Luca read the message twice.
Then he became frighteningly calm.
“I’m going.”
“No.”
His eyes lifted to mine.
“Emma.”
“You know it’s a trap.”
“Yes.”
“And your response is to walk into it?”
“My father is there.”
“That doesn’t make you bulletproof.”
Julian was already calling security.
Elena stood by the windows, one hand pressed against her mouth.
Luca took his jacket.
I stepped in front of him.
“You told me power should protect people.”
“My mother said that.”
“You’ve spent your life proving you believed her.”
His jaw tightened.
“Move.”
“No.”
“Emma.”
“Your father needs you alive.”
“He needs me there.”
“He needs you thinking.”
For a second, anger flashed in his eyes.
Then it vanished.
“What do you suggest?”
I turned toward the laptop.
“We give them exactly what they asked for.”
Julian stared at me.
“The evidence?”
“A copy.”
Luca understood.
“We track it.”
“Yes.”
Within twenty minutes, Luca’s security chief had prepared a duplicate drive containing the genuine files plus an encrypted tracker.
The originals went into a secure server.
Copies went to three attorneys.
One more went somewhere nobody expected.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office.
Luca looked at me.
“You sent it?”
“You said no more secrets.”
“That wasn’t permission to start a federal investigation before breakfast.”
“Technically, your outside counsel started it.”
“You called Rachel?”
“She likes me.”
“She terrifies prosecutors.”
“Exactly.”
Despite the situation, Julian smiled.
“I’m beginning to understand why Luca likes you.”
Luca shot him a look.
Julian raised both hands.
“Terrible timing. Sorry.”
Pier 19 sat along an industrial stretch of waterfront.
Snow fell harder as Luca’s convoy approached.
I was supposed to remain in the command SUV three blocks away.
I lasted seven minutes.
Through Luca’s hidden microphone, we heard Anthony Russo.
“Put the drive down.”
Luca’s voice came through clearly.
“Where’s my father?”
“Alive.”
“Let me see him.”
A pause.
Then Vittorio’s voice.
“Luca, leave.”
My chest tightened.
Anthony laughed.
“Touching.”
Luca said, “You forged the transfer.”
“I corrected history.”
“You’ve been stealing from my family for twenty years.”
“Longer.”
The casual admission made my stomach turn.
Luca kept him talking.
“My mother found out.”
“Catherine was always too curious.”
Silence.
Then Luca’s voice became lethal.
“What did you do to her?”
My heart stopped.
Anthony laughed again.
“Nothing. Cancer did what I never had the courage to do.”
Luca exhaled.
“And Brandon Hayes?”
No answer.
“Say his name.”
“You already know.”
“Say it.”
“He should have taken the money.”
My eyes filled with tears.
There it was.
Not a legal document.
Not an implication.
A confession.
Anthony continued.
“Your father was too sentimental to clean up problems. I wasn’t.”
Vittorio shouted something.
A struggle followed.
Then a sharp sound cracked through the microphone.
I flinched.
“Luca?”
No answer.
Security moved.
I opened the SUV door.
A guard blocked me.
“Ms. Hayes.”
“What happened?”
“Stay inside.”
“What happened?”
Gunfire sounded in the distance.
Not close.
Still close enough.
Every instinct told me to run toward it.
Instead, I forced myself to think.
The tracker.
I looked at the tablet.
The drive was moving.
Away from Pier 19.
“They’re leaving.”
The security officer turned.
“What?”
“The drive.”
I showed him.
“They took it.”
A vehicle sped from the far side of the warehouse.
Security cars followed.
“Where’s Luca?”
No answer.
I grabbed the radio.
“Luca?”
Static.
Then:
“Emma.”
My knees nearly gave out.
“You’re alive.”
“Stay in the car.”
“Are you hurt?”
“Stay in the car.”
“That was not my question.”
A pause.
“I’m fine.”
He wasn’t.
I could hear it.
When security finally brought him back, blood darkened one sleeve.
I was out of the SUV before anyone could stop me.
“Fine?”
“It’s a scratch.”
“You’re bleeding.”
“Technically compatible with a scratch.”
I grabbed his arm.
He winced.
“Idiot.”
“Nice to see you too.”
“Where’s your father?”
His expression changed.
“Gone.”
My stomach dropped.
