Chapter 4 - The Enemy Inside Luca’s House
Luca took the phone from Claire only after she handed it to him.
“Grant.”
Silence.
Then laughter.
“Moretti.”
“If you come near her again—”
“You still don't understand.”
Grant sounded almost cheerful.
“Claire was never the prize.”
The call disconnected.
Luca immediately ordered the apartment cleared.
Claire hated how quickly the men around him obeyed.
Not because she feared Luca.
Because she understood what obedience could hide.
Marco Bellini had worked for the Moretti family for fourteen years.
Luca trusted him enough to know the security codes to the Brigantine house.
That meant Claire had never been safe there.
They moved before sunset.
This time Claire chose the location.
Evelyn arranged a protected apartment in Philadelphia under another name.
Luca did not know the address.
Claire insisted on that.
“You think I'm involved?” he asked.
“No.”
“Then why can't I know?”
“Because I need one place in my life that belongs only to me.”
Luca nodded.
“Fair.”
His acceptance hurt more than an argument would have.
Claire realized she did not want to leave him.
That frightened her.
Three days passed.
Then four.
On the fifth, Jenna called.
“Someone followed me home.”
Claire's stomach dropped.
“Where are you?”
“At work.”
“Stay there.”
Claire called Evelyn.
Within an hour, Luca knew.
Within two, Jenna was protected.
But the incident proved Marco's network was searching for anyone connected to Claire.
The flash drive became their only leverage.
Its encryption resisted every attempt to open it.
Claire studied Rose's notebooks.
Her grandmother had filled margins with recipes, medication reminders, grocery lists, and seemingly meaningless numbers.
Then Claire saw it.
Chicken soup.
Rose's recipe.
The one she never measured.
Three carrots.
Two onions.
Six cups broth.
One bay leaf.
The numbers repeated throughout the ledger.
3-2-6-1.
Claire entered them.
Wrong.
Then she remembered Rose's favorite saying.
Never trust the recipe. Taste first.
Claire reversed them.
1-6-2-3.
The drive opened.
Thousands of documents appeared.
Luca's people had expected financial records.
What they found was worse.
Judges.
Police officers.
Casino executives.
Contractors.
Shell companies.
Blackmail payments.
The network had operated for almost twenty years.
And Marco Bellini's name appeared hundreds of times.
But another name appeared more often.
Antonio Moretti.
Luca's father.
Claire stared at the screen.
Luca said nothing for a long time.
The criminal empire he had inherited had not merely tolerated the network.
It had helped create it.
“You didn't know?” Claire asked.
“No.”
“Can you prove that?”
He looked at her.
“No.”
It was the correct answer.
And somehow the painful one.
Luca spent that night reading every file.
At sunrise, Claire found him alone beside the window.
“My father used women as currency.”
His voice was almost expressionless.
“My mother knew.”
Claire understood immediately.
“That was why she ran.”
Luca nodded.
“She tried to tell me. I thought she meant his affairs.”
His jaw tightened.
“I built my entire rule around protecting women because I thought my father had failed one woman.”
He looked at the files.
“He destroyed hundreds.”
Claire sat beside him.
“You aren't responsible for what he did.”
“I inherited the money.”
“Then decide what you do with it.”
Luca looked at her.
That sentence changed everything.
Within forty-eight hours, Evelyn contacted federal prosecutors outside New Jersey.
Copies of Rose's evidence were distributed to multiple attorneys and journalists with instructions for automatic release if Claire disappeared.
For once, information could not be beaten, bribed, or buried.
Marco realized it too.
He vanished.
So did Detective Draper.
Grant disappeared from his registered address.
Then Luca received a message.
A photograph of Jenna tied to a chair.
Below it:
THE DRIVE FOR THE GIRL.
Claire went pale.
“No.”
Luca was already reaching for his phone.
“They want me.”
“They want the drive.”
“They want both.”
Claire looked at the photograph again.
Jenna had once handed her a hotline number when everyone else looked away.
Claire would not look away now.
“We give them what they want.”
Luca's expression hardened.
“No.”
“Don't tell me no.”
“Claire—”
“She helped me.”
“And I will get her back.”
“How?”
“Without trading you.”
She stared at him.
“You don't get to decide what risks I take.”
Luca stopped.
She stepped closer.
“For two years, Grant made every decision because he said he knew what was best for me. Don't protect me by becoming another man who decides for me.”
The words landed hard.
Luca lowered his eyes.
Then nodded.
“You're right.”
Claire breathed.
“So we do it together.”
“No.”
Her eyes flashed.
Luca almost smiled.
“Together means we make a plan together. It doesn't mean I enthusiastically approve the part where you walk into a warehouse full of armed criminals.”
Despite everything, Claire laughed.
They created another plan.
A false drive.
A tracker.
Federal agents positioned nearby.
Claire would appear only long enough to confirm Jenna was alive.
It should have worked.
But when Claire entered the abandoned marina warehouse, she saw Jenna immediately.
Alive.
Terrified.
And behind her stood Marco.
Grant was beside him.
Detective Draper guarded the door.
Marco smiled.
“Mrs. Mercer.”
Claire straightened.
“That's not my name.”
Grant's face twitched.
Marco held out his hand.
“The drive.”
Claire lifted it.
Then a gunshot echoed outside.
Lights died.
Chaos erupted.
Luca's men moved.
Federal agents shouted.
Claire dropped behind a concrete barrier.
Grant ran toward her.
Before he reached her, Jenna swung the chair she was tied to and knocked his legs from beneath him.
Claire stared.
Jenna shouted, “A little help?”
Claire almost laughed.
Then Marco grabbed Claire from behind.
A gun pressed against her stomach.
The entire warehouse froze.
Luca appeared from the darkness.
Marco smiled.
“There it is.”
“What?”
“The weakness.”
May you like
He pressed the gun harder against Claire.
“The great Luca Moretti finally has something he can't afford to lose.”
