Chapter 4 - The Night Someone Came for Moretti’s HeirThree weeks after Dominic Moretti entered the world screaming, Chloe learned that motherhood had a cruel sense of humor.
The most dangerous man in New York could make judges reconsider warrants, businessmen abandon contracts, and armed men lower their eyes when he entered a room.
But he could not make a newborn sleep.
At 2:17 in the morning, Leo Moretti stood beside the enormous four-poster bed in Chloe’s room holding his son as if he were negotiating with a bomb.
Dominic screamed into his chest.
Leo stared down at him.
“You ate.”
Dominic screamed louder.
“You are dry.”
The baby’s face turned red.
“You are warm.”
Another furious cry.
Leo’s jaw tightened.
Chloe watched from beneath the blankets, biting the inside of her cheek to keep from laughing.
Leo looked toward her.
“What?”
“Nothing.”
“You’re smiling.”
“I’m exhausted.”
“You are definitely smiling.”
Chloe finally laughed.
It was quiet at first.
Then it escaped completely.
For several seconds, the room filled with a sound that had been almost nonexistent in the Moretti estate before Dominic’s birth.
Joy.
Leo looked offended.
“This is not amusing.”
“You terrify half the city.”
“More than half.”
“And a seven-pound baby is defeating you.”
“He is irrational.”
“He’s three weeks old.”
“That is not an excuse.”
Chloe pushed herself upright against the pillows.
Her body was still recovering. Dr. Aris had warned her not to rush. The delivery had exhausted her more completely than she had expected, and there were mornings when even walking to the bathroom made her muscles tremble.
Leo had become almost unbearable about it.
She was not permitted to carry laundry.
She was not permitted to climb the stairs while holding Dominic.
She was not permitted to leave the estate without security.
Yesterday he had caught her attempting to move a chair six inches closer to the window and had looked at her as if she were attempting suicide.
But Chloe had discovered something important.
Leo’s control no longer frightened her in quite the same way.
Because now she understood the emotion hiding beneath it.
Fear.
Leo Moretti was terrified of losing them.
He would never say it.
He probably did not possess the emotional vocabulary necessary to say it.
But Chloe saw it every time Dominic coughed.
Every time she winced.
Every time a vehicle slowed outside the estate gates.
“Give him to me,” she said.
Leo crossed the room.
Instead of immediately handing Dominic over, he stood beside the bed and looked down at Chloe.
“You need sleep.”
“So does everyone within five miles.”
“I can handle him.”
Dominic screamed directly into Leo’s chest.
Chloe raised an eyebrow.
“Clearly.”
Leo gave her a cold look.
Then he surrendered the baby.
Dominic settled against Chloe almost immediately.
His cries softened.
Within thirty seconds, he was quiet.
Leo stared at his son.
Then at Chloe.
Then back at Dominic.
“That was deliberate.”
“He’s manipulating you.”
“He’s a Moretti.”
“Apparently.”
Leo sat on the edge of the bed.
His hand moved over Dominic’s dark hair.
The tenderness still surprised Chloe.
Leo did nothing halfway.
His violence was absolute.
His loyalty was absolute.
His anger was absolute.
And apparently his love was the same.
Chloe looked at him.
“Have you slept?”
“Yes.”
“When?”
He did not answer.
“Leo.”
“I slept Tuesday.”
“It’s Friday.”
“I’m fine.”
“You’re impossible.”
“And you chose to stay.”
The words quieted her.
She had.
Three weeks earlier, with Dominic sleeping between them, Chloe had been offered freedom.
Ten million dollars.
A house.
Protection.
A new life.
She had chosen Leo instead.
Sometimes, in the darkness, she wondered whether she had made the most reckless decision of her life.
Then she watched him hold their son.
And she stopped wondering.
Dominic made a soft sound.
Leo’s expression changed immediately.
Chloe smiled.
“You’re obsessed with him.”
“No.”
“You stare at him while he sleeps.”
“I monitor him.”
“You counted his breaths yesterday.”
“His breathing changed.”
