Chapter 5 - SHADOWS OF SOUTH BROOKLYN
By two in the morning, the mansion was dead silent.
Clara couldn't sleep. The luxury of the master guest suite—with its plush velvet armchairs, Egyptian cotton sheets, and private balcony—felt entirely alien to her. She had spent the last five years living in a cramped, two-room basement apartment in Queens where the radiator clanked all night.
She stepped quietly out of her room, wearing a soft gray silk robe Mrs. Gable had left for her.
Guided by a faint warm light at the end of the long corridor, she walked toward the estate's private library.
The double mahogany doors were slightly ajar. Inside, the room smelled of rich leather, dark tobacco, and old scotch.
Rico sat behind a massive carved oak desk, his suit jacket discarded over the back of his chair, his white dress shirt unbuttoned at the collar with the sleeves rolled up to his elbows. He was staring intensely at three computer monitors displaying high-resolution surveillance footage and financial spreadsheets.
"You should be resting," Rico spoke without looking up from his screens.
Clara paused in the doorway. "How did you know it was me?"
"You walk quietly," Rico said, turning his head to look at her. His silver eyes were bloodshot with fatigue. "Most people who enter this room tremble. The floorboards reflect it."
Clara stepped into the library, looking at the massive walls filled with thousands of leather-bound books. "I couldn't sleep. I kept thinking about my sister."
Rico’s expression softened slightly. He reached into his desk drawer, pulled out a framed photograph, and pushed it across the dark wood toward her.
Clara walked over to the desk and picked up the frame.
Her breath caught in her throat.
The woman in the photograph possessed Clara’s exact hazel eyes, her high cheekbones, and her dark, wavy hair. She was laughing, sitting on a sunlit sailboat, holding a tiny newborn baby in her arms while Rico stood behind her, his arms wrapped securely around them both.
"Elena spoke about you every night before we went to sleep," Rico said quietly, pouring himself two fingers of dark scotch from a crystal decanter. "She spent sixteen years searching the foster care system in Illinois. But your records were sealed under a state bankruptcy order after your father died."
"My father was a bad man," Clara whispered, touching the glass over her sister's face. "He took out loans from dangerous people in Chicago. When he couldn't pay, he ran."
"I know," Rico said, his voice dropping into a cold, lethal register. "I tracked down the loan sharks who broke your family apart ten years ago. They no longer operate in Chicago."
Clara looked up at him, realizing the dark implication behind his words. "You killed them?"
"I liquidated their business," Rico corrected flatly. "Nobody hurts my family's blood and lives to enjoy the interest."
Before Clara could answer, the library phone rang—a sharp, digital double-chime that shattered the quiet room.
Rico picked up the receiver instantly. "Talk to me, Dante."
"Boss," Dante’s deep voice boomed through the speaker, laced with urgent static. "We intercepted a communication from the Maroni syndicate in South Brooklyn. Sal Maroni knows you brought a new woman into the manor tonight. He knows she's Elena's lost sister."
Rico’s jaw tightened into iron. "How does Sal know?"
"Marco at the restaurant," Dante revealed grimly. "He tried to sell the information to Maroni’s crew for fifty grand. We captured Marco at the border, but the message already went through. Maroni thinks you brought her in to replace Elena. He's mobilizing his lieutenants."
Rico stood up slowly from his desk, his presence filling the vast library with a suffocating, lethal aura.
"Have Dante bring Marco to the basement," Rico commanded quietly into the receiver. "And double the perimeter guards on the east wall."
"Rico... what's happening?" Clara asked, her heart racing as she saw the dark transformation overcome him.
May you like
Rico walked around the desk, stopping right in front of her. He reached out, his long fingers gently tucking a strand of loose hair behind her ear.
"An old war is waking up, Clara," Rico whispered softly, his silver eyes flashing with dark, absolute resolve. "And this time, I am going to end it completely."
