Chapter 8 - Someone Inside the House Opened the Gate
The first SUV came through the gate with its headlights off.
Luca pushed Mara into the reinforced safe room beside the library.
“Elena?”
“Already moving.”
“I stay with her.”
“You stay here.”
Mara grabbed his arm.
“No.”
“Mara.”
“If your mother is in another room, I'm going.”
There was no time to argue.
Matteo arrived.
“Elena's heading through the east hall.”
Luca swore.
They moved.
Security shouted through radios.
The estate lights shut off.
Emergency lighting washed the hallways red.
Mara's heart hammered.
She hated the sound.
Hated the memories it brought.
Gunfire at Bellamy's.
Glass.
Blood.
But she kept moving.
They found Elena near the conservatory with two guards.
Then a window shattered.
Everyone dropped.
Luca covered Mara.
Matteo returned fire through the darkness.
A man outside fell behind a hedge.
Another ran toward the lake.
Security intercepted him.
The attack lasted less than four minutes.
It felt like an hour.
When the lights returned, three intruders were in custody.
One guard had been wounded.
Nobody inside the family was hurt.
Matteo dragged one attacker into the security office.
Federal agents arrived twenty minutes later.
Dana Brooks came shortly afterward wearing jeans and an expression that suggested she wanted to arrest the entire state of Illinois.
The captured man talked.
Not because Luca threatened him.
Because federal prosecutors offered him a choice.
His name was Carter Voss.
Former military.
Hired through a shell company.
The gate code came from Enzo.
But Enzo had not acted alone.
Someone still employed inside Luca's house had confirmed the timing.
Mara felt sick.
By dawn, they found the person.
A house manager named Paul DeSanto.
Thirty years with the family.
He had held Luca as a baby.
Elena cried when they took him away.
Aldo had paid Paul's son's gambling debt.
Then threatened to expose him.
Betrayal rarely looked like evil.
Sometimes it looked like a tired sixty-year-old man who loved his child and made one catastrophic choice.
Luca stood in the foyer long after federal agents left.
Mara approached.
“He betrayed you.”
“Yes.”
“You cared about him.”
“Yes.”
“Are you going to pretend you don't?”
He looked at her.
“No.”
Progress.
Elena came down the stairs.
“I want this finished.”
Luca turned.
“So do I.”
“No,” Elena said. “You want them punished.”
Her voice remained calm.
“I want it finished.”
She looked at Mara.
“There's a difference.”
Dana had a plan.
Aldo and Victor Marcelli needed the ledger.
They believed Mara would eventually force Luca to trade it for safety.
So Dana proposed giving them exactly that impression.
Chicago's Children's Harbor Foundation held its annual winter gala in five days.
Luca was already listed as a major donor.
Mara would attend publicly.
The press would see her.
Rumors would be deliberately leaked that she had carried original Valenti records into the city to meet attorneys.
Aldo would hear.
If he made contact, federal agents would follow.
Luca rejected the plan immediately.
“No.”
Mara slowly turned toward him.
Dana raised an eyebrow.
“Mrs. Valenti?”
“He's learning.”
“Mara.”
She looked at Luca.
“I'm doing it.”
“No.”
“Why?”
“Because putting you in a ballroom doesn't make you bait any less.”
“I've been bait since I was twelve. I just didn't know.”
“That does not mean you volunteer.”
Mara stepped closer.
“I want a say in how this ends.”
“You have one.”
“Then hear it.”
Silence.
She continued.
“My father spent the last weeks of his life hiding evidence because he was terrified for me.”
Luca's jaw tightened.
“My mother spent fifteen years hiding the truth.”
“I know.”
“Elena watched me from a diner booth because she was protecting me.”
“I know.”
“You married me because you were protecting me.”
His eyes sharpened.
“And I'm grateful.”
She touched his arm.
“But I am done being the package everyone moves around while men make decisions.”
Luca looked at Dana.
Then back at Mara.
“If anything goes wrong—”
“It won't.”
“That is not an answer.”
“Fine. If anything goes wrong, you can say ‘I told you so’ while we run.”
He stared.
She smiled.
Eventually he muttered, “I hate being married.”
“No, you don't.”
His mouth twitched.
Five days later, Mara stood beneath the chandeliers of the Grand Harrington Hotel wearing a dark emerald gown.
Her scars were hidden beneath silk.
The diamond ring remained on her hand.
Three hundred guests filled the ballroom.
Politicians.
Business executives.
Old families.
People who knew exactly who Luca was and pretended they didn't.
When Mara entered on his arm, conversations quieted.
The waitress had survived.
The secret bride had appeared.
The woman everyone assumed would hide had walked directly into the brightest room in Chicago.
Luca leaned toward her.
“You can still leave.”
“No.”
“Last chance.”
“You're nervous.”
“I am considering locking you in the car.”
“Romantic.”
He almost smiled.
Then Mara saw him.
Across the ballroom.
Victor Marcelli.
Fifty-eight.
Silver hair.
Perfect tuxedo.
He raised a champagne glass toward her.
Smiling.
Beside him stood Enzo Valenti.
And that was when Mara understood.
May you like
The trap had worked.
Unfortunately, the enemy had brought one of Luca's own blood with him.
