Chapter 4 - The Maid's Secret
Elena stared down the barrel of Matteo's gun without flinching.
Her breathing slowly returned to a steady, rhythmic pace.
"Are you going to shoot the woman who just helped you escape?" she asked calmly.
"I will shoot anyone who brings a Viper into my home," Matteo promised.
Elena let out a bitter, humorless laugh.
She reached behind her neck and unclasped a thin silver chain.
She tossed it onto the metal table between them.
Hanging from the chain was a military dog tag belonging to a man named Dominic Moretti.
"Dominic was my older brother," Elena explained, her voice hardening.
"He was an undercover detective investigating the Viper Syndicate."
Matteo lowered his weapon a fraction of an inch.
"He was murdered five years ago in an alley behind a casino," Matteo recalled.
"Yes," Elena said, her eyes flashing with pure rage.
"And the police ruled it a cartel hit, but the evidence was quietly buried by a corrupt chief."
She stood up and walked toward the armed mafia boss.
"I didn't infiltrate your house to steal from you, Matteo."
"I infiltrated it because my brother's last encrypted message said the evidence to bring down the Vipers was hidden in a broken Seiko watch."
Matteo felt a profound chill run down his spine.
The watch hadn't just belonged to his late father.
It was a dead drop containing secrets that could burn the entire city to the ground.
"If the Vipers have the watch now, they will destroy the evidence forever," Matteo realized.
"They don't have it," Elena said softly.
She reached into the deep pocket of her apron.
She pulled out the scratched, worthless Seiko watch and set it gently next to her brother's dog tags.
Matteo stared at the object he had torn his own house apart to find.
"How did you get this?" he demanded.
"When I saw the bleeding man sneaking out of your study, I deliberately bumped into him in the hallway," she confessed.
"I picked his pocket while I was apologizing."
Matteo looked at this extraordinary woman in a completely new light.
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Before he could speak, the heavy steel door of the safe house violently rattled.
Someone on the outside was attaching breaching explosives to the metal frame.
