Chapter 2 - The Price of Protection
“The reason I came to Marino’s tonight.”
Luca’s words seemed to remain suspended between us.
Rain streaked the SUV windows. Seattle moved outside in smeared ribbons of white and red, but inside the vehicle everything had gone strangely still.
I stared at Emma’s name on the photograph.
“What does Jake want with my daughter?”
Luca didn’t answer immediately.
That frightened me more than an answer would have.
“Tell me.”
“He owes money.”
“So?”
“Not the kind collected through lawyers.”
My fingers tightened around the photograph.
“How much?”
“Four million.”
I laughed once because the number was too absurd to process.
Jake had stolen almost ninety thousand dollars from the inheritance my grandmother left me. To me, that had been catastrophic.
Four million belonged to another universe.
“Jake doesn’t have four million dollars.”
“I know.”
“Then what does Emma have to do with it?”
Luca leaned forward, forearms resting on his knees.
“Your grandfather was Samuel Carter.”
I stared at him.
“How do you know that?”
“He owned Carter Maritime.”
“He owned three fishing boats.”
“Officially.”
I almost laughed again.
My grandfather had died when I was seventeen. He had smelled like pipe tobacco and peppermint, wore sweaters with holes in the elbows, and spent Sundays teaching me to play chess.
He had not been some criminal mastermind.
“Whatever you think you know—”
“Your grandfather owned twenty-two percent of a waterfront holding company called North Sound Development.”
I stopped.
“I’ve never heard of it.”
“You weren’t supposed to.”
Luca reached into a leather folder Dante handed him from the front seat.
He removed several photocopied documents.
My grandfather’s name appeared on the first.
Samuel Carter.
My mother’s name appeared beneath it.
Then mine.
“What is this?”
“A trust.”
“I don’t have a trust.”
“You do.”
My hands went cold.
Luca continued.
“Your grandfather’s stake was transferred into a family trust after his death. Your mother became beneficiary. When she died, the beneficial interest passed to you.”
“My mother left me eighty-nine thousand dollars.”
“That was the liquid estate.”
I looked down again.
“What is the trust worth?”
“Depending on the redevelopment vote next month?”
He paused.
“Somewhere between eighteen and twenty-four million.”
I forgot about my ankle.
I forgot the rain.
I forgot to breathe.
“That’s impossible.”
“Jake found out before you did.”
Suddenly the stolen inheritance looked different.
It hadn’t been the prize.
It had been research money.
A way to find something bigger.
“What does Emma have to do with it?”
Luca’s eyes hardened.
“Your grandfather created an unusual succession clause. If something happens to you, your interest passes to your direct descendant.”
Emma.
My stomach twisted.
“If something happens to both of us?”
“The shares revert to the remaining partners.”
I looked up.
Luca didn’t have to explain further.
“You’re saying somebody wants us dead.”
“I’m saying somebody has spent eighteen months making sure Jake remains desperate enough to help them.”
I shoved the documents toward him.
“Take me to Emma.”
“We are.”
“No. Take me there now.”
“That is where we’re going.”
The SUV turned.
I recognized the street immediately.
Mrs. Chen lived six blocks from my apartment and watched Emma during my evening shifts.
I reached for my phone.
Luca caught my wrist.
“Don’t.”
“Get your hand off me.”
He released me instantly.
“Why can’t I call?”
“Because we don’t know whether your phone is compromised.”
“You expect me to believe somebody is tracking my phone?”
“I expect you to believe the photograph in your hand.”
That silenced me.
Dante spoke from the front.
“Two minutes.”
Luca’s entire posture changed.
The man who had carried me out of the diner disappeared.
The boss returned.
“Dante, rear entrance. Nico takes the alley. Nobody approaches Ava until we clear the apartment.”
“Understood.”
“You are not sending armed men into Mrs. Chen’s home.”
Luca looked at me.
“If I’m wrong, you can hate me tomorrow.”
“And if you’re right?”
His expression became colder.
“Then somebody made a serious mistake tonight.”
We stopped half a block away.
Mrs. Chen’s porch light was off.
It was never off when Emma stayed late.
My heart started hammering.
“No.”
I grabbed the handle.
Luca blocked me.
“Wait.”
“My daughter is in there.”
“Ava.”
I shoved him.
“Move!”
Something changed in his face.
He understood immediately that there was no version of this where I sat quietly in a vehicle while strangers searched for my child.
“Stay behind me.”
We crossed the rain-soaked sidewalk.
The front door stood slightly open.
I nearly screamed.
Luca pulled a gun from beneath his jacket.
