Chapter 4 - The Midnight Run
The interior of the Mercedes smelled of rain, expensive leather, and fresh blood.
Sophia leaned her head back against the leather headrest, gasping for breath as pain radiated across her skull.
Luca drove with terrifying focus, weaving through midnight traffic at ninety miles per hour.
Wipers slapped frantically against the windshield, fighting against the torrential downpour.
In the rear seat, Anthony leaned forward, clutching his silver cane across his knees.
"Give her the first-aid kit from under the passenger seat, Luca," the old man commanded.
Luca tapped a hidden latch beneath the glove box with his knuckles.
A compact medical case dropped into Sophia’s lap.
"Patch yourself up," Luca ordered without taking his eyes off the highway.
"I don't need your orders, Moretti," Sophia hissed, unzipping the case with shaking fingers.
"You're bleeding on my custom upholstery, Detective."
"Then you can bill the city."
She tore open an alcohol wipe and pressed it against the gash above her eye.
A sharp hiss escaped her lips as the antiseptic burned the exposed tissue.
"Why did you pull your gun on Ross?" Luca asked, his voice low and dangerous.
"Because he was going to execute your father on that gravel."
"You could have stayed out of it."
"I'm an officer of the law, Luca."
"You're a traitor to your own badge now."
"No," Sophia said, wrapping a sterile pressure bandage tightly around her forehead.
"Ross and Kane are the traitors."
Anthony leaned closer between the front seats.
"Sophia is right, son."
"Dad, she lived in our house to put handcuffs on me!"
"And she didn't put them on you, did she?" Anthony replied sharply.
Luca glanced at Sophia’s reflection in the rearview mirror.
"Why didn't you submit the arrest warrant on Friday?"
Sophia secured the medical tape with a sharp tug.
"Because the numbers didn't make sense."
"Explain."
"The shell company routing the illicit chemicals was registered in Delaware under the name 'Northshore Maritime.'"
Luca frowned.
"Moretti Logistics sold Northshore Maritime four years ago."
"Exactly," Sophia said.
"Then who owns it now?"
"A private holding trust managed by a law firm on Fifth Avenue."
Sophia pulled the Axon body camera from her pocket and set it firmly on the center console.
"Two nights ago, I accessed the encrypted state corporate registry while you were asleep."
Luca’s grip on the steering wheel tightened until his knuckles turned white.
"And whose name is on the holding trust?"
"Robert Kane's brother-in-law."
Silence hung in the cabin, broken only by the roar of the engine.
Anthony let out a long, shuddering sigh from the back.
"Kane never stopped," Anthony whispered.
"What didn't he stop doing, Dad?" Luca demanded.
"Twenty-three years ago, Kane ran an extortion ring targeting every Italian merchant in the lower docks."
Anthony pointed his cane toward the windshield.
"I refused to pay him his thirty percent cut."
"So what did he do?"
"He threatened to plant twenty kilos of uncut heroin in our cold storage facility."
Luca glanced back in horror.
"He framed people?"
"He destroyed families, Luca."
Anthony looked at Sophia.
"I made a deal with him."
"What kind of deal?" Sophia asked, turning her head despite the pounding headache.
"I gave him names of low-level bookmakers and rival crews who were encroaching on the waterfront."
"You gave him competition to arrest so he looked like a hero," Sophia realized.
"Yes," Anthony admitted, his eyes filled with ancient sorrow.
"And in exchange, he left the Moretti family alone."
"For twenty years?" Luca asked.
"Until five years ago," Anthony said.
"What happened five years ago?"
"Kane was promoted to Deputy Chief of Organized Crime."
"He wanted more," Sophia said.
"He wanted absolute control of the Atlantic distribution channels," Anthony said.
"And he knew that if I ever spoke to federal prosecutors, my testimony would put him in federal prison for life."
Luca’s phone suddenly buzzed on the dashboard mount.
The caller ID showed the private home security line for the Moretti Estate.
Luca tapped the speakerphone button instantly.
"Mom?"
A man's voice answered.
Smooth.
Calm.
Deeply familiar.
"She's resting in the conservatory, Luca."
Sophia’s eyes dilated in pure horror.
She knew that voice better than her own father's.
"Eric?" Sophia whispered toward the microphone.
A short, bitter laugh came through the car speakers.
"Hello, Sophia."
Lieutenant Eric Mason was speaking from inside the Moretti mansion.
"Eric, what are you doing?" Sophia yelled, her knuckles gripping the dashboard.
"I'm cleaning up twenty-three years of department garbage, Sophia."
"Where is Carmela?" Luca growled, the speedometer climbing past one hundred miles per hour.
"Mrs. Moretti is currently unharmed, Luca."
"If you touch a single hair on her head, Mason, I will skin you alive."
"You won't reach the gate in time to do anything, Luca."
Mason’s tone remained chillingly professional.
"Captain Kane sends his regards to Anthony."
"Mason, listen to me!" Sophia pleaded.
"You're a good detective, Sophia," Mason said quietly.
"You shouldn't have opened that logistics file on Wednesday."
"You recommended me for this assignment!"
"Because I thought you were smart enough to look the other way when the shipments cleared."
"You're a cop, Eric!"
"We are soldiers in a city that eats its own, Sophia."
"Where is Kane?" Anthony interrupted, his voice steady and icy.
"The Captain is waiting for your return, Anthony."
"Tell Robert that the ledger isn't in the estate."
A brief pause echoed on the line.
"We'll tear the mansion down stone by stone until we find it, old man."
"You won't find it there," Anthony said.
"Then where is it?"
Anthony smiled, a terrifying, predatory grin.
"Come down to the basement vault and ask me yourself."
The line clicked dead.
May you like
Luca slammed his foot harder on the accelerator.
Two miles ahead, smoke was already rising above the tree-lined ridge of the Moretti estate.
