Chapter 5 - The Man Luca Trusted
Mara stared at Vittorio.
Luca did not.
His eyes remained on the woman in the tunnel.
“Elena.”
She looked exactly like the older version of the photograph.
Same eyes.
Same shape of mouth.
More lines.
More pain.
But alive.
“Luca,” she whispered.
Vittorio descended one step.
“I said don’t move.”
Luca finally looked at him.
“You.”
Vittorio’s face tightened.
“I can explain.”
“That phrase usually means you can’t.”
“It isn’t what you think.”
Simon raised his hands.
“You sold us out.”
Vittorio snapped, “Shut up.”
Nero growled.
Mara placed a hand on his harness.
“Easy.”
Vittorio looked at her.
“Mara, take the dog and go to Elena.”
“Why?”
“Because in about thirty seconds the men outside will enter the house.”
Luca studied him.
“You’re buying us time.”
“Yes.”
“With a gun pointed at me.”
“They have cameras covering the basement window.”
Mara understood.
“You need them to think Luca is trapped.”
Vittorio nodded.
Luca did not lower his suspicion.
“How long?”
“Maybe sixty seconds now.”
Elena called from the tunnel.
“Luca, please.”
Nero pulled toward her.
Luca moved.
Vittorio fired.
The bullet struck the basement ceiling.
Dust fell.
Mara flinched.
Outside, men shouted.
Vittorio yelled loudly enough to be heard.
“Get down!”
Then he whispered.
“Go.”
They ran.
Simon followed.
Vittorio slammed the passage door behind them.
The tunnel narrowed.
Elena led them through darkness.
Nero somehow kept pace.
After two hundred yards, they emerged near an abandoned railway line.
A van waited.
Rosa sat behind the wheel.
Luca stared.
“You were supposed to be resting.”
Rosa shrugged.
“You were supposed to have better security.”
They climbed in.
Rosa drove.
Mara sat opposite Elena.
Neither knew what to say.
Luca did.
“Why didn’t you come home?”
Elena’s face broke.
“I tried.”
“Twelve years.”
“I know.”
“Twelve years, Elena.”
“I know.”
“You let me bury you.”
“They would have killed you.”
“I would have chosen that.”
“That’s why I didn’t give you the choice.”
Luca turned toward the window.
Elena wiped her eyes.
Mara looked between them.
“Project Janus?”
Elena nodded.
“Our father built part of it with five families. It was supposed to prevent wars. Everyone deposited secrets. Nobody attacked anyone because everyone could destroy everyone.”
“Mutually assured destruction,” Mara said.
“Exactly.”
“What changed?”
“Marcus Hale.”
Preston’s family.
Luca turned.
“Preston’s brother.”
Elena nodded.
“Marcus realized secrets could be monetized. He began buying judges, prosecutors, officers. Anyone who refused was compromised.”
“Marcus died six years ago.”
“No.”
Luca stared.
Elena continued.
“He disappeared.”
“Who runs Janus now?”
“Marcus.”
The van went silent.
Mara thought of Preston being forced to humiliate Nero.
“Preston knows his brother is alive?”
“No.”
“Then why use him?”
“Because Marcus hates him.”
Luca looked at Elena.
“And Nero?”
Elena’s expression changed.
“That was my idea.”
Mara stiffened.
“You told them to pour champagne on a blind dog?”
“No.”
“I arranged the transmitter.”
Luca’s eyes flashed.
Elena hurried on.
“I needed you to find the old archive. The scratches were intentional. The key was planted. I recruited Preston anonymously to cause a scene, but the instruction was to spill champagne near Nero.”
Mara understood.
“Preston escalated it.”
“Yes.”
Luca’s voice became dangerous.
“You put a transmitter on my dog.”
“To keep you alive.”
“You could have called.”
“Janus monitors you.”
“Apparently you do too.”
Elena flinched.
Mara intervened.
“Why me?”
Elena looked at her.
“Because your mother saved my life.”
Mara swallowed.
“She never told me.”
“She was protecting you.”
“Everyone keeps deciding what I need protection from.”
Elena almost smiled sadly.
“You sound exactly like Caroline.”
The flash drive from the music box remained in Mara’s purse.
“What’s on it?”
“The second half of the Janus ledger.”
“Second half?”
Elena nodded.
“I kept the first.”
“Why split them?”
“Together they identify every current member.”