The sight should have terrified me.
Instead, I followed him.
“Mrs. Chen?”
Nothing.
We entered.
A lamp lay shattered beside the couch.
A chair had been overturned.
Then I saw blood on the kitchen tile.
“Emma!”
I ran.
Luca caught me before I slipped.
Mrs. Chen was lying beside the pantry.
Her eyes opened.
“Ava?”
I dropped beside her.
“Oh my God.”
Blood ran from a cut near her hairline, but she was conscious.
“Where’s Emma?”
Mrs. Chen started crying.
“I’m sorry.”
The room tilted.
“Where is she?”
“They came to the door.”
“Who?”
“Two men. They said you’d been hurt.”
My heart stopped.
“I tried to call you.”
“Where is Emma?”
Mrs. Chen grabbed my sleeve.
“She hid.”
I stared at her.
“What?”
“I told her to hide when they forced the door.”
A tiny sound came from somewhere behind us.
“Mama?”
I spun.
The pantry door opened three inches.
Emma’s frightened brown eyes appeared in the darkness.
I crawled across the floor.
She flew into my arms.
For several seconds, I couldn’t speak.
I buried my face in her hair while she wrapped herself around my neck.
“I was quiet, Mama.”
“Yes, baby.”
“Mrs. Chen said mouse quiet.”
“You did perfect.”
Behind us, Luca turned away.
Maybe he was giving us privacy.
Maybe even men like Luca Castellano had things they couldn’t watch.
His men secured the house while a doctor examined Mrs. Chen. She refused the hospital until Luca quietly told her all expenses would be handled and someone would stay with her.
Then he approached me.
“We need to leave.”
“I’m taking Emma home.”
“You can’t.”
“My apartment—”
“Was searched forty minutes ago.”
I froze.
Dante held up his phone.
Photographs showed drawers dumped onto my floor. Emma’s toys scattered. My mattress slashed open.
Someone had been looking for something.
“I don’t have anything.”
Luca crouched until he was eye level with Emma.
He didn’t touch her.
“Hi.”
Emma stared suspiciously.
“You’re very tall.”
One corner of his mouth moved.
“So I’ve been told.”
“Are you Mama’s friend?”
His eyes lifted to mine.
“No.”
The answer hurt for reasons I didn’t understand.
Then he added, “But I’m trying to be.”
Emma considered that.
“Okay.”
Children were terrifyingly generous.
Luca stood.
“My house is secure.”
“I am not moving into a mafia boss’s house.”
“Then choose a hotel and I’ll secure it.”
“No.”
“Ava, men just broke into a seventy-year-old woman’s home to find your daughter.”
I held Emma tighter.
“I don’t trust you.”
“You shouldn’t.”
That surprised me.
Luca stepped closer.
“Trust what you’ve seen instead.”
Mrs. Chen bleeding.
My destroyed apartment.
Jake’s photograph.
Emma’s name.
I hated that he was right.
Twenty minutes later, we were moving through Seattle again.
Emma fell asleep against me.
Luca removed his coat and placed it over her without a word.
His mansion sat above Lake Washington behind iron gates and enough security cameras to guard a foreign embassy.
Inside, a woman named Rosa took us upstairs.
Emma was given a bedroom filled with things clearly purchased in a hurry—pajamas, stuffed animals, children’s books.
That disturbed me almost as much as the guns.
“You prepared for her.”
Luca stood in the doorway.
“Yes.”
“You knew we were coming.”
“I hoped I could convince you.”
“You planned all this before walking into Marino’s.”
“Yes.”
I stepped toward him.
“Stop giving me half answers.”
Something flickered in his expression.
“Tomorrow.”
“No. Tonight.”
“Ava—”
“Why do you care what happens to me?”
Silence.
Then a man appeared at the end of the hallway.
Dante.
But his face was wrong.
“Boss.”
Luca turned.
Dante held a small plastic evidence bag.
Inside was a silver necklace.
My necklace.
The one Jake had given me six years earlier.
The one I had thrown into Puget Sound the night he disappeared.
My blood went cold.
“Where did you find that?”
Dante looked at Luca.
“On the pillow in the east guest room.”
The room where Emma was supposed to sleep.
Attached to the necklace was a folded piece of paper.
Luca opened it.
I watched his eyes change.
“What does it say?”
He didn’t answer.
I ripped it from his hand.
There were only seven words.
YOU CAN’T PROTECT THEM FROM YOUR OWN FAMILY.
And beneath the message was a name.
MATTEO CASTELLANO.
May you like
Luca’s older brother.
---
