Chapter Five
1865 Words
After the call ended, Matt rubbed his palms together and looked around at the group.
“Let’s run the cameras ourselves,” he said. “Maybe we might see something slipped through.”
Rafaelle responded, “I don’t think the cameras in the docks are working. They were taken out years ago, to protect our business if the police come sniffing.”
Nico said, “So you mean, there’s no how we can verify?”
Luca thought for a second. “Not entirely. There’s a bar down the street. The back alley faces the pier. If their cameras didn’t catch anything, maybe someone there saw or heard something.”
They turned off the main road and slipped into a neighborhood that pretended it wasn’t part of the city. Streets were narrow, too quiet. A bar on the corner that never really closed.
Raffaele waited outside, leaning against a lamppost, pretending to scroll through his phone while Luca get on the phone with one of his street contacts.
When he came back, Raffaele lifted his head. “Anything?”
“Nothing much,” Luca said. “You?”
Raffaele exhaled slowly. “I got three names but they are all useless or about to be.”
Nico snorted. “Funny how that keeps happening.”
They pushed into the bar.
Inside, the air was thick with cheap alcohol and old smoke. A man behind the counter froze the moment he saw them.
“We’re not here to drink,” Raffaele said calmly.
The man nodded too fast. “I know.”
Luca leaned forward slightly. “Someone moved weapons through your back alley last night.”
The man swallowed. “Lots of people move things.”
“Not like this,” Nico said. “They must have been some signs that this was out the ordinary. They must have been noisy because they selectively stole our goods and had to have been fast.”
Silence.
The man rubbed a rag over the counter that was already clean. “They paid cash.”
“How many?” Luca asked.
“Four. Maybe five.”
“Local?”
The man shook his head. “Didn’t sound like it.”
Raffaele glanced at Luca. “Did they say anything?”
The man hesitated.
Luca waited.
“They argued,” the man said finally. “About time.”
“Time for what?”
Another pause. “I don’t know. One of them said something like… if the east moves first, we’re done.”
The room went still.
Luca straightened. “You’re sure?”
The man nodded. “I remember because I didn’t know what he meant.”
Nico clapped him lightly on the shoulder. “Don’t worry. We do.”
Luca sat in the back seat as the car moved through the city, elbow resting against the window. Nico was on the phone, already irritated.
“I don’t care what he said,” Nico snapped. “I’m telling you what we saw.”
A pause.
“Yes. Yes, I know who he is.”
There was another longer pause.
“Fine. Then tell him to stop guessing.”
Nico ended the call and tossed the phone aside. “Everyone suddenly thinks they’re a genius.”
“They’re scared,” Luca said. “Fear makes people loud.”
The city didn’t sleep that night. It pretended to, the way a wounded animal goes still, hoping whatever hurt it would move on.
Luca drove with the window cracked open, cold air rushing in, sharp enough to keep him awake. Nico sat beside him, silent now, cigarette burning down between his fingers until it singed his skin and he swore softly.
“You’re gonna burn the seat,” Luca said.
Nico flicked the cigarette out. “Better the seat than my head.”
They didn’t go back to the apartment. They never did when things went sideways like this. Instead, Luca took them to a secondary Moretti property, an old logistics office that smelled like dust, stale smoke, that had been sitting too long.
By the time they arrived, others were already there.
There were different faces in the room and the tension was palpable.
Matt leaned against a filing cabinet, arms folded. Raffaele paced, arguing quietly into his phone. Somewhere in the back, a door slammed, followed by a quick apology.
Luca dropped his keys on the table. The sound cut through the room.
“Alright,” he said. “Who’s got something real?”
A man named Pietro cleared his throat. “There was a functioning camera in a hidden spot facing the pier, but the footage was looped. It wasn't hacked nor replaced. Someone physically swapped the feeds.”
“That takes time,” Nico said. “And someone must have given them access.”
“And knowledge,” Matt added. “You don’t do that by accident.”
Another guy spoke up. “We traced the truck plates. They were fake and the truck was stolen yesterday morning.”
