Chapter 4 - Fire and Crossfire
The betrayal came from the last person anyone suspected.
Two days after the night raid, the estate was locked down under absolute war protocol. No one entered, no one left. But the snake was already inside the garden.
It was Mrs. Hastings.
The woman who had run Lakeshore Domestic Placement for twenty years wasn't just an employment agent; she was the sister of Don Moretti’s chief lieutenant. She had placed me in the Romano household not by accident, but because the Morettis had discovered my true identity through Mickey Sullivan’s pawn shop logs and knew Vincent’s weakness.
They knew Vincent would never turn away a child’s protection. They knew Luca’s heart would react to the last descendant of the Vane family.
The trap was sprung on a rainy Thursday afternoon.
Vincent had called his captains into the subterranean war room to trace the security leak. I was in the secondary conservatory on the second floor with Luca, teaching him how to draw birds with colored pencils.
The door unlocked with a quiet click.
Mrs. Hastings stepped into the glass room, wearing her usual neat gray skirt suit. But in her hand, she held a silenced pistol.
"Put the pencil down, dear," she said, her voice sickeningly sweet.
Luca shrank behind my skirt, clutching my jeans. I stood up slowly, keeping my body between Mrs. Hastings and the boy.
"Mrs. Hastings," I said, keeping my voice low and steady. "You set me up."
"Oh, sweetie, you were set up the day you were born," she sneered, raising the suppressor toward my chest. "The Vane bloodline is worth ten million dollars to Don Moretti. Alive, you give him the legacy rights to the Northern territories. Dead, you're just another tragic accident in Vincent Romano’s bloodbath."
"Vincent will kill you," I said coldly. "He will hunt you to the ends of the earth."
"Vincent Romano is currently locked in his underground bunker," she chuckled. "The electronic locks were reset five minutes ago. By the time his men cut through the steel doors, you and the boy will be across state lines."
She stepped forward to grab Luca’s arm.
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Panic flared in my chest, but behind the panic was a fierce, protective rage I had never felt before. I didn't care about the Vane legacy. I didn't care about the ten million dollars. I cared about the little boy crying behind me, and the man who had promised to protect me.
I grabbed a heavy crystal glass vase full of water and yellow tulips from the table and smashed it directly into Mrs. Hastings' face.
