Chapter 6 - The Last Debt
Sebastian wanted to go alone.
Ruby expected that.
Elena expected it.
Sofia actually laughed when he suggested it.
“No.”
Sebastian stared at her.
“No?”
“You heard me.”
“This isn’t a family meeting.”
Sofia folded her arms.
“It literally involves your brother.”
Ruby almost smiled despite everything.
Sebastian looked toward her.
“You’re staying.”
“Also no.”
“Ruby.”
“Do you have any other word?”
“Yes.”
“What?”
“Please.”
That stopped her.
He stepped closer.
“Please stay with my mother.”
Ruby studied him.
He was not commanding now.
He was afraid.
“For her?”
“For me.”
She swallowed.
“Sebastian—”
“If I walk into that warehouse and something happens, I need to know she has you.”
Elena spoke from the bed.
“You’re not walking into any warehouse.”
“Mother.”
“I buried one son already.”
“You didn’t.”
“I thought I did.”
Her voice cracked.
“That was real enough.”
Sebastian looked away.
Elena continued.
“I will not sit here while you offer yourself to another trap.”
“He asked for me.”
“Then disappoint him.”
Sofia nodded.
“For once, listen to your mother.”
Ruby looked at the address.
An old shipping warehouse near the river.
“Why would Luca be with Dante?”
Sebastian answered.
“Maybe he’s not willingly there.”
“He was smiling.”
“People smile under threat.”
Ruby remembered the image.
No.
Something bothered her.
She enlarged it.
Luca sat in the back.
No visible restraint.
No fear.
Marco drove.
Dante looked toward the camera.
Ruby zoomed farther.
Luca wore a signet ring.
Sebastian had the same ring.
Family crest.
But Luca’s ring sat on his right hand.
“What?”
Sebastian noticed.
Ruby showed him.
“Was Luca right-handed?”
“Yes.”
“Then why is he wearing his family ring on the hand he uses most?”
Sebastian frowned.
“He always wore it left.”
“Exactly.”
Sofia leaned closer.
“So?”
Ruby looked at the photograph again.
“Maybe it’s not Luca.”
Elena inhaled.
Sebastian took the phone.
“He has Luca’s face.”
“The video was shadowed. This photo is blurry.”
Sebastian enlarged it.
His expression shifted.
Sofia whispered, “Could be.”
Ruby pointed.
“The scar.”
“What scar?”
“Your forehead.”
Sebastian touched a faint line near his temple.
“Luca had one?”
“Above his left eyebrow.”
Ruby zoomed.
None.
Sebastian’s eyes narrowed.
“Decoy.”
Elena whispered, “Then where is Luca?”
Sebastian looked at the address.
“The warehouse isn’t where they want me.”
Ruby understood.
“It’s where they want your men.”
Sebastian immediately called his operations team.
“Cancel deployment. Nobody goes to River Eight.”
A voice answered.
“Too late.”
Sebastian froze.
“How many?”
“Twelve already en route.”
“Call them back.”
Silence.
“Call them back now.”
The response came carefully.
“Radios are down.”
Sebastian cursed.
Ruby had never heard him swear before.
He turned toward Sofia.
“Enzo’s clearing my security.”
“For what?”
“The mansion.”
Elena’s face drained.
Ruby felt the logic click into place.
The photograph.
The warehouse.
The order to come alone.
All designed to pull Sebastian and his people away.
But Sebastian had not left.
Not yet.
A gunshot sounded outside.
Everyone froze.
Then another.
Security alarms erupted.
Sebastian moved instantly.
“Safe room.”
Ruby grabbed Elena’s wheelchair.
“I can walk.”
“You’re riding.”
“No argument,” Ruby said.
Elena obeyed.
Sofia followed.
Sebastian drew a handgun from beneath his jacket.
Ruby stared.
He noticed.
“I told you what I am.”
“Doesn’t mean I enjoy seeing it.”
“Neither do I.”
They moved through the private corridor.
Security exchanged fire outside the estate perimeter.
Ruby hated the sound.
This was not cinematic.
It was ugly.
Sharp.
Terrifying.
Sebastian stayed between them and every window.
They reached the safe room.
Steel door.
Reinforced walls.
Emergency communications.
“Inside.”
Elena grabbed Sebastian.
“You too.”
“I have to secure the house.”
“You have people.”
“Not enough.”
“Sebastian.”
He kissed her forehead.
