CHAPTER 8 Can You Buy This Painting?” Billionaire Mafia froze because He Thought the Woman in the Painting Was Dead—Until Three Starving Triplets Asked Him to Save Their Mother
CHAPTER 8 — THE LAST HEIST
The convoy stopped two miles from the Moretti estate.
No engines.
No headlights.
Only the sound of rain falling through the dense pine forest.
Dante Russo stood over the hood of a black SUV, studying a detailed blueprint of the mansion projected onto a portable screen.
Around him, Nico and twelve of the Russo family's most trusted operatives waited in silence.
No one spoke.
This wasn't a war.
It was a rescue.
Dante finally looked up.
"We only have one objective."
He pointed to the blueprint.
"Rose."
"The moment we find her, we leave."
One of the captains frowned.
"And Victor?"
Dante's answer came without hesitation.
"If he stands between me and my daughter..."
"He won't be standing for long."
Inside the estate...
Rose couldn't sleep.
Something felt different tonight.
The guards had doubled.
She heard vehicles arriving outside.
More footsteps echoed through the hallways.
Even Victor seemed restless.
She sat beside the window and pressed her small hand against the cold glass.
Somewhere beyond the trees...
She knew her father was coming.
She didn't know how.
She simply believed it.
Downstairs...
Victor stood in the mansion's underground command room.
More than twenty surveillance screens covered one wall.
Every entrance.
Every hallway.
Every room.
One guard hurried inside.
"Sir."
"Thermal sensors detected movement."
Victor smiled faintly.
"They're here."
The guard swallowed.
"Should we engage?"
Victor slowly shook his head.
"No."
"Let them in."
The room fell silent.
Another lieutenant looked confused.
"You want Russo inside the estate?"
Victor turned toward them.
"I've spent seven years preparing for this night."
His smile grew colder.
"Why would I stop him now?"
Outside...
Nico clipped a fiber-optic camera beneath the estate's outer fence.
"No movement."
Dante nodded.
"Cut it."
Within seconds, a narrow opening appeared beneath the steel barrier.
One by one, the rescue team slipped inside.
No alarms.
No gunfire.
No resistance.
Too easy.
Nico whispered,
"I don't like this."
"Neither do I," Dante replied.
"But we keep moving."
The eastern garden looked exactly like Rose had drawn.
The fountain.
The stone path.
The three white statues.
Even the pink ribbon still fluttered around the smallest statue's neck.
Dante paused beside it.
He gently touched the ribbon.
A smile crossed his face.
"My brave girl..."
Then he noticed something else.
A fresh drawing hidden beneath the statue.
Folded carefully inside a waterproof plastic bag.
He opened it.
Another picture.
This one showed a staircase.
A blue bird.
And three arrows pointing downward.
Nico looked over his shoulder.
"The cellar."
Dante nodded.
"She's telling us where she is."
Miles away...
Inside the mansion...
Rose suddenly smiled.
Victor noticed immediately.
"What makes you happy?"
She looked at him innocently.
"I think someone's coming."
Victor walked closer.
"And if they are?"
She answered softly,
"They'll find me."
Victor studied her face.
There wasn't a trace of fear.
Only certainty.
For reasons he couldn't explain...
That certainty unsettled him.
Meanwhile...
Dante's team reached an old stone gazebo hidden behind climbing ivy.
Exactly where Rose's drawing had indicated.
The floor looked ordinary.
Until Nico tapped it.
"Hollow."
Two operatives pried up the heavy stone slab.
Beneath it...
A narrow spiral staircase descended into darkness.
Cold air drifted upward.
Dante drew his pistol.
"This is it."
The team descended silently.
The underground tunnel stretched farther than anyone expected.
Old brick walls.
Rusted pipes.
Flickering emergency lights.
It looked less like a cellar...
And more like an escape route.
Halfway through the tunnel...
One of the younger soldiers froze.
"Boss..."
Laser beams.
Dozens of them.
Invisible until the flashlight struck them.
