Chapter 7 - The Traitor Was Already Inside
We found Elena bleeding beside the wine cellar.
Alive.
Barely.
Luca reached her first.
Everything hard about him disappeared.
He dropped his gun and caught her.
"Elena."
Her eyes opened.
"Luca."
He held her face.
"You came back."
"I needed to see Noah."
Noah started crying from my arms.
Elena looked at him.
The sound she made wasn't quite a sob.
I handed him over.
Mother and child recognized each other instantly.
Noah buried his face against her neck.
"Mama."
Elena broke.
So did Luca.
For one brief moment, the mafia disappeared.
There was only a husband.
A wife.
A baby.
A family that had been robbed of eleven months.
Then Marco shouted.
"DOWN!"
Gunfire tore through the cellar door.
Luca covered Elena and Noah.
I crawled behind a concrete column.
Marco fired back.
One attacker fell.
Another escaped.
Security captured the third.
Luca dragged him inside.
"Who sent you?"
The man smiled through bloody teeth.
"You already know."
Luca hit him.
"Who told you where we were?"
Silence.
Then the attacker laughed.
"Ask Marco."
Every eye turned.
Marco's face emptied.
"What?"
The attacker grinned.
"Hello, cousin."
Luca raised his gun toward Marco.
I stepped between them.
"Mara!"
"Wait."
Marco looked furious.
"Move."
"No."
Luca's voice became lethal.
"Move away from him."
"What if that's what Salvatore wants?"
Silence.
I looked at the prisoner.
"Why identify Marco?"
He smiled.
"Because he's the traitor."
"Too easy."
His smile faded.
I looked around.
"Salvatore has survived this long because he manipulates people. Why expose his spy?"
Luca slowly lowered the gun.
Marco exhaled.
The prisoner suddenly bit down.
Foam appeared at his mouth.
Poison.
He died seconds later.
Elena whispered:
"He wasn't here to kill us."
"What?"
"He was here to make Luca kill Marco."
Marco looked at her.
"Then who betrayed us?"
Elena's gaze moved toward the hallway.
The nanny stood there.
Holding Noah's bottle.
Her hand trembled.
Luca saw it.
"Put it down."
She ran.
Marco caught her before she reached the stairs.
Inside her pocket they found a transmitter.
And a vial.
The doctor tested Noah's bottle.
Sedative.
Enough to make an infant unconscious for hours.
Luca's face became terrifying.
"How long?"
The nanny cried.
"Six months."
Elena went pale.
"You've been reporting on Noah?"
She nodded.
"To Salvatore?"
Another nod.
Luca turned away before anger made him do something irreversible.
I crouched beside her.
"Where is Catherine?"
"I don't know."
"Think."
"I swear."
"Then what does Salvatore want tonight?"
She stared at me.
"He said the girl would eventually lead him to the key."
"What key?"
"I don't know."
Elena suddenly looked at my necklace.
A cheap silver pendant I'd worn since childhood.
Her face changed.
"Mara."
"What?"
"Where did you get that?"
"My mother."
"When?"
"When I was five."
Elena reached toward it.
"Take it off."
Inside the pendant was a seam I had never noticed.
Marco used a knife.
The pendant opened.
A tiny brass key fell onto the table.
Everyone stared.
Elena whispered:
"Antonio's key."
Luca looked at me.
"What does it open?"
May you like
Elena answered.
"His private vault."
