Chapter 6 - The Man on the Dock
The flickering amber emergency light cast long, distorted shadows across the wet concrete of the subterranean slip.
Standing right beside the idling black speedboat, his tailored suit jacket unbuttoned and a thin, mocking scar slicing across his left cheek, was a man I had never seen before in person—yet his face felt instantly familiar, etched into the dark history Luca had only just begun to uncover. Victor Moretti. The name whispered through twenty-year-old shipping ledgers like a bad omen.
In his right hand, he held a black tactical detonator, his thumb resting casually over the rubberized push-button.
"Well, well," Moretti drawled, his voice bouncing hollowly off the damp brick walls. "If it isn't Matteo’s little masterpiece. They told me you burned to ash in the nursery wing. They said the fire cleaned up all of Matteo’s loose ends."
I gripped the hand-rims of my wheelchair so hard my knuckles burned white, fighting the sudden surge of primal terror threatening to paralyze my limbs. The speedboat engine thrummed beneath the dock, a low, aggressive vibration that contrasted sharply with the deadly quiet of the slip.
"You're wasting your time," I said, forcing every ounce of steady defiance I possessed into my voice. "Luca is right behind me."
Moretti let out a dry, humorless laugh that grated against the stone. "Luca is currently busy entertaining three of my best men in his office. By the time he clears them out and makes it down this service shaft, you and this little boat will be nothing more than floating debris on the Mississippi."
He took a slow step forward, his dark eyes scanning my titanium mobility frame with clinical distaste.
"Shame, really," Moretti murmured, tilting his head. "Matteo spent a fortune on your experimental medical treatments back then, trying to fix what God broke. And now here you are, rolling right back into the crossfire."
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My heart hammered against my ribs, each beat a frantic warning. The lift gate behind me was locked shut, the manual override lever out of reach. I was trapped between a bottomless river and a man holding a detonator.
Moretti raised his thumb slightly, a cruel grin spreading across his face. "Say goodbye to the family business, Elena."