“Anthony moved him before we arrived.”
The man tied to the chair had been staged for the photograph.
By the time Luca entered the warehouse, Vittorio had already been moved.
Anthony had appeared remotely through a video feed.
The entire meeting had been another distraction.
“For what?” I asked.
Then my phone rang.
Elena.
I answered.
Her voice shook.
“Emma.”
“What happened?”
“The house.”
Cold rushed through me.
“What about it?”
“Someone broke into Catherine’s room.”
I looked at Luca.
The jewelry box.
The hidden drawer.
They had been searching for something.
But we already had the files.
Then I remembered the notebook.
We had left it at the estate.
“Catherine’s notebook.”
Luca’s face changed.
We raced back.
The notebook was gone.
So was Julian.
Elena sat in the library surrounded by security.
“They took him.”
Luca crouched in front of his grandmother.
“How?”
“He went upstairs when the alarm sounded. Then the lights went out.”
She gripped his hand.
“I’m sorry.”
“This isn’t your fault.”
Luca stood.
For the first time since I had known him, he looked overwhelmed.
His father was missing.
His brother had been taken.
His company was being stolen.
And the entire nightmare had begun because the people closest to his family had betrayed them.
I touched his hand.
His fingers closed around mine immediately.
That small movement broke my heart.
The tracker on the duplicate drive stopped in Queens.
Police found the vehicle abandoned.
No Anthony.
No Vittorio.
No Julian.
But they found something else.
An envelope.
Inside was a copy of a photograph.
Catherine Moretti standing beside my father on a construction site.
Behind them stood Anthony Russo.
And Carlo DeLuca.
On the back, someone had written:
Four people knew. Two stayed silent.
Vittorio had known more than he admitted.
So had Carlo.
We returned to the penthouse near noon.
Nobody had slept.
Luca stood by the windows.
I approached.
“You should rest.”
“So should you.”
“I’m not the one bleeding.”
He had six stitches.
He called them decorative.
“Emma.”
“Yes?”
“If anything happens to Julian—”
“It won’t.”
“You don’t know that.”
“No.”
I stepped closer.
“But I know you.”
His eyes met mine.
“You’ll find him.”
He looked away.
“My entire life, I thought my father’s methods were the danger.”
“Maybe they were.”
“And I spent so much time fighting him that I never saw the people standing beside him.”
“Trust isn’t stupidity.”
“It feels like it.”
I took his hand.
“My father trusted Anthony enough to report the corruption to him.”
Luca looked at me.
“That doesn’t make my father stupid. It makes Anthony responsible for betraying him.”
Something shifted in Luca’s face.
I continued.
“You are not responsible for every terrible thing someone else chooses to do.”
His hand moved around my waist.
“I’m still your boss.”
“Currently a terrible one.”
“Why?”
“I haven’t received a Christmas bonus.”
He laughed softly.
Then his forehead rested against mine.
“I want to kiss you.”
“You’re getting better at requests.”
“Is that a yes?”
“Yes.”
This kiss was different.
Not desperate.
Not confused.
It felt like choosing.
When we separated, Luca whispered, “When this is over, I want to take you to dinner.”
“A real date?”
“A painfully real one.”
“No private jets.”
“Fine.”
“No restaurant you own.”
“That eliminates several options.”
“And I’m paying for myself.”
“Absolutely not.”
“Date canceled.”
“Fine. You pay.”
I smiled.
“Excellent.”
His phone rang.
He answered.
Then froze.
“Julian?”
I stepped closer.
A distorted voice came through the speaker.
“Midnight. Moretti Estate.”
Anthony.
“Bring the original files.”
Luca’s expression hardened.
“You have my brother and father?”
“Yes.”
“If you hurt them—”
“You’ll do what your father should have done seventeen years ago.”
Anthony paused.
“You’ll choose blood over principle.”
The line went dead.
But this time, there was something Anthony didn’t know.
While he had been speaking, I had heard a sound in the background.
Church bells.
Not ordinary bells.
A Christmas melody.
I knew it because I had heard the same melody hours earlier.
At St. Michael’s.
I looked at Luca.
“They’re not at the estate.”
“What?”
“The bells.”
Understanding flashed across his face.
Anthony had accidentally told us where he was.
And this time, we were going to arrive before he expected us.