Chapter 4 - PIER NINE
Rain returned after sunset.
Not heavy rain.
The cold, needling kind that drifted sideways off Narragansett Bay and made every light along Newport Harbor look blurred and distant.
Pier Nine had been abandoned for almost six years.
Ferretti Maritime still owned the property.
That fact was not lost on Luca.
At eleven forty-five, he stood inside an empty warehouse across the water studying the pier through binoculars.
Three vehicles.
Six visible men.
Maybe more.
Marta sat tied to a chair beneath an industrial light.
Hope watched from beside him.
“They’re making her visible on purpose.”
“Yes.”
“They want us looking at her instead of the perimeter.”
“Yes.”
Hope lowered her binoculars.
“You’re annoying.”
Luca glanced sideways.
“My brother said the same thing.”
“He was right.”
They had argued for two hours about the plan.
Hope wanted to enter alone.
Luca had responded with a sentence containing language so creative even Teddy looked impressed.
Ortiz wanted a tactical team.
Luca refused because Marta would be dead the moment police vehicles appeared.
The compromise satisfied nobody.
Which, according to Ortiz, meant it was probably the best they were going to get.
Hope would approach visibly carrying the old camera and brass key.
Luca would stay concealed nearby.
Ortiz’s officers waited six blocks away.
Teddy and four Ferretti security men were positioned around the warehouse district.
Dominic had been ordered to remain at the mansion.
He had objected.
Luca had threatened to lock him in a wine cellar.
Dominic stayed.
At eleven fifty-three, Hope pulled her jacket tighter.
Luca caught her wrist before she moved.
She looked at his hand.
He immediately released her.
Progress.
“Come back,” he said.
Hope studied him.
“That sounded almost polite.”
“I can make it an order.”
“Try.”
His mouth twitched.
Then she saw what he was actually feeling.
Fear.
Not for himself.
For her.
Hope’s humor vanished.
“I’ll come back.”
Luca nodded once.
Hope walked toward Pier Nine.
Every instinct from Syria came alive.
Count exits.
Watch hands.
Identify elevated positions.
Never stare where you’re afraid.
A man stepped from behind a shipping container.
Black tactical clothing.
Janus mark on his wrist.
“Stop.”
Hope stopped.
“Camera.”
She lifted it.
“Key.”
She showed the brass key.
“Weapon?”
“No.”
He smiled.
“Medic carrying no weapon?”
Hope shrugged.
“I have personality issues.”
The man searched her.
He missed the ceramic blade taped inside her boot.
Luca had hated that.
She had ignored him.
The man led her toward Marta.
The housekeeper’s mouth was covered with tape.
Her eyes widened when she saw Hope.
Hope gave the smallest shake of her head.
Stay calm.
A second man emerged.
Then a third.
“Where’s Ferretti?”
Hope looked around.
“Which one?”
The man slapped her.
Her head snapped sideways.
Across the water, Luca’s finger tightened around the rifle trigger.
Teddy whispered through the earpiece.
“Boss.”
“I know.”
Hope slowly turned back.
“Do that again,” she said, “and I’ll bite something important off.”
The man laughed.
Good.
Angry men were predictable.
Amused men became careless.
“Open your jacket.”
Hope froze.
For half a second, Luca’s kitchen returned.
Take it off.
Her scars.
The smell of burning nylon.
Elias screaming.
Hope’s breathing shortened.
The Janus man noticed.
“You afraid?”
She looked at him.
“No.”
She opened the jacket.
He checked for wires.
None.
The transmitter Ortiz had wanted to use was hidden inside Hope’s watch.
“Where’s the rest of the evidence?” he asked.
“This is everything.”
“You’re lying.”
“I deliver food for twelve dollars an hour. You think I have a secret intelligence archive?”
The man stepped closer.
“Elias trusted you.”
Hope kept her expression blank.
“You knew him?”
“I knew what he stole.”
