Chapter 6 - THE BELLINI BLOODLINE
“Vanessa said you’d figure out the pawn shop eventually, Moretti. She just didn’t think you’d deliver the boy to us yourself.”
Luca pushed Matteo behind him.
His left arm clamped across my chest, forcing me behind him as well.
“Claire,” Luca said, his voice dropping to that lethal calm again. “Take Matteo. Go back to the car. Lock the doors.”
“Dad, no!” Matteo cried.
“Do it!”
I grabbed Matteo’s hand.
But as I pulled him backward, another man stepped out from the shadows at the far end of the alley, blocking our retreat.
We were trapped.
The tall man with the tire iron stepped into the dim streetlight.
I recognized him immediately.
It was Dominic Bellini. Vanessa’s older brother.
“Dominic,” Luca said, his hands resting loosely at his sides. “You’re a long way from the South Side. You brought a tire iron to a gunfight?”
Dominic chuckled. “We know you don’t carry when you’re with your kid, Luca. It’s your one noble flaw. Dad always said it would get you killed.”
Luca didn’t flinch. “What do you want?”
“Vanessa called me,” Dominic sneered. “Crying her eyes out. Said you humiliated her in front of the whole city. Called off the wedding.”
“She crossed a line.”
“She was doing what she was told!” Dominic spat. “Our families had a deal, Moretti. We merge the territories through this marriage. We get access to your father’s old docks.”
“My father never trusted the Bellinis,” Luca said coldly.
“Your father is dead!” Dominic shouted. “And that old garage was the last piece of property stopping the development. Vanessa was supposed to tear it down so we could break ground.”
My mind raced.
That’s why Vanessa wanted to destroy the garage. It had nothing to do with it being an “eyesore.” It was about land. It was about mafia territory.
“You’re not getting the land, Dominic,” Luca said.
“Then we’re taking collateral.”
Dominic’s eyes shifted to Matteo.
“Grab the kid,” Dominic ordered his men.
They surged forward.
Luca moved faster than I thought a human being could.
He didn’t have a gun, but he didn’t need one. He stepped into the first man’s swing, caught his wrist, and twisted until a sickening crack echoed in the alley. The man screamed and dropped.
Luca drove his elbow into the second man’s throat, dropping him instantly.
But Dominic was huge. He swung the heavy iron bar.
It slammed into Luca’s ribs with a hollow thud.
Luca grunted, stumbling to one knee.
“Dad!” Matteo screamed.
Dominic raised the iron again, aiming straight for Luca’s head.
I didn’t think.
I let go of Matteo’s hand, grabbed the heavy wooden box from the boy, and lunged forward.
I swung the scorched wooden box as hard as I could.
The heavy oak corner smashed directly into the side of Dominic’s face.
He roared in pain, dropping the tire iron as blood burst from his nose.
The box splintered but held together.
Luca seized the distraction. He swept Dominic’s legs out from under him, pinned him to the ground, and delivered a devastating punch to the man’s jaw.
Dominic went limp.
The last man standing took one look at Luca’s furious face and ran.
Luca stood up, breathing heavily. He held his ribs.
He looked at Dominic’s unconscious body.
Then, he looked at me.
I was standing there, shaking, holding the dented wooden box.
“Nice swing,” Luca breathed.
I swallowed hard. “He was going to hurt you.”
Luca stepped closer, his eyes intense in the dark.
Before he could thank me, my phone buzzed in my apron pocket.
I pulled it out.
It was an unknown number.
I answered it on speaker.
“Claire?” a woman’s voice said. It was Vanessa. She sounded frantic.
May you like
“What do you want, Vanessa?” I asked.
“Listen to me very carefully,” she hissed. “Get away from Luca. Right now. You think I’m the monster? Ask him why his father gave him that locket. Ask him who you really are.”