Rafaelle finally hung up and looked at Luca. “North side guards found Bert and Wilson floating in the water. Also, two of our stash houses were checked last week. Camera footage showed a jeep with no plate suspiciously patrolling the area more than three times last two weeks”
Luca’s eyes narrowed. “How?”
“Last week, there were signs that someone had been there. There were no break-ins.”
Nico scoffed. “They’re walking through our house.”
“No,” Luca said quietly. “Like they’re measuring it.”
The room went quiet at that.
Someone muttered, “This feels planned.”
“Because it is,” Luca replied. “They’re mapping us.”
The Don entered without announcement.
The room became still immediately.
Marco Moretti didn’t raise his voice. He didn’t need to.
“They want us to looking sideways,” he said. “Instead of forward.”
No one spoke.
“I want every shipment to be reviewed,” he continued. “Every contact questioned. Pull anyone new or temporary apart until I know who signed them in.”
His eyes landed briefly on Luca.
“And I want to know,” Marco said, “who benefits if I go to war with Valerio.”
After the meeting, Nico and Matt caught up with Luca in the hallway.
“You notice something?” Nico asked quietly.
“The Don didn’t say Valerio’s name once,” Luca replied.
Nico frowned. “That’s not like him.”
“No,” Luca said. “It means he’s not convinced.”
“Or he’s already decided.”
Luca didn’t answer.
Across the city, in a rented garage with no windows, unknown men unloaded the stolen crates.
“Count it again,” one said.
Another snapped the crate shut. “Everything we need is here.”
“And the rest?”
“Left behind. Like you said.”
There was a pause.
“This will start something.”
A quiet laugh. “It already has.”
A younger one hesitated. “What if Moretti figures it out?”
The tall man smiled faintly. “It will take a while and by then, we should be done and out of the country by then.”
They slid the crate shut.
“Load the rest,” the tall man said. “We move before sunrise.”
“And the Valerios?”
“They’ll hear soon enough.”
The news reached the Valerio estate just after midnight.
Elena was still awake, barefoot in the study, balancing the financial records for that month, when shouting echoed down the hall.
Her cousin Marco burst in without knocking. “They hit a Moretti shipment.”
Elena looked up slowly. “What do you mean hit? Were they on the move or what?.”
“Their crates were opened, and a number of their weapons are missing. They also dropped two bodies”
Her father entered behind him, face dark. “And everyone’s suspecting us? They should know that if I want to hit Moretti, I will come at them heavily and leave a lot of bodies”
Elena stood. “Yeah, but the people of Pinshure don’t know this.”
“I know,” her father said.
Marco slammed his fist into the wall. “They’ll come for us.”
“They’ll come for someone,” Elena said. “That’s different.”
Her father studied her. “You think this is a bait.”
“Yes and I think someone wants the Valerio and Moretti take themselves out and then take over the city,” she replied. “Let’s not rush to make decisions.”
“And if we don’t?” Marco snapped.
“Then we play to this guy’s plan.”
There was a long silence.
Finally, her father turned to one of the men by the door. “Double the guards at home and at all our warehouses. Move the convoys and donn’t pass the usual routes.”
Elena stepped closer. “If you strike first—”
“I won’t,” he said. “Not yet.”
That surprised her.
He met her gaze. “But if they push us there…”
He didn’t finish.
Back at the Moretti office, the air had gone stale.
Luca stood by the window, watching headlights crawl along the road below like ants. His phone buzzed again.
Moretti.
“They’re testing us,” Luca said before the Don could speak.
“Yes,” Moretti replied. “And they will get it.”
“What do you want?” Luca asked.
There was a long pause.
“I want pressure,” Moretti said. “Everywhere. Make the city uncomfortable, let them know that no one messes with the Moretti and goes scot free. Let the people of Pinshure know that there is trouble. ”
“And Valerio?”
“Let him sweat.”
Luca closed his eyes briefly. “Understood.”
When he hung up, Nico was watching him.
“Pressure