Marta made a sound through the tape.
Hope glanced at her.
The man smiled.
“You want her back?”
“Yes.”
“Give me the key.”
Hope extended it.
He reached.
She let him almost touch it.
Then pulled back.
“Marta first.”
The man’s smile vanished.
“You don’t negotiate.”
“Then kill me and spend another three years looking for the key.”
Behind a stack of containers, Luca almost admired her.
Almost.
The Janus man considered.
Finally, he nodded.
One of his men cut Marta’s restraints.
Hope held her breath.
“Walk,” she told Marta.
The older woman stood shakily.
“Toward the street.”
Marta moved.
Nobody stopped her.
Twenty feet.
Thirty.
Forty.
Hope handed over the key.
The man examined it.
Then smiled.
“Thank you.”
Hope’s stomach dropped.
Too easy.
He raised his pistol.
Not toward Hope.
Toward Marta.
Hope moved.
The ceramic blade came from her boot.
She drove it through the shooter’s forearm before he pulled the trigger.
The gun fired into the concrete.
Everything exploded.
Luca came out of cover.
Teddy’s men hit the lights.
Ortiz’s units screamed around the corner.
Hope kicked the gun away and slammed her elbow into the attacker’s jaw.
Another man grabbed her from behind.
She dropped her weight.
Twisted.
His knee broke sideways.
Luca fired twice.
Not to kill.
One bullet destroyed a floodlight.
The other struck a weapon from a man’s hand.
“HOPE!”
She turned.
Too late.
A fourth attacker stepped from inside the warehouse.
His gun pointed directly at her chest.
Luca crossed the open pier without thinking.
The gun fired.
Hope went down.
Luca tackled her behind a concrete barrier.
Pain burned across his shoulder.
Hope grabbed him.
“You’re hit.”
“I’m fine.”
“You’re bleeding.”
“I’ve been bleeding all night.”
She tore open his shirt.
The bullet had grazed the upper shoulder.
“Idiot.”
“Later.”
Another burst of gunfire cracked overhead.
Teddy shouted from the west side.
Police converged.
Two attackers surrendered.
One ran.
Ortiz chased him toward the water.
The man carrying Elias’s key disappeared into the warehouse.
Hope saw him.
“He has the key.”
Luca caught her.
“Let him go.”
“No.”
“Marta’s safe.”
“It isn’t about the key.”
Hope looked toward the dark warehouse.
“That man knew Elias.”
She ran.
Luca cursed and followed.
Inside, rusted machinery created narrow corridors of shadow.
Hope heard footsteps.
Then coughing.
A faint whistle.
She stopped.
Luca nearly collided with her.
“What?”
Hope held up one finger.
Listen.
Another breath.
Whistle.
Luca’s eyes widened.
“Vittorio.”
A light switched on.
At the far end of the warehouse stood a man in a black coat.
Sixty-two years old.
Gray hair.
The Ferretti nose.
The Ferretti eyes.
A scar down one cheek.
Luca stared at the uncle he had been told died in Argentina.
“Hello, nephew.”
Luca’s hand moved toward his gun.
Vittorio smiled.
“Careful.”
He lifted a small dead-man switch.
“Explosives.”
Hope scanned the ceiling.
Charges were mounted along the support columns.
“Those would bring down half the building,” she said.
Vittorio looked impressed.
“Elias liked you.”
Hope went rigid.
“You knew him.”
“Oh, very well.”
Luca’s voice became murderous.
“You killed my brother.”
Vittorio laughed softly.
“No.”
“Your men planted the explosive.”
“My men were supposed to frighten him.”
Hope stepped forward.
“You detonated early.”
Vittorio’s eyes moved to her.
“An unfortunate mistake.”
Hope’s entire body shook.
Luca saw it.
Rage.
Not fear.
“He burned alive.”
“Yes.”
Hope lunged.
Luca caught her around the waist.
Vittorio smiled.
