Chapter 7 - Sins of the Mothers
Norah froze, her heart stopping in her throat.
Luca—Sebastian’s trusted right hand, the man who had driven the car, who had stood guard while she examined the necklace—stepped into the light of the cellar doorway. He was holding a silenced automatic, and his face was utterly void of expression.
Behind him stood Dominic Romano, leaning on his silver-headed cane, accompanied by four heavily armed mercenaries wearing tactical gear.
Sebastian slowly stood up from behind the jeweler’s bench, keeping his body positioned between Dominic’s guns and Norah. His weapon remained pointed dead-center at Luca’s chest.
"How long, Luca?" Sebastian asked, his voice low, steady, and terrifyingly cold.
"Since the beginning, boss," Luca said calmly. "Dominic pays in equity. You pay in loyalty. Loyalty doesn't buy islands in the Aegean."
Dominic chuckled, the sound dry as dead leaves. "Don't take it personally, nephew. A wise ruler always maintains secondary channels. Luca has been my eyes inside your house since your twenty-fifth birthday. How do you think I knew you took the necklace to Laurent & Vale in the first place?"
"You had Julian killed," Norah shouted from behind Sebastian, unable to contain the rage tearing through her. "He was innocent!"
"Julian Vale was a loose thread, Miss Collins," Dominic replied dismissively, waving a dismissive hand. "He was getting nervous. He wanted to go to the feds when he realized what kind of piece he was handling. In our line of work, nerves are fatal."
Dominic stepped further into the vault, his cane clicking against the floor. His eyes surveyed the antique jeweler's bench, lingering on the photograph of the two mothers.
"Ah," Dominic sighed, shaking his head. "Elena. She was always too clever for her own good. Just like you, Miss Collins. She thought she could take the Romano treasury, slip away to Switzerland with her jeweler friend, and raise Sebastian as a civilian." He spat on the floor. "A Romano does not live as a civilian. We rule, or we bleed."
"You murdered her," Sebastian said, his finger tightening on the trigger. "You cut the brake lines on her car."
"I did what was necessary to preserve this family!" Dominic roared, his grandfatherly facade shattering to reveal the rabid, power-hungry monster beneath. "Lorenzo was weak! Elena was poisoning his mind! If I hadn't taken control, the Morettis would have wiped us out twenty years ago! Instead, I forged an alliance. I built an empire that spans five states!"
"You sold us to our enemies," Sebastian countered. "You hid the offshore accounts in the replica, planning to bleed Chicago dry and leave me to take the fall."
"And it would have worked," Dominic smiled, his cold composure returning, "if my foolish nephew hadn't brought the piece to David Collins's prodigy daughter. I must admit, Miss Collins, your eye for metallurgy is cursed. If you had just polished the clasp and kept your mouth shut, you would have lived a long, prosperous life."
"Where is my father?" Norah demanded, stepping out from behind Sebastian, her eyes burning with pure hatred. "Tell me what you did to him!"
"David Collins?" Dominic laughed—a wet, mocking sound. "David was useful. Even after Elena died, I kept him alive down here for five years. He made my best replicas. He forged the papers that laundered billions through European auction houses. But when he outlived his usefulness... well, Lake Michigan is very deep, Miss Collins."
Norah’s breath hitched. A sob tore through her throat, but she swallowed it down, channeling the blinding grief into white-hot fury.
"Now," Dominic said, his cane tapping once against the stone. "Where is the original ruby, Sebastian? We know David hid it before he died. The micro-wafer you took from the replica only has half the encryption keys. The original Burmese stone has the private master cipher carved into its girdle. Give it to me, and I'll make your deaths painless."
"You want the stone?" Norah whispered.
Everyone’s eyes turned to her.
She reached slowly into her coat pocket.
Sebastian reached out to stop her, but she stepped forward, pulling out the velvet pouch she had kept hidden against her ribs since leaving the penthouse. She pulled the drawstring open.
In her palm sat a massive, uncut, blood-red Burmese ruby—flawless, glowing in the beam of the flashlights with an inner, sinister fire.
Dominic’s eyes widened with naked, unrestrained greed. "The Heart of Verona... David kept it after all." He took a step forward, his hand outstretched. "Give it to me, girl."
"Come get it," Norah said softly.
Dominic nodded to Luca. Luca stepped forward, lowering his weapon slightly to reach for the gem.
In that fraction of a second, Norah moved.
May you like
She didn't drop the gem. She hurled a bottle of industrial pickling acid—which she had palmed from the bench with her other hand—straight into Luca’s face.
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