Chapter 3 - The Woman My Father Feared
The old chapel sat between two abandoned buildings on Mulberry Street.
Its stained-glass windows had been boarded over years earlier. We entered through a side door, and Luca showed me a hidden stairwell leading to a basement furnished like a private medical room.
“This is disturbingly prepared,” I said.
“My family believes in planning ahead.”
Dr. Russo arrived five minutes later carrying two black bags.
He was in his sixties, silver-haired and furious.
“You were shot again?”
“Not now, Emilio.”
“When would be a better time?”
His gaze landed on me.
“Who is she?”
“The woman keeping your patient alive,” I said.
Russo pointed toward the door. “Then she can wait outside.”
Luca shook his head.
“She stays.”
The doctor hesitated, then cut away the remaining fabric around the wound.
“The bullet passed through, but there’s internal damage. I can stop the bleeding temporarily. You need a real operating room.”
“No hospitals.”
“You always say that.”
“And I continue to be correct.”
Russo gave him an injection.
Luca’s body relaxed slightly, though his eyes stayed on me.
“Your grandmother,” he said. “Rosa Carbone worked for my father.”
“She cleaned houses.”
“No. That was the life she showed you.”
I laughed once.
“My grandmother carried coupons and complained when tomatoes cost too much.”
“She also kept financial records for three families.”
I turned toward him.
“What?”
“She knew every bribe, every judge, every hidden account.”
“That’s impossible.”
“My father called her La Memoria. The Memory. She never forgot a number or a betrayal.”
Dr. Russo continued working as though this conversation were ordinary.
I folded my arms tightly.
“She died when I was seventeen.”
“How?”
“Heart failure.”
Luca’s eyes sharpened. “Are you certain?”
“I was there.”
“That does not answer the question.”
I stepped closer.
“Don’t turn my grandmother into one of your stories.”
“I’m telling you why Marco Bellini stared at you longer than necessary.”
“He was looking at the blood.”
“No. He was looking at your face.”
Russo lifted his head.
“He’s right.”
I looked at the doctor.
“You knew her too?”
“Everyone from that generation knew Rosa.”
My stomach tightened.
“She raised me to stay away from men like you.”
Luca managed a faint smile.
“That sounds like her.”
The door upstairs slammed.
Russo froze.
Luca reached toward the table, but his gun was gone.
I grabbed a steel instrument tray.
“Is there another exit?”
“Behind the altar,” Luca said.
Footsteps descended the stairs.
A man appeared in the doorway.
He was broad-shouldered, with a shaved head and blood on his collar.
Luca’s face hardened.
“Gabriel.”
The man lifted both hands.
“I’m alone.”
Gabriel Moretti had served as Luca’s security chief for twelve years. I recognized him from photographs beside courthouse entrances.
Luca tried to sit up.
“Who survived?”
“Six men from the convoy. Your driver is dead. Bellini controls the headquarters.”
“And the captains?”
“Confused. Marco told them you ordered an attack against the Romano family and ran when it failed.”
“He arranged the entire thing.”
“I know.”
“How?”
Gabriel looked toward me.
“Because Bellini sent men to search the apartment of Rosa Carbone’s granddaughter thirty minutes ago.”
My throat went dry.
“My apartment?”
“They believe Mr. Vitale gave you something.”
“I met him less than an hour ago.”
“They don’t know that.”
Luca looked at me. “Did your grandmother leave you anything?”
“A box of recipes.”
“Anything else?”
“No.”
“Think.”
“I don’t need to think.”
Gabriel pulled out his phone and showed me a photograph.
My apartment door hung broken from its hinges. Drawers had been overturned. My mattress had been cut open.
Anger burned through the shock.
“That was all I had.”
Luca’s voice remained quiet.
“Marco wouldn’t risk exposing himself for nothing.”
I suddenly remembered something.
A brass key.
My grandmother had sewn it inside the lining of her old winter coat. I found it after her funeral and kept it because I could not bring myself to throw it away.
“I have a key,” I said.
“To what?” Luca asked.
“I don’t know.”
“Where is it?”
I looked at Gabriel’s phone again.
“Not in my apartment.”
Luca waited.
“At the diner.”
Dr. Russo finished the last stitch.
“You’re not going anywhere.”
Luca swung his legs off the table.
Russo pushed him back.
“You will tear everything I repaired.”
“Then repair it again.”
I stepped between them.
“Bellini still has a man near the diner.”
“Probably more now,” Gabriel said.
I thought about Hector alone behind the counter.
“We have to go back.”
Luca looked at me.
“No. Gabriel will retrieve the key.”
“I hid it somewhere only I can reach.”
“Tell him.”
“No.”
His eyes narrowed.
“You don’t trust him?”
“I don’t trust anyone whose job title includes security for a criminal empire.”
Gabriel almost smiled.
Luca studied me for several seconds.
“You really are Rosa’s granddaughter.”
“I’m going back for Hector.”
Luca stood carefully.
“And I’m going with you.”
“You can barely walk.”
“I only need to stand long enough for Bellini to understand he failed.”
Gabriel checked his weapon.
“If Marco sees you alive, he’ll send everything he has.”
Luca buttoned a borrowed black shirt over the bandages.
“Good.”
I stared at him.
“That’s your plan?”
“No.”
May you like
His dark gaze met mine.
“That’s the invitation.”
