Chapter 6 - THE PRICE OF HUMILIATION
Sera released Moretti and ran.
She didn't wait for Marco.
Didn't wait for Carlo.
Didn't care that two hundred people had just watched a waitress put one of Chicago's most feared men through a table.
She reached the service corridor.
Empty.
"Eli!"
Nothing.
Then she saw blood.
Three drops near the freight elevator.
Marco caught up.
"Sera."
She hit the elevator button.
Again.
Again.
Marco took her hand.
"Stop."
She rounded on him.
"Don't tell me to stop."
"The elevator is moving."
She looked at the numbers.
Descending.
Marco pulled out his phone.
"Lock the garage."
Carlo's voice answered.
"Already done."
But Moretti had planned ahead.
By the time they reached the garage, a delivery truck had smashed through the exit barrier.
Eli was inside.
Gone.
Sera turned toward Marco.
"This happened because of me."
"No."
"I humiliated him."
"He came there intending to take Eli."
"You don't know that."
"I do."
Marco handed her a phone.
Security footage.
The kidnapping team entered the hotel fourteen minutes before Sera put Moretti through the table.
She stared.
Moretti's challenge had been distraction.
And she had given him exactly what he wanted.
Her phone rang.
Unknown number.
Sera answered.
Moretti.
"That was impressive."
"Where's Eli?"
"Alive."
"If you hurt him—"
"I've been hurting him for twelve years. Don't become sentimental now."
Marco motioned for the technicians to trace the call.
Moretti laughed softly.
"You have something of mine."
"The ledger."
"Bring it."
"No."
Marco looked at her.
Moretti went silent.
Sera continued.
"If I give you the ledger, Eli becomes useless."
"Smart girl."
"So let's stop pretending."
"What do you suggest?"
"Trade me."
Marco's head snapped toward her.
Moretti paused.
"Explain."
"Eli for me."
Marco seized the phone.
"No."
Moretti laughed.
"Ah. There it is."
Marco's voice became ice.
"Touch either of them and—"
"And what? You'll burn Chicago down?"
"If necessary."
Sera took the phone back.
"Midnight tomorrow. I'll call with the location."
She disconnected.
Marco stared at her.
"Absolutely not."
"He's my brother."
"And you're my responsibility."
"No."
Sera stepped closer.
"I'm your employee."
"Not anymore."
The words landed strangely.
Her anger faltered.
Marco did too.
Neither had meant to arrive at this conversation.
Sera lowered her voice.
"What does that mean?"
Marco looked at her for a long time.
"It means I haven't thought of you as an employee for weeks."
The garage seemed suddenly too quiet.
Sera's heart betrayed her with one hard beat.
"That's inconvenient."
"I've noticed."
She almost smiled.
Almost.
Then she remembered Eli.
"We still make the trade."
"No."
"You don't decide."
"Sera—"
"You hired me because I see things before they move. So listen to me."
Marco did.
"Moretti doesn't want the ledger destroyed. He wants control of it. That means he won't kill me until he has verified it's real."
"You're betting your life."
"I'm betting on his greed."
Marco looked furious.
But beneath the anger was something Sera had never expected to see in him.
Fear.
Not for himself.
For her.
The trade happened at an abandoned train depot south of the city.
Sera arrived alone.
Or appeared to.
The ledger was inside her coat.
Moretti waited with six men.
Eli knelt beside him.
Bruised.
Alive.
Moretti smiled.
"Walk."
Sera did.
"Ledger."
"Brother."
Moretti gestured.
Eli stood.
They crossed.
Halfway, Sera tossed the ledger.
Moretti caught it.
Eli reached her.
"Run," she whispered.
Then Moretti opened the book.
His face changed.
Blank pages.
"You—"
Lights exploded across the depot.
Marco's vehicles emerged from three directions.
Police sirens followed.
Not bought cops.
Federal agents.
Judge Warren had delivered copies of the real ledger to federal investigators that morning.
Moretti understood.
Sera had never come to trade evidence.
She had come to keep him standing in one place long enough for the evidence to become useless to him.
Moretti grabbed a gun.
He aimed at Sera.
Marco saw it.
"Sera!"
A shot cracked.
She fell.
Marco's world stopped.
He reached her before he remembered crossing the distance.
Blood spread across her white shirt.
"Sera."
Her eyes opened.
"I'm fine."
"You've been shot."
"Shoulder."
"That's not fine."
Moretti tried to flee.
Agents surrounded him.
Marco didn't look.
For the first time in his adult life, his enemy was within reach and he didn't care.
He held Sera against him.
Her fingers caught his lapel.
"Marco."
"I'm here."
"You look terrified."
"Shut up."
She smiled weakly.
"That's a yes."
His forehead touched hers.
Then Sera whispered something that scared him more than the blood.
"There's another traitor."
Marco pulled back.
"What?"
"The phone in the conference room. Moretti couldn't have planted it."
She struggled to breathe.
May you like
"Someone inside your house did."
Then her eyes closed.