“Still emotional, medic?”
Hope fought Luca’s hold.
“I’ll kill you.”
“Hope.”
“LET GO.”
“No.”
Vittorio watched them.
“You see, Luca? That is why Elias died. Compassion. Loyalty. All those sentimental weaknesses your father tried to remove from you.”
Luca slowly released Hope.
Not because she calmed down.
Because something Vittorio said mattered.
“My father tried to remove them?”
Vittorio’s smile shifted.
“Salvatore knew Janus existed.”
“Why?”
“Because he created the Newport corridor.”
Luca stared at him.
Hope stopped moving.
Vittorio continued.
“Your father laundered money. Smuggled contraband. Bribed customs officers. But even Salvatore eventually discovered there were lines he wouldn’t cross.”
“People.”
“Children, specifically.”
Luca’s face twisted.
“So he tried to shut you down.”
“Yes.”
“And Elias found out.”
“He found everything.”
Hope whispered, “The warehouse in Syria.”
Vittorio looked at her.
“Very clever.”
“What was there?”
“A ledger.”
Luca said, “Where is it?”
Vittorio lifted Elias’s brass key.
“The key opens more than a bank box.”
Hope frowned.
“What?”
“A locker beneath that warehouse. Elias hid the original ledger there before he died.”
Luca’s mind raced.
“Then why are you still looking for it?”
Vittorio’s smile disappeared.
“Because Hope took the wrong key.”
Hope stared.
“What do you mean?”
“Elias carried two.”
Something moved above them.
Luca looked up.
A red light blinked.
Timer.
00:31.
“RUN!”
Vittorio dropped the dead-man switch and disappeared through a side door.
Luca grabbed Hope.
They ran.
Twenty-five seconds.
Hope slipped on oil.
Luca hauled her up.
Eighteen.
They reached the doorway.
A steel fire door slammed down.
Hope stopped.
“Locked.”
Luca fired at the mechanism.
Nothing.
Ten seconds.
Hope spotted a maintenance channel near the floor.
“Here!”
Too narrow for Luca.
“Go.”
Hope dropped.
“No.”
“Hope!”
“I’m not leaving you.”
The words hit them both.
Elias.
The burning vehicle.
History repeating.
Luca grabbed her face with both hands.
“Listen to me. You are not losing another Ferretti in a fire.”
Five seconds.
Hope’s eyes filled.
Then Teddy’s truck smashed through the side wall.
Steel screamed.
Concrete broke.
“MOVE!”
Luca threw Hope toward the opening.
They dove outside.
The warehouse exploded.
The shock wave lifted them from the ground.
Luca hit pavement with Hope beneath him.
Flames climbed into the black sky.
For several seconds, neither moved.
Then Hope whispered against his chest.
“You’re heavy.”
Luca started laughing.
She did too.
Half hysterical.
Half alive.
Then a scream came from near the pier.
“Marta!”
Hope shoved Luca away and ran.
They found the housekeeper safe beside Ortiz.
But Teddy stood near the burning warehouse staring at something in his hand.
A cell phone.
He looked at Luca.
“We got this from one of the attackers.”
Luca took it.
One unread message glowed on the screen.
THE GIRL IS THE ONLY ONE WHO KNOWS WHERE THE SECOND KEY IS.
Hope stared.
“I don’t have another key.”
Luca looked at her scars.
Then he remembered Elias’s photographs.
Something had been surgically removed from Hope’s right arm after the explosion.
The medical report.
A piece of metal.
Luca’s face changed.
“Hope.”
She saw it.
“No.”
“When they treated your burns…”
“No.”
“What did they remove from your arm?”
Hope stepped back.
“It was shrapnel.”
“Were you ever shown it?”
She stopped.
“No.”
Luca looked toward the flames.
Elias had hidden the key where Janus could never search without exposing why they wanted her.
Inside the woman who had survived.
May you like
And three years later, they were coming to collect it.
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