Chapter 11
SCARLETT
Rosa appears at the top of the stairs with Luca, and her eyes go wide when she sees me being carried like a sack of potatoes over Dante’s shoulder.
“Mr. Moretti, what’s—”
“Safe room. Both of them. Now.” He doesn’t slow down as he takes the stairs. “Lock the door behind you and don’t open it for anyone but me.”
“Yes, sir.”
I’m still beating on his back even though I know it’s pointless. “Let me go! I need to make sure Luca is—”
“Luca will be fine because he’ll be locked in a reinforced room with you.” He reaches the basement level and heads for a heavy door at the end of the hallway. “Stop fighting me.”
“Mama?” Luca’s voice behind us is small and curious. “Why is Dante carrying you?”
That makes me stop struggling immediately. “It’s okay, baby. We’re just playing a game.”
It’s another lie in a day full of them and I hate myself for it.
Dante eventually sets me down in front of the safe room and I immediately spin to face him, fury blazing through me.
“Don’t you dare—”
“Get inside.” He steps closer and lowers his voice so Luca can’t hear. “Someone just breached my property looking for you. That means they know you’re here. And I’m not having this conversation while armed men are trying to get to you and my son.”
The fight drains out of me immediately when he says “my son” and I glance back at Luca who’s standing with Rosa looking absolutely terrified.
Thankfully he did not hear that.
“How long?”
“As long as it takes.” He pulls open the heavy door and I can see the reinforced interior. “Inside. Now.”
I hold his eyes for another second, searching for something, anything in those eyes. Some hint of reassurance or comfort or anything human.
But there’s nothing. Just ice.
Cold ice facade.
I turn and walk into the safe room. Rosa follows with Luca and I wait until we’re all inside before Dante speaks again.
“There are security monitors on the wall. You’ll be able to see everything. Don’t open this door for anyone but me.”
My hand comes up to grip the edge of the door. “Dante—”
“I’ll come back for you when it’s clear.”
Then he slams the door shut and I hear the lock click into a place with a heavy sound.
The safe room is bigger than I expected. Concrete walls enforced with steel plating. A small bathroom in the corner with a shower. Shelves stocked with water and food and medical supplies. And along one wall, a bank of security monitors showing different angles of the estate.
Clearly, this isn’t just a safe room, this is a bunker built for escape and survival.
“Mama, I’m scared.” Luca wraps his arms around my legs, his small hands fisting in my jeans. “What’s happening?”
I kneel down and pull him close, forcing myself to smile even though my heart is racing so fast I feel dizzy. “Remember how I said we were visiting my friend to stay safe? Well, some bad people found us, but we’re okay now. We’re in a special room where nobody can hurt us.”
“Is your man friend going to fight the bad people?”
“Yes, baby. He’s going to make sure we’re safe.”
“I don’t like him.” Luca’s voice is so quiet I barely hear it. “He looks mean.”
My chest tightens and I don’t know what to say to that. Because he’s right. Dante does look mean. He looks dangerous and violent and exactly like the kind of man I’ve spent five years trying to protect my son from.
“I know, sweetheart. But he’s helping us.”
Rosa touches my shoulder gently. “Come sit down, dear. You both must be exhausted from the flight and everything.”
But I can’t sit. I fix my eyes on the monitors showing the estate grounds instead.
On one screen I can see Dante moving through the house with his gun drawn, his movements fluid and controlled. On another, men in black camouflage cutting through the fence on the east side with determination. On a third, Dante’s security team taking positions throughout the property.
“How many?” I ask Rosa without looking away from the screens.
“It looks like six men breaching the perimeter.” Her voice is calm like this happens all the time. Like armed invasions are just part of the daily routine over here. “Mr. Moretti’s team is very good. They’ll handle it.”
Six armed men had tracked me across the country and found me within hours of landing in New York. Someone really wants me dead. And they brought a whole team to finish the job.
On the monitor, the intruders move through the grounds undaunted. They don’t seem like random thugs hired off the street. They’re trained professionals moving in coordinated formation, covering each other’s angles, and communicating with hand signals. Whoever sent them paid good money.
Dante’s security team engages them near the east wing and suddenly the screens explode with violence.
I immediately grab Luca and turn him away from the monitors. “Close your eyes, baby. Keep them closed for me, okay?”
“Why?”
“Because Mama said so. Come here.” I pull him onto my lap and hold his face against my shoulder, one hand covering his eyes. “Don’t look at the screens. Just keep your eyes closed.”
“Okay, Mama.”
But I can’t stop looking.
On the monitors, Dante moves through the chaos like something that crawled out of hell. He shoots one man in the chest before the guy even sees him coming. Then drops low when another attacker fires at him. He returns fire with deadly accuracy that drops the second man instantly.
A third man gets close enough for hand-to-hand combat and I watch Dante disarm him skillfully.
One move to break the man’s wrist and send the gun flying.
Another to slam his head into the wall hard enough that I can see the impact even on the grainy security footage.
A third to put a bullet in his skull before the body even hits the ground.
All of it takes maybe ten seconds.
“Jesus,” I breathe.
Rosa is watching the monitors too with an expression that’s almost bored. Like she’s seen this a hundred times before and it doesn’t even register anymore. Maybe she has.
Two more attackers go down under fire from Dante’s security team. They were ruthless in their execution.
But the last man doesn’t die.
I watch Dante take him down with a shot to the leg. The man screams and goes down hard on the gravel driveway. Dante is on him in seconds, zip tying his hands behind his back while the man writhes and curses. Then Dante drags him toward the house.