Luca leaned forward.
“And Marcus?”
“Is at your ballroom.”
Everyone froze.
“What?”
Elena looked at her brother.
“He never left.”
Luca’s eyes narrowed.
“He was one of my guests?”
“He entered as staff.”
“Which staff?”
“I don’t know his current face.”
Mara frowned.
“His current face?”
“Plastic surgery.”
Rosa muttered something in Italian.
Elena continued.
“He wanted Luca underground while his people isolated the estate.”
“Why?”
“To retrieve Antonio’s archive.”
Simon whispered, “Then everyone in that ballroom—”
“Is in danger,” Elena finished.
Luca reached for the door.
Rosa slapped the lock.
“Sit.”
“Turn around.”
“They are expecting you.”
“Turn around.”
Mara touched Luca’s arm.
He looked at her hand.
She removed it slowly.
“Running back blindly is exactly what Marcus wants.”
“My guests are trapped.”
“You locked them in.”
Luca’s jaw tightened.
Mara continued.
“Use that.”
“How?”
“The ballroom is secure from the inside.”
Elena nodded.
“Main doors, yes.”
“Security cameras?”
Luca looked at Rosa.
“Remote backup.”
Rosa smiled.
“Finally, a useful question.”
They drove to an old Bellandi warehouse.
Inside, Luca accessed the estate system.
Most cameras were offline.
One ballroom camera remained.
The feed appeared.
Guests clustered nervously.
Grant Mercer sat against a wall.
Preston was missing.
Staff members moved around.
Then Nero reacted.
He approached the monitor.
His ears lifted.
Mara stared.
“Can he hear audio?”
Luca turned it up.
Background voices.
Footsteps.
A man spoke off-camera.
Nero growled.
Luca froze.
“He knows that voice.”
Elena moved closer.
The man crossed into frame.
Black security suit.
Bald.
Mara recognized him from the opening minutes of the gala.
“He was standing near the door.”
Luca’s face hardened.
“Darius Kane. My security chief.”
Elena whispered, “That’s Marcus.”
Luca stared.
His own head of security.
A man who had worked for him for seven years.
Marcus turned toward the camera.
As if he knew they were watching.
Then he smiled.
He lifted Preston’s phone.
A message arrived on Luca’s screen.
COME HOME.
BRING ELENA.
OR EVERY PERSON IN THIS BALLROOM LEARNS WHAT YOUR FATHER BUILT.
Luca typed one response.
NO.
Marcus smiled at the camera.
Then he walked toward the woman in the red evening gown.
He placed a hand on her shoulder.
She looked terrified.
Mara recognized her.
Celia Moreno.
A federal judge.
Marcus whispered something in her ear.
Celia collapsed into a chair.
Elena said, “He’s identifying Janus members.”
Mara looked at the flash drive.
“Then give him what he wants.”
Everyone turned toward her.
“The ledger?” Luca asked.
“A copy.”
Elena shook her head.
“The encryption marks copies.”
Mara thought.
“What does Marcus actually want?”
“Control.”
“No. Tonight.”
Elena looked at the screen.
“The names.”
“So give him names.”
“Fake ones?”
“Real ones.”
Luca understood first.
“Expose Janus publicly.”
Elena stared at him.
“If we release the ledger, half the East Coast burns.”
“No,” Mara said. “Release enough to make it useless as blackmail.”
Silence.
Luca slowly smiled.
Not warmly.
Proudly.
“That is what my father should have done years ago.”
They worked for forty minutes.
Elena decrypted portions.
Mara organized evidence.
Luca contacted two journalists he trusted.
Vittorio finally arrived, bleeding from the shoulder but alive.
By midnight, they had prepared a package that could destroy Janus’s leverage without exposing innocent families.
Then the warehouse lights went out.
Nero barked once.
Vittorio drew his weapon.
A phone rang in the darkness.
Mara’s.
She answered.
Marcus Hale spoke.
“Your mother made the same mistake you’re making.”
Mara’s blood ran cold.
“What mistake?”
“Thinking Elena was the person she needed to save.”
A spotlight switched on.
At the far end of the warehouse, Preston Hale sat tied to a chair.
Behind him stood Marcus.
And beside Marcus was someone Mara had believed died beside her mother eleven years earlier.
May you like
Her father opened his eyes.
“Mara,” he whispered. “Don’t give Luca the drive.”
