Chapter 6 - WHAT LUCA NEVER TOLD HERFor the second time in four days, Amelia found herself sitting in a hospital waiting room with somebody else’s blood on her clothes.
Only this time, the blood belonged to Luca.
The bullet entered below his left shoulder.
It missed his heart.
Missed the major arteries.
The surgeon called that lucky.
Amelia didn’t.
Lucky would have been Victor Fletcher missing completely.
Lucky would have been Daniel Moretti still alive.
Lucky would have been Amelia never meeting Raymond.
Detective Mills emerged from the elevator at 4:20 a.m.
Her coat was soaked from the rain.
“Whitmore escaped.”
Amelia looked up.
“Victor?”
“Also gone.”
“Raymond?”
“In custody.”
“Richard?”
“Being treated downstairs. His wife is with him.”
Amelia nodded.
“And Luca?”
“Still in surgery?”
“Yes.”
Mills sat beside her.
For several minutes, neither spoke.
Then Mills said, “You saved Raymond’s life.”
“I stopped Luca from destroying his own.”
“He may not see it that way.”
“He will.”
Mills gave her a sideways look.
“You sound pretty confident.”
“I’m practicing.”
At sunrise, the surgeon came out.
Luca would recover.
Amelia closed her eyes.
Only then did she realize she had been holding her breath for hours.
She visited him that afternoon.
He was pale, furious and attached to enough machines to make movement nearly impossible.
“You look terrible,” Amelia said.
Luca opened one eye.
“I got shot.”
“I heard.”
“Apparently you were there.”
“Vaguely remember it.”
His eyes opened fully.
“You should have left when I told you.”
“You should have ducked.”
“I was busy preventing your ex-boyfriend from strangling you.”
“Multitasking problem.”
A weak laugh escaped him.
Then his expression softened.
“Are you okay?”
Amelia hated that he was the one in a hospital bed asking her.
“Yes.”
“Raymond?”
“Charged with assault, kidnapping, unlawful confinement and enough other things to keep lawyers busy.”
“Good.”
“Victor and Whitmore disappeared.”
“I know.”
“How?”
“My people told me.”
“Your people?”
“I’m mysterious, remember?”
She pulled a chair closer.
“Luca.”
“Yes?”
“Who are you really?”
The humor faded.
Amelia continued.
“I know the rumors.”
“That usually means people have already decided.”
“I’m asking you.”
He stared at the ceiling.
“My father ran illegal gambling rooms when I was growing up.”
Amelia waited.
“Daniel hated it. I loved it.”
That surprised her.
“I liked that people feared my father. Kids at school didn’t bother me. Cops treated us carefully. Restaurants found tables when they were full.”
“You were a child.”
“I stopped being one.”
Luca shifted painfully.
“By twenty-one, I was collecting debts.”
“Violently?”
“Sometimes.”
He didn’t soften it.
Amelia appreciated that.
“I hurt people.”
“Did you kill people?”
His gaze returned to her.
“No.”
She believed him.
“I helped build something I’m not proud of.”
“What changed?”
“Daniel.”
He looked toward the window.
“My brother spent his entire life trying to pull our family into legitimate business. Real estate. Shipping. Construction. He used to tell me fear was the most expensive kind of loyalty because eventually everyone starts looking for somebody more frightening.”
Amelia thought of Raymond.
“What happened after Daniel died?”
“I took control of everything.”
“To get revenge?”
“At first.”
“And then?”
“I discovered revenge doesn’t bring anybody home.”
His voice was quiet.
“So I started dismantling the parts Daniel hated.”
“The illegal parts?”
“Yes.”
“How long?”
“Seven years.”
“Are they gone?”
“Almost.”
“Almost is doing a lot of work.”
Luca smiled faintly.
“Fair.”
She sat back.
“Why does everyone still fear you?”
“Some reputations are useful.”
“So you let them.”
“Yes.”
“Does that bother you?”
“Sometimes.”
“And helping me?”
His eyes met hers.
“That’s different.”
“Why?”
He hesitated.
“I saw you on that floor.”
Amelia’s heartbeat changed.
Luca continued.
“And for one second, I saw Daniel after the accident.”
She felt both touched and disappointed.
“So I remind you of your brother?”
“No.”
His answer was immediate.
“You remind me of every person I should have helped before it became personal.”
That landed differently.
Better.
He looked away.
“And maybe I liked you.”
“Liked?”
“I’m currently on morphine. Don’t make me define verbs.”
She laughed.
A real laugh.
Then his bedside phone rang.
Luca frowned.
Nobody had been given the number.
Amelia answered.
Silence.
Then a recorded voice.
Daniel Moretti’s voice.
“Luca, if you’re hearing this, Whitmore knows.”
The recording continued.
Luca struggled upright despite the pain.
“Put it on speaker.”
Daniel’s voice filled the room.
“There’s a second ledger. The digital files are insurance, but the original transactions are written in a black book.”
Luca stared at the phone.
“I hid it somewhere only family could reach.”
A pause.
“If Amelia Hayes ever hears this, tell her I’m sorry.”
Amelia froze.
Her name.
Daniel Moretti had died four years before Amelia met Luca.
She grabbed the phone.
The recording continued.
“Amelia, Raymond didn’t meet you by accident.”
Every hair on her arms rose.
“He was sent to find you.”
Amelia turned toward Luca.
“What?”
Daniel’s recording ended with eight words.
“Ask her father what happened in August 2009.”
The line disconnected.
Amelia stood completely still.
“My father died when I was nineteen.”
Luca’s face had changed.
“How?”
“Heart attack.”
“When?”
She already knew the answer.
The date she had spent seventeen years trying not to think about.
“August 22, 2009.”
Luca looked at her.
Amelia felt the room tilt.
Because suddenly Raymond hadn’t just been an abusive boyfriend.
Her entire relationship had been engineered.
May you like
And whatever Daniel Moretti had uncovered began long before she ever met Raymond.
It began with her father.
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