“Where’s he taking him?” I ask Rosa, even though part of me doesn’t want to know the answer.
“The interrogation room.” Her voice is flat. “You might want to turn away from the monitors now, dear.”
“Why?”
She doesn’t answer. Just looks at me with something like pity in her eyes and that’s when I know whatever I’m about to see is going to be bad.
On the screen, Dante drags the screaming man into a room I can see from another camera angle. It seems soundproofed as I can no longer hear a single thing. There’s a chair bolted to the concrete floor with a drain in the center.
My stomach turns because I know exactly what that drain is for.
“Mama, can I look now?”
“No, baby. Keep your eyes closed. I’ll tell you when you can look.”
I watch Dante zip tie the man to the chair leisurely. Watch him pull up another chair and sit down facing him like they’re about to have a casual conversation. Watch him check his gun with movements so calm and controlled it makes my skin crawl.
Then he starts asking questions.
There’s no audio at first, but I can see his lips moving. See the man shaking his head violently. See Dante’s expression stay completely blank and emotionless.
Then Rosa reaches up and turns on the audio feed. I cover Luca’s ears and tell him to hum loudly, and thankfully he listens, humming his favorite song from the car radio.
“—don’t know what you’re talking about! We were just supposed to—”
Dante’s hand moves faster than I can track and there’s a crack that makes me flinch. The man screams.
“Let’s try that again.” Dante’s voice is calm. Almost pleasant. “Who hired you?”
“I don’t—fuck! I don’t know. We got the job through a contractor. That’s all I know!”
Another crack and another scream that makes my stomach turn.
I watch Dante break the man’s fingers one by one, asking the same questions between each crack of bone.
“Who. Hired. You.”
“A contractor. I swear! Some guy named Marshall. He said there was a witness. Said she needed to be eliminated before she talked!”
My blood runs ice cold. A witness. That’s me. They’re hunting witnesses.
“A witness to what?” Dante’s voice doesn’t change. Doesn’t show even a flicker of emotion.
“I don’t know. Something about the Marchetti job. Something about a ledger! That’s all Marshall told us.”
The ledger? They think I know something about the ledger.
But I don’t. I don’t know anything about any ledger. I was just a girl in the wrong place at the wrong time.
“What ledger?” Dante asks.
“I don’t know. Marshall just said witnesses might know where it’s hidden. Said someone’s been looking for it for years and they’re tying up loose ends.”
Tying up loose ends. That’s what Maya and Jennifer and Lisa and Carmen and Rachel were. Loose ends that got tied up with car crashes and overdoses and fires. And now I’m next.
Dante stands up and I watch him move to the man’s legs. There’s another sickening crack and the screaming gets even worse.
I have to look away for a second and press my hand over my mouth to keep from being sick.
But I force myself to look back because I need to know. Need to understand what’s happening and why these people want me dead badly enough to send a professional team.
“Last question. How did you find her?”
“Portland. We had PIs watching and waiting for her to surface. Then we got the call yesterday that she was moving. That she’d contacted someone in New York.”
They were watching me. For how long? Days? Weeks? Months?
“Who’s Marshall working for?”
“I don’t know! I swear I don’t—please! I told you everything!”
Dante pulls out his gun and presses it to the man’s head.
“Wait! Wait! There’s one more thing! Marshall said—”
But the gunshot cuts him off mid-sentence.
I turn away from the monitor and press both hands over my mouth to keep from screaming.
He just killed him. Dante just executed that man in cold blood without a second of hesitation.
“Mama?” Luca’s stops humming, and his voice is muffled against my shoulder. “Can I look now? I heard a loud noise.”
“Not yet, baby. Just a little longer. Keep your eyes closed for Mama.”
On the monitors, Dante is already walking out of that room like he didn’t just put a bullet in someone’s brain. Like killing is as natural as breathing.
I watch him move through the house giving orders to his security team. Watch them drag bodies toward what looks like a service entrance. Watch them clean up the evidence like they’ve done this a thousand times before.
Then Dante turns toward the camera and starts walking in the direction of the safe room.
“He’s coming,” Rosa says quietly.
I stand up with Luca still in my arms, keeping his face pressed firmly against my shoulder.
The lock disengages and the door swings open slowly. And there he is.
Dante Moretti stood, covered in blood spatter. Some of it on his face. More on his white shirt that’s no longer white. His hands are clean though, like he washed them before coming down here.
His eyes are cold and empty in a way that makes him look like a complete stranger.
Luca lifts his head to look before I can stop him and immediately starts crying.
“Mama. Mama, he’s scary! I want to go home! Please, I want to go home!”
The sound of my son’s terrified sobs breaks something inside me.
I immediately step between Dante and Luca, every protective instinct screaming at me to put as much distance as possible between them.
“It’s okay, baby. We’re okay. Shh, it’s okay.”
But Luca is sobbing now, his small body shaking against me. “I want to go home! I don’t like it here. I don’t like the scary man. Please, Mama, please!”
I look at Dante over my shoulder and something in his expression cracks. Just for a second. Just long enough for me to see real pain flash across his face before it hardens again into a blank mask.
He looks at his son’s tear-streaked face. At the way Luca is clinging to me and crying. At my defensive posture with my body physically blocking him from getting any closer.
And I watch something go off in his eyes.
“You’re safe for now.” His voice is calm and completely devoid of emotion. “They won’t be coming back.”
Then he turns and walks away without another word.
I stand there in the doorway watching him disappear down the hallway, and the realization hits me like a physical blow to the chest. This is the cost of coming here.
This is what I’ve done by bringing my son to a killer for protection.
Luca is terrified of his own father.