Chapter 4 - The Poisoned Apple
Luca helped Mr. Pike sit up against the cold concrete wall.
The old baker confessed that the town sheriff had been paid off by a Chicago syndicate years ago.
Luca realized immediately that his own criminal empire had been compromised from the inside.
He picked up a rusty crowbar and pried open the hidden tunnel grate.
He pushed me and the twins into the narrow, damp passage.
He refused to stay behind this time, following closely as we crawled through the darkness.
We emerged a mile away in a dense, heavily wooded forest just outside of town.
Luca led us to a hidden supply car he had parked in the woods days ago.
We drove deep into the Appalachian mountains, miles away from any cell phone towers.
I finally found the courage to ask him who had ordered the hit on me and Marco.
Luca gripped the steering wheel so tightly his knuckles turned white.
He told me the order came from his father, Vincenzo Moretti.
I gasped in shock, reminding him that Vincenzo had died in a car crash five years ago.
Luca explained that his father had faked his own death to rule the underworld without government interference.
Vincenzo wanted total control, and he saw my influence over Luca as a threat to the family legacy.
I reached into my bag and pulled out the old burner phone I had kept hidden for three years.
I powered it on just to see if it still worked.
The screen lit up with a saved voicemail from Vanessa, dated the exact night I ran away.
I played the message on speakerphone for Luca to hear.
Vanessa's terrified voice filled the quiet car.
She said she had to break my heart to make me run, because Vincenzo was coming to kill me that night.
Then, a brand new text message popped up on the screen.
May you like
It was from an unknown number, and it contained a live video link.
I clicked it, and my breath caught in my throat as I saw Vanessa tied to a chair in a dark room.
