Chapter 14
The bullet struck Thomas’s rifle with a deafening CLANG. Sparks showered across the tiled kitchen floor. Thomas shrieked, dropping the mangled weapon as the hot metal burned his palm. Catherine didn't hesitate. She sprinted forward, slamming the butt of her pistol squarely into Thomas’s jaw.SMACK! Thomas staggered backward, his eyes rolling into his head, and collapsed hard onto the floor, unconscious. “Move! Now!” Luca roared, grabbing the heavy iron ring of the cellar door and hauling it open. Thick, cool air rushed up from the subterranean stone steps. “Mom, go!” Luca urged, guiding Teresa down the dark staircase. Sofia followed closely behind, coughing from the smoke. I turned to descend, but a heavy wooden beam crashed down from the ceiling right in front of the doorway, blocking the entrance in a wall of fire. “Hannah!” Luca shouted from below. “I’m trapped!” I screamed, beating back the heat with my arms. Catherine stepped up beside the blazing beam. She grabbed a heavy fire extinguisher from the wall bracket, pulled the pin, and blasted the base of the fire, clearing a narrow opening through the flames. “Give me your hand!” Catherine yelled over the roar. I lunged forward through the smoke and grabbed Catherine’s outstretched hand. She hauled me hard, pulling me straight through the fire and tumbling down the stone steps into the dark cellar.CLANG! Luca slammed the heavy iron cellar door shut from the inside, cutting off the roaring inferno above us. Pitch blackness surrounded us. Only the beam of Luca’s flashlight cut through the damp, stone-walled tunnel. “Everyone okay?” Luca’s voice echoed in the cavernous underground space. “I’m breathing,” Teresa coughed, leaning against Sofia. “We need to keep moving,” Catherine said, her flashlight sweeping down the long, arched stone corridor. “The fire will reach the gas mains any second.” We ran through the damp Prohibition-era tunnel, our footsteps splashing in shallow puddles of groundwater. After five minutes of frantic sprinting, a faint rectangle of gray light appeared ahead. The exit. We burst out from a hidden stone door disguised as a retaining wall right onto the Moretti private docks. The cold night air hit our lungs like ice. Behind us, the grand Moretti mansion was fully engulfed in flames—a massive pillar of fire lighting up the snowy Chicago skyline. Within seconds, a fleet of police cruisers, fire trucks, and federal SUVs swarmed the docks, sirens screaming. Special Agent Vance stepped out from a lead cruiser, her eyes wide as she looked at the burning estate. “Secure the area!” Vance barked into her radio. Luca stepped forward into the flashing lights, shielding his mother with one arm, while Catherine stood firmly by his side. I stood a few paces away, clutching my bruised arms, watching the empire burn to the ground. Agent Vance walked over, stopping a few feet away. She looked at Catherine. Then she looked at Luca. “Well,” Agent Vance said slowly, a slight smirk playing on her lips. “It looks like you finally cleaned house, Mr. Moretti.” “The house is gone, Agent Vance,” Luca replied evenly. “Good,” Vance said, holding out a thick manila envelope. “Because your immunity agreement is signed. The Detroit syndicate leadership was rounded up ten minutes ago. It’s over.” Luca took the envelope. He turned around, looking at the glowing embers of his family’s violent past. And then, he turned his gaze toward me. CLIFFHANGER: As the sun began to rise over Lake Michigan, casting a golden glow across the charred ruins, Luca walked over, held out his hand, and asked if I was ready to build something new from the ashes.
