Chapter 5 - The Waitress Who Started a Mafia War
I walked toward Luca with my weapon lowered.
Men stood along the catwalks, behind shipping crates, and beside the rail tracks. Some belonged to Luca. Others wore Moretti pins.
None of them moved.
They were waiting to see which name would still matter by sunrise.
Julian stepped forward.
“You shouldn’t be alive.”
“That is the second time tonight someone has sounded disappointed.”
“You forced this.”
“I forced you to sell me to Luca?”
“You forced me to spend my life beneath you.”
“You were my brother, not my servant.”
“That’s easy for you to say.”
Luca raised one hand.
“This family discussion is touching, but we have business.”
He held up a leather folder.
“Transfer ownership of the Moretti companies, docks, and properties to Julian. Then you leave Chicago.”
“And Sarah’s family?”
“Released after the signatures are verified.”
“No.”
Luca smiled.
“You are not negotiating from strength.”
“I brought something more useful.”
“What?”
“Insurance.”
I took out a phone.
The screen displayed a countdown.
1 HOUR, 03 MINUTES UNTIL AUTOMATIC RELEASE.
Luca’s smile faded.
“What is that?”
“Your entire life, documented.”
Julian looked at him.
Luca kept his eyes on me.
“You’re bluffing.”
“Payments to Commander Hale. Judge Peterson. Customs supervisors at Calumet Harbor. Photographs, account numbers, recordings.”
Several men shifted uneasily.
Luca’s voice sharpened.
“Where did you get them?”
“My father distrusted you before I was old enough to shave.”
“Cancel the release.”
“Bring the Jenkins family here.”
Luca nodded toward one of his men.
The man spoke into a radio.
A minute later, two guards emerged from the north office with Sarah’s mother and brother.
Mrs. Jenkins was in her fifties, wearing slippers and a winter coat over her nightclothes. Evan had a bruise along his cheek.
Sarah was not with them.
My pulse quickened.
“Where is she?” Luca asked.
I smiled.
“You lost a waitress?”
A gunshot echoed from the north corridor.
Then another.
Elias appeared behind the hostages and struck one guard across the throat. Sarah drove her shoulder into the second man and pulled her brother away.
Chaos erupted.
Luca’s men raised their weapons.
My loyalists opened fire from the western catwalk.
Everyone scattered behind cover.
Julian grabbed the leather folder and ran.
Luca fired toward me.
The bullet struck the crate beside my head.
I returned two shots and moved toward Sarah.
She pushed her mother and brother behind a steel support beam.
“Are you hurt?” she demanded.
“Not recently.”
“Julian is heading for the river exit.”
“I saw.”
“Go.”
“I’m not leaving you.”
Elias fired over our heads.
“I have them,” he said. “Handle your brother.”
Sarah caught my sleeve.
“Alive.”
“I remember.”
I followed Julian through a maze of cargo containers.
The wound in my side burned with every step.
He reached the river platform and discovered Gabriel had moved the boat.
Julian turned, weapon in hand.
“Stop.”
I raised mine.
“You first.”
Rain blew through the open loading doors.
Julian’s hand trembled.
“You don’t understand.”
“I understand Marcus died because of you.”
“I told Luca to frighten you.”
“You provided the route, reduced security, and emptied the safehouse.”
“I thought you would sign control over to me.”
“And then what?”
“We would rebuild.”
“You believed Luca would let either of us live?”
“I had an agreement.”
“You had a leash.”
His expression broke.
“You never saw me.”
“I gave you authority over the west docks.”
“You corrected every decision.”
“Because you stole from the pension accounts.”
“I borrowed money.”
“You gambled it.”
“I paid it back.”
“After Marcus covered the loss.”
Julian looked away.
That answered another question.
“Marcus knew,” I said.
“He threatened to tell you.”
“So you sent him into the ambush.”
“No! He chose to protect you.”
“Because that was who he was.”
Julian’s eyes filled with rage and shame.
“And what am I?”
“My brother.”
“Not anymore.”
He raised the gun.
I did not fire.
“Put it down.”
“Why?”
“Because Sarah asked me to bring you back alive.”
He laughed bitterly.
“A waitress now tells Dante Moretti what to do?”
“She has better judgment than either of us.”
Julian’s finger tightened on the trigger.
A shot cracked.
For a second, I thought he had fired.
Then his weapon fell from his hand.
Blood spread across his shoulder.
Luca stood behind him.
“You weak little fool,” Luca said.
Julian collapsed against the railing.
Luca aimed at his head.
I fired first.
My bullet struck Luca’s wrist.
His gun dropped.
He lunged at me before I could fire again.
We crashed into a stack of crates.
Pain tore through my wound.
Luca drove his fist into my ribs and reached for a knife hidden at his ankle.
“You should have died in the club,” he snarled.
“You should have chosen a smarter partner.”
He slashed at me.
I caught his wrist with both hands. The blade stopped inches from my throat.
My strength was fading.
Then Sarah appeared behind him.
She swung a metal fire extinguisher into Luca’s back.
He released me and fell to one knee.
Sarah hit him again.
Luca collapsed face-first onto the concrete.
She stood over him, breathing hard.
“You attract terrible people.”
I looked at the extinguisher.
“You are very effective with emergency equipment.”
“Is your brother alive?”
We rushed to Julian.
Blood poured through his fingers, but the bullet had passed through the upper shoulder.
He looked at Sarah.
“You’re the waitress?”
“Yes.”
“You ruined everything.”
She knelt and pressed a strip of fabric against his wound.
“No. You did that yourself.”
Sirens approached from outside.
Luca laughed weakly from the floor.
“My police will be here first.”
Sarah looked at the countdown on her phone.
“No. Federal agents will.”
His face changed.
“You sent the files?”
“I sent enough to make sure your friends stop answering your calls.”
The terminal doors burst open.
Federal agents entered from the main gate while Elias’s men lowered their weapons.
Commander Hale arrived with local police seconds later, only to find federal officers waiting for him.
Sarah leaned close to me.
“Is it over?”
I looked around the terminal.
Luca was being handcuffed. Julian was receiving medical treatment. The captains who had betrayed me stood with their hands raised.
“My war is.”
Sarah shook her head.
“No, Dante. Your old life is.”
I looked at her.
May you like
“What makes you think I have another?”
“Because you survived long enough to choose one.”