Then looked at Ruby.
The world seemed to narrow.
Ruby hated that she knew what he was about to do.
“No.”
His expression softened.
“Ruby.”
“No goodbye speeches.”
“I wasn’t—”
“You were.”
A tiny smile touched his face.
“You’re difficult.”
“You like me.”
“I do.”
“Then come back.”
He looked at her.
Not at her body.
Not through her.
At her.
“I will.”
The steel door closed.
Ruby listened to the lock engage.
For ten unbearable minutes, they heard muffled movement outside.
Then silence.
Elena prayed under her breath.
Sofia paced.
Ruby stood at the security monitor.
Finally Sebastian appeared on one camera.
Alive.
He entered the main hallway.
Ruby exhaled.
Then another figure emerged behind him.
An older man.
Gray hair.
Heavy build.
Enzo Bellini.
Ruby recognized him from archived photographs Sebastian had shown them.
He held a gun.
Sebastian turned.
Too late.
Enzo struck him across the head.
Ruby gasped.
Elena cried out.
The camera feed went black.
“No.”
Ruby reached for the safe-room controls.
Sofia grabbed her.
“You cannot open that door.”
“He’s out there.”
“That’s exactly why you can’t.”
Ruby stared at the blank monitor.
Then the intercom crackled.
Enzo’s voice.
“Mrs. Romano.”
Elena looked up.
“I know you can hear me.”
No response.
“I have your son.”
Ruby clenched her fists.
“Open the door.”
Elena whispered, “Go to hell.”
Enzo laughed.
“I always liked you.”
“You always smelled like cheap cologne.”
Even now.
Ruby almost laughed through her fear.
Enzo continued.
“Open the door and I let Sebastian live.”
“No.”
Ruby looked at Elena.
The older woman’s face had become stone.
Enzo said, “You don’t believe me?”
“I believe you’re a liar.”
“You learned something from Vittorio after all.”
“I learned from him what cowards sound like.”
Silence.
Then Enzo’s voice turned colder.
“Five minutes.”
The intercom died.
Sofia whispered, “He wants the safe.”
“What safe?”
“The records.”
Ruby looked at Elena.
Elena nodded.
“Your husband’s files.”
“If Enzo gets them—”
“He destroys evidence.”
Ruby stared at the communications console.
“Can we send the files?”
Sebastian had transferred data from Sofia’s flash drive into the mansion’s encrypted system.
Elena frowned.
“To whom?”
Ruby thought of Luca.
The real Luca.
If alive, he had spent years gathering proof.
Maybe he had already contacted law enforcement.
“Federal authorities.”
Sofia hesitated.
“Sebastian won’t like that.”
Ruby looked at the black monitor.
“He can complain when he’s alive.”
Elena smiled faintly.
“Do it.”
Ruby searched the console.
A secure emergency directory existed.
Law enforcement.
Medical response.
Fire.
She selected federal organized crime.
Sofia stared.
“You’re really doing this.”
“Yes.”
“What if it implicates Sebastian?”
Ruby’s fingers stopped.
That mattered.
She cared about him.
Maybe more than she wanted to admit.
But if he had committed crimes, love could not erase them.
Ruby hit send.
“Then he answers for what he did.”
Elena looked at her.
A long moment.
Then nodded.
“That’s why you’re right for him.”
Ruby’s throat tightened.
Data uploaded.
Ten percent.
Twenty.
The intercom clicked.
“Three minutes.”
Forty percent.
Gunfire sounded distantly.
Sofia whispered, “Police?”
“Too soon.”
Sixty.
The monitor flickered.
A new camera activated.
Sebastian lay bound to a chair in the foyer.
Blood marked his temple.
Enzo stood beside him.
And another man entered frame.
Ruby froze.
He looked like Sebastian.
Not exactly.
Younger.
Leaner.
Scar over the left eyebrow.
Luca.
The real Luca.
Elena began sobbing.
“My boy.”
Luca looked directly at the camera.
As if he knew they were watching.
Then he turned toward Enzo.
Enzo smiled.
“Perfect timing.”
Ruby’s heart sank.
Luca walked behind Sebastian.
Sebastian lifted his head.
Their eyes met.
Six years of death collapsed between them.
Luca reached into his coat.
Elena gripped Ruby’s arm.
May you like
On-screen, Luca raised a gun.
And pointed it directly at Sebastian’s head.