Explosives.
Tripwires.
Motion sensors.
Nico exhaled slowly.
"The whole tunnel's trapped."
Dante crouched.
He examined the wiring.
Then smiled.
"Victor built this."
Nico blinked.
"So?"
"I know how men like him think."
Carefully...
Dante reached into his pocket.
He removed a silver coin.
Then tossed it toward the ceiling.
The coin struck a pipe.
The vibration triggered the first sensor.
A section of the tunnel exploded—
—but only where Victor expected intruders to walk.
Dust filled the air.
When it settled...
A narrow path remained untouched along the left wall.
Dante looked back.
"Single file."
"Follow my footsteps exactly."
They crossed safely.
Not one explosion followed.
Nico shook his head.
"I've worked with you fifteen years."
"You still surprise me."
Dante answered quietly.
"Victor always hides his traps where people expect danger."
"Not where they stop thinking."
At the end of the tunnel stood a steel elevator.
No buttons.
Only a fingerprint scanner.
One lieutenant frowned.
"We're stuck."
Dante looked around.
Then noticed a tiny maintenance panel.
He opened it.
Inside...
A handwritten note.
His heart stopped.
The note read:
Daddy... press the blue wire first.
Below it was a tiny heart drawn in pink crayon.
Rose.
She had been here.
She had left instructions.
Nico laughed softly.
"She's unbelievable."
Dante's eyes glistened.
Without another word...
He followed her directions.
Blue wire.
Red wire.
Green switch.
The elevator hummed to life.
As the doors opened...
Everyone expected armed guards.
Instead...
They found an empty underground gallery.
Hundreds of paintings lined the walls.
Every one signed only with the letter E.
Elena's work.
Some were landscapes.
Others portraits.
One painting stopped Dante in his tracks.
It showed three little girls running across a field toward a shadowy man standing beneath a giant oak tree.
The man's face wasn't visible.
But Dante knew.
It was him.
Elena had painted the reunion she prayed would one day happen.
Long before it became reality.
Nico whispered,
"She never stopped believing."
Dante reached out, gently touching the edge of the canvas.
"No..."
He smiled sadly.
"She never stopped waiting."
A faint sound echoed beyond the gallery.
Footsteps.
Small ones.
Then...
"Daddy?"
Rose's voice.
Dante spun toward the hallway.
"Rose!"
Little footsteps came running.
Then a tiny figure appeared around the corner.
Rose.
She threw herself into his arms so hard that the impact nearly knocked him backward.
He held her tightly, unable to speak.
For several seconds...
Neither of them said a word.
She simply buried her face against his shoulder.
"I knew you'd come."
Dante kissed the top of her head.
"I'll always come."
Behind them, Nico quietly looked away, giving them the moment they had both fought so hard to reach.
Then...
A slow clap echoed through the gallery.
Victor stepped from the shadows.
Alone.
No guards.
No weapon in his hands.
Only a faint smile.
"Beautiful."
His voice echoed through the chamber.
"A father and daughter reunited."
Rose instinctively hid behind Dante.
Victor sighed.
"You've won this round, Dante."
"But before you leave..."
He reached into his jacket and placed a small black device on the floor.
A detonator.
"The gallery you're standing in..."
He glanced around at Elena's paintings.
"...is built above twenty thousand gallons of fuel."
Nico's eyes widened.
Victor smiled.
"You have exactly three minutes."
He stepped backward into the darkness.
"And one more thing."
He looked directly at Dante.
"You've spent the last week trying to save your family."
His smile became almost sympathetic.
"You never noticed..."
"...someone inside your own organization has been working for me."
The lights went out.
The gallery doors slammed shut.
Metal locks clicked into place.
Then...
From somewhere behind Dante...
A pistol clicked.
A familiar voice whispered,
"I'm sorry, Boss."
Dante slowly turned.
One of his own captains was pointing a gun at him.
The traitor had been beside them...
May you like
The entire time.
END OF CHAPTER 8
