Chapter 2 - THE MAN BEHIND THE GUN
The first thing Luca noticed was Daniel’s hand inside his jacket.
The second was that every guard in the dining room had stopped breathing.
“Take your hand out slowly,” Luca said.
Daniel’s expression barely changed. For eight years, he had stood at Luca’s shoulder through funerals, negotiations, ambushes, and the kind of nights that left blood on the cuffs of expensive shirts. He had been the one person Luca never thought to watch.
“Sir,” Daniel said, “you need to listen to me.”
“I’ve listened to you for eight years. Now I’m telling you to show me your hand.”
Daniel’s fingers emerged empty.
It should have been a relief. Instead, Luca saw the small black remote tucked between Daniel’s thumb and palm.
“Don’t,” Vanessa whispered.
Daniel pressed it.
Every light in the dining room went out.
Someone screamed. A chair scraped across marble. Glass shattered, and the room erupted into confusion. Luca grabbed Hannah by the waist and pulled her behind the heavy dining table just as two sharp cracks split the darkness.
Gunshots.
“Down!” Luca shouted.
His security team answered with a burst of gunfire from the far end of the room. Emergency lights flickered on, bathing the walls in a dull red glow. Guests crouched beneath the table. One man crawled toward the kitchen, leaving a streak of spilled wine behind him.
Hannah was shaking so badly she could barely hold her phone.
“Stay behind me,” Luca said.
“Your sister—”
“I’m getting Sofia. I’m getting your brother. But first, I’m keeping you alive.”
He looked over the table. Daniel had vanished.
A side door swung in the distance.
“Seal the estate,” Luca ordered into his phone. “Nobody leaves. Nobody enters. Find Daniel Bell, and if anyone sees him, do not approach alone.”
Then he turned to Hannah. Blood had soaked the sleeve of her uniform, and her face was as pale as the linen beneath her knees.
“Can you stand?”
“I think so.”
“Don’t think. Tell me.”
She forced herself upright. “Yes.”
Luca offered his hand, careful not to touch the injured arm. “Dr. Harris is on his way. You’re not serving another plate tonight.”
Despite everything, a broken laugh escaped her. It turned into a wince.
He guided her toward the smaller library, where two guards took positions outside. A housekeeper brought a first-aid kit, and Luca himself held a clean towel while the doctor’s assistant on speakerphone explained how to control the bleeding until the ambulance arrived.
Hannah watched him, bewildered.
“You don’t have to do this.”
“Yes, I do.”
“You’re the head of the Moretti family.”
“And you’re a person who’s been bleeding for hours.”
The simplicity of the answer made her eyes sting again.
A moment later, Dr. Harris arrived with a medical bag. He cut away the soaked cuff, cleaned the wound, and confirmed that Hannah needed stitches but had no obvious fracture. The door remained open while Luca’s guards searched the house.
When the doctor began wrapping her arm, Luca placed Hannah’s phone on the desk.
“The video,” he said. “Can you play it again?”
Hannah nodded, but her fingers trembled too much to unlock the screen. Luca waited rather than taking it from her. She finally opened the file.
The grainy recording showed Antonio Moretti in a hospital bed, his face drawn with pain. Richard Sterling stood near the window. Daniel entered carrying a medical bag.
Luca watched without blinking.
On the video, Antonio’s voice came thinly through the speaker. “Daniel. I asked for my son.”
“You need to rest,” Daniel replied.
“I need you to tell Luca what Richard has done.”
Richard moved into view. “You’re confused, Antonio.”
“I’m not confused. You stole from my family. You changed the numbers. You—”
A coughing fit interrupted him.
Daniel checked the monitor. He then removed a small vial from the medical bag.
Luca stopped the video.
“That’s enough,” he said.
Hannah looked at him. “Was Daniel a doctor?”
“No. He served as a medic overseas before joining my security team. He knows enough to handle emergencies.” Luca’s jaw tightened. “And apparently enough to make one look like an accident.”
His phone vibrated. A message from the estate’s gatehouse showed a vehicle registration and a grainy image of Daniel’s car heading toward the service road.
Luca forwarded it to the police.
Then Sofia called again.
“Luca?” Her voice sounded distant, as if she were speaking from a moving vehicle.
“I’m here.”
“Did you see the video?”
“Yes.”
“Then you know Daniel was involved. But Richard isn’t the only person who can order him around.”
Luca glanced at Hannah. “Who else?”
“I don’t know the name. I heard Dad arguing with someone the night before he died. He said, ‘You were supposed to be family.’”
Luca went still.
“Was it a man?”
“Yes. And Luca, I have to tell you something else. The flash drive isn’t the only copy. Dad made a second recording. He hid it somewhere in the house.”
“Where?”
“I never found it.”
A crash sounded on Sofia’s end. She gasped.
“Sofia?”
“Someone’s behind me.”
Luca stood so quickly his chair struck the wall. “Where are you?”
“I’m near the river road. I’m going to turn toward the old chapel.”
“Don’t go anywhere alone. Give me a landmark.”
“I can’t—”
The call ended.
Luca’s eyes met Hannah’s. In that instant, the fear in his face was more frightening than his anger.
“Get me a car,” he ordered his guards. “Two teams. One to the river road, one to the old chapel. Tell the police we have a possible abduction in progress.”
Hannah rose, cradling her bandaged arm. “I’m coming.”
“No.”
“Ethan is out there because of me.”
“He’s out there because criminals decided to use him.”
“But I know his habits. I know where he’d hide if he got free.”
Luca studied her, then gave a short nod. “You stay in the car. You follow every instruction I give you.”
She agreed.
As they hurried through the back corridor, a guard approached with a small evidence bag. Inside was a black phone recovered from the dining room floor.
“Found beneath Daniel’s chair, sir.”
Luca examined the cracked screen. A notification had appeared before the device locked.
TRANSFER COMPLETE. SUBJECT MOVED TO SECONDARY LOCATION.
Beneath it was a location pin.
Luca opened the map.
May you like
The destination was not the warehouse.
It was the Moretti family mausoleum.
