Chapter 5 - THE CALL IN THE DARK
The phone buzzed angrily on the floor between us.
Luca stared at the screen, his face hardening into an expression of absolute, terrifying lethality.
Answer one: Dominic wasn't just a traitor. He was actively monitoring the situation. He knew the engagement dinner had fallen apart.
“Don't answer it,” I whispered, terrified that Dominic could somehow hear the realization in our breathing.
Luca picked up the phone. He didn't swipe to answer. He just stared at the name.
“If I don't answer, he’ll know something is wrong,” Luca said, his voice deadly calm. “He knows Vanessa was exposed tonight. But he doesn't know about the SD card.”
Luca swiped the screen and brought the phone to his ear.
“Dominic,” Luca said smoothly, his voice betraying absolutely nothing.
“Boss,” Dominic’s voice crackled through the speaker. He sounded tense. “I just heard about the dinner. The guards said you locked Vanessa in the basement. What happened?”
“She confessed to stealing from the import business,” Luca lied seamlessly. “She panicked when the maid mentioned her dead husband.”
“The maid?” Dominic asked, feigning confusion. “What does the maid have to do with it?”
“Nothing,” Luca said. “It was just a trigger. I’m handling it.”
“Do you need me to come over?” Dominic offered, the faux-loyalty making my stomach turn. “I can interrogate her. Save you the headache.”
“No,” Luca said firmly. “I’m keeping this contained. Stay at the club. I’ll see you tomorrow.”
“Understood, Boss. Let me know if you need anything.”
Luca hung up. He dropped the phone onto the bed.
“He’s coming,” Luca said instantly, standing up.
“But you told him to stay at the club,” I said, confused.
“Dominic doesn't ask to interrogate prisoners unless he needs to silence them,” Luca explained, pulling a heavy, suppressed pistol from his shoulder holster. “He knows Vanessa will eventually give him up to save herself. He’s coming to kill her tonight.”
Open two: If Dominic is coming to kill Vanessa, how do we stop him without tipping off the rest of the syndicate that Luca knows the truth?
“We have to move her,” I said, standing up. “If he finds her in the basement, he’ll shoot her and blame it on a suicide.”
“We aren't moving her,” Luca said, checking the magazine of his weapon. “We are going to use her as bait.”
Luca looked at me.
“I need you to do exactly what I say, Rachel. This is going to be dangerous.”
“I’m not afraid of him,” I said, my voice steady despite the adrenaline pumping through my veins. “He paid for my husband’s murder.”
Luca gave a tight, respectful nod.
We left the servant’s quarters and moved silently through the dark mansion toward the basement stairs.
The holding cell was at the end of a long, concrete corridor. Two guards stood outside the heavy steel door.
“Leave,” Luca told the guards.
“Boss?” one of them questioned.
“Go upstairs. Secure the perimeter. Nobody comes down here but me,” Luca ordered.
The guards nodded and rushed up the stairs.
Luca unlocked the heavy steel door.
Vanessa was sitting on the concrete floor, her ruined dress pooling around her. She looked up, her eyes red and swollen.
“Are you going to kill me now?” Vanessa whispered.
“No,” Luca said, stepping into the cell. “But Dominic is.”
Vanessa’s face went completely pale.
“He knows you were exposed,” Luca continued mercilessly. “He knows you’ll crack. He’s on his way here right now to put a bullet in your head.”
“No!” Vanessa scrambled backward until she hit the wall. “Luca, please! I’ll tell you everything! I’ll testify to the council! Just don't let him kill me!”
“You’re going to help me catch him,” Luca said.
He pulled me into the cell and locked the door behind us.
“Sit in the chair,” Luca ordered Vanessa.
She obeyed, shaking violently.
Luca turned off the overhead light, plunging the cell into total darkness. The only illumination came from the faint glow of the hallway security lights seeping under the door.
“Stand behind the door,” Luca whispered to me, pressing me against the cold concrete wall.
He moved to the opposite side, raising his weapon.
We waited in the dark for ten agonizing minutes. The silence was heavy, broken only by Vanessa’s jagged breathing.
Then, we heard it.
Soft, deliberate footsteps echoing down the concrete corridor.
The sound stopped right outside the cell door.
A key scraped into the lock.
The heavy steel door slowly swung open, casting a long shadow into the dark cell.
A figure stepped inside, holding a suppressed pistol aimed directly at the chair where Vanessa was sitting.
The figure raised the gun.
But it wasn't Dominic.
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As the faint hallway light caught the intruder's face, I gasped out loud.
TITLE: THE TRAITOR IN THE LIGHT
