained on that exact European formula after the Milan warehouse bombing in 2018."
Vanessa began to sob openly, covering her face with her trembling, manicured hands.
"You knew that Rex accompanies me inside my armored car to every major diplomatic summit," Luca said, piecing together the horrifying puzzle with chilling clarity. "You knew that before I ever step foot into a ballroom, Rex sweeps the perimeter and the stage."
Luca tossed the schematics onto the bed, where they scattered across the stolen cash.
"If Rex had walked into the Drake Hotel on Friday, he would have alerted to those floral stands the second the front doors opened," Luca said. "And the entire plot would have failed before your conspirators could detonate the room."
"They were going to kill my brother, Luca!" Vanessa screamed suddenly, dropping to her knees on the rug. "Marco took twenty million from the Castiglione family to fund his casino venture in Macau, and he lost every single penny! They told me that if I didn't help clear the path for Friday, they would send Marco back to me in pieces!"
Luca looked down at her with nothing but cold, unadulterated disgust.
"So to save your degenerate, gambling-addict brother, you decided to slaughter my loyal companion, blow up four hundred innocent people at a charity gala, and murder your own husband?" Luca asked.
"They promised they would make it quick!" Vanessa wept, crawling toward Luca's boots and trying to grab his trousers. "They promised you wouldn't feel a thing! Please, Luca, you have to understand! Blood comes before everything!"
Luca pulled his foot back, refusing to let her touch him as if she were carrying the plague.
"Blood earned through loyalty comes before everything, Vanessa," Luca said, his voice absolute and final. "You traded twelve years of Rex's devotion and my protection for a coward who couldn't pay his debts."
From downstairs, the frantic voice of Dr. Sullivan echoed up the winding staircase.
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"Mr. Moretti! Come down here immediately! Rex's heart rate is spiking into ventricular arrhythmia!"
Luca did not look at his weeping wife for another second; he turned on his heel and sprinted down the hallway, taking the stairs three at a time as my heart leaped into my throat.