“He hiccupped.”
Leo looked entirely serious.
“That is a change in breathing.”
Chloe laughed again.
Then every light in the room went out.
Darkness swallowed them.
Leo moved before Chloe understood what had happened.
One second he was sitting beside her.
The next, he was standing.
A handgun appeared in his hand.
“Do not move.”
His voice had changed.
There was no warmth now.
No exhausted father.
No man teasing her in the darkness.
The Mafia boss had returned.
Chloe tightened both arms around Dominic.
“Leo?”
“Stay in the bed.”
Emergency lights should have activated.
They did not.
That frightened her more than the blackout itself.
The Moretti estate had independent generators.
Backup generators.
Security batteries.
Leo had once told her the house could remain operational for seventy-two hours if the entire county lost power.
This was not a storm.
Someone had turned the house off.
Footsteps thundered in the hallway.
Leo positioned himself between Chloe and the bedroom door.
A shadow moved beneath it.
His weapon lifted.
“Boss.”
Vincent.
Leo did not lower the gun.
“Password.”
“Palermo.”
Only then did Leo unlock the door.
Vincent entered carrying a rifle.
His expression was different from anything Chloe had seen before.
Urgent.
“Perimeter cameras are down.”
“How?”
“External breach. North generator exploded. Main power was cut twelve seconds later.”
“How many?”
“Unknown.”
“Guards?”
“Two missing.”
Leo’s face became terrifyingly blank.
Vincent looked toward Chloe and Dominic.
“We need to move them.”
Leo nodded.
“Safe room.”
“No.”
Vincent hesitated.
“The basement corridor may already be compromised.”
A sound cracked through the distance.
Gunfire.
Chloe’s blood went cold.
Dominic startled against her chest.
Then began crying.
Leo turned.
“Chloe.”
She had already moved.
She climbed from the bed, ignoring the pain that tore through her still-healing body.
Leo crossed the room and opened a concealed panel behind the bookshelf.
Chloe had never seen it before.
A narrow steel door waited behind it.
“Inside.”
“What about you?”
“Inside.”
“Leo—”
His hand closed around the back of her neck.
Not painfully.
Firmly.
His forehead touched hers for half a second.
“Whatever you hear, you do not open this door unless Vincent or I give you the word Palermo.”
Her throat tightened.
“What if you don’t come back?”
His eyes hardened.
“I will.”
Another gunshot sounded downstairs.
Closer.
Leo kissed Dominic’s forehead.
Then Chloe’s.
“Go.”
She stepped through the steel door.
Leo closed it.
Darkness surrounded her.
A second later, dim red lights illuminated a narrow passage.
Chloe stood barefoot in her nightgown, holding her crying newborn against her chest while violence erupted inside the house above her.
For the first time since choosing Leo, she understood the true price of staying.
Not luxury.
Not protection.
Not money.
War.
She moved.
The hidden corridor descended behind the walls.
At the bottom was a small reinforced room containing monitors, food, water, medical supplies, weapons, and a narrow bed.
Chloe locked the steel door.
She sat against the wall with Dominic pressed against her.
“Shh.”
Her voice trembled.
“Daddy’s coming.”
She had never called Leo that before.
The word nearly broke her.
Above her, something exploded.
Dust drifted from the ceiling.
Dominic screamed.
Chloe covered his ears.
Minutes became impossible to measure.
Five.
Ten.
Twenty.
Then one of the security monitors flickered.
A camera came online.
Chloe saw the east hallway.
A body lay near the staircase.
One of Leo’s guards.
Another camera appeared.
Kitchen.
Empty.
Then the front entrance.
Three men dressed in black tactical clothing were moving through the foyer.
Chloe stopped breathing.
They were not thieves.
They were professionals.
One of them lifted his radio.
The safe room had audio.
His voice crackled through the speaker.
“Primary target is the infant. Woman is secondary.”
Chloe’s blood turned to ice.
They were not there for Leo.
They were there for Dominic.
She looked down at her son.
His eyes were closed now.
One tiny fist rested against her chest.
Something changed inside Chloe.
Fear remained.
But beneath it, something harder emerged.
They wanted her baby.
They had entered her home to take him.
No.
She stood.
On the wall was a weapons cabinet.
Leo had taught her to shoot two months earlier.
She had complained.
He had insisted.
“You do not need to like weapons,” he had told her. “You need to know what to do if I am not there.”
Chloe opened the cabinet.
Her hands trembled as she removed a compact pistol.
She checked the magazine exactly as Leo had taught her.
Then she waited.
A noise came from the corridor.
Metal scraped against metal.
Someone had found the hidden entrance.
Chloe’s heart slammed against her ribs.
She placed Dominic in the reinforced crib inside the room.
He began fussing.
“I know.”
Her voice cracked.
“I know, baby.”
She positioned herself behind the steel desk.
The outer door shuddered.
Once.
Twice.
Then stopped.
Silence.
Chloe raised the gun.
A voice came through the door.
“Chloe.”
Leo.
Relief nearly destroyed her knees.
Then she remembered.
Password.
“Say it.”
Silence.
“Leo, say the word.”
“Palermo.”
She lowered the gun.
Her fingers shook so violently she could barely operate the lock.
The door opened.
Leo stood outside.
Blood covered the left side of his shirt.
Chloe stared.
“Are you hurt?”
“Not mine.”
He entered.
Vincent followed.
His forehead was bleeding.
Leo looked at the gun in Chloe’s hand.
Then at Dominic.
Then back at her.
“You remembered.”
“You told me to.”
Something almost like pride moved through his face.
He took the weapon gently.
“It’s over.”
“Who were they?”
Leo did not answer.
“Who sent them?”
Vincent looked away.
That frightened her.
“Leo.”
He stepped closer.
“Someone knew the layout of the estate.”
Chloe understood immediately.
“Someone inside.”
“Yes.”
“A guard?”
“We don’t know yet.”
Dominic began crying.
Leo picked him up.
His blood-covered hands looked horrifying against the white blanket.
But Dominic settled against him.
Chloe stared at them.
Someone had tried to take their son.
Someone who knew their home.
Their security.
Their routines.
Their weaknesses.
Leo looked at Vincent.
“Close every gate.”
“They’re already closed.”
“No one leaves.”
Vincent nodded.
Leo’s voice became quiet.
“Find the traitor.”
Vincent disappeared into the corridor.
Chloe watched Leo.
“What happens when you find him?”
Leo looked at Dominic.
His thumb moved gently across their son’s cheek.
Then he met Chloe’s eyes.
“You don’t want to know.”
For once, she believed him.
She stepped closer.
“I’m not leaving.”
His jaw tightened.
“I didn’t ask you to.”
“You’re thinking it.”
He said nothing.
“You think tonight proves you were right. You think you should send me away.”
“Someone entered my house.”
“And they came for Dominic. Sending us somewhere else won’t make him stop being your son.”
“You could have died.”
“So could you.”
“That is different.”
“No.”
Chloe stepped into him.
“It isn’t.”
Leo stared at her.
“You told me there was no exit if I stayed.”
“Yes.”
“Then stop trying to create one every time you get scared.”
His eyes darkened.
“I am not scared.”
“Leo.”
Silence.
Chloe touched his face.
“You’re terrified.”
Something broke behind his eyes.
Only slightly.
Only enough for her to see it.
He looked down at Dominic.
“I can survive losing everything I own.”
His voice was barely audible.
“I cannot survive losing him.”
Chloe swallowed.
“And me?”
Leo’s gaze returned to hers.
The answer frightened him.
She could see that.
Finally he said it.
“No.”
One word.
But she understood.
He could not survive losing her either.
Chloe leaned against his chest.
Leo wrapped one arm around her.
Dominic slept between them.
Outside the safe room, armed men searched the estate for a traitor.
Inside it, Chloe finally understood what they had become.
Not an arrangement.
Not a transaction.
May you like
A family.
And someone had just declared war on it.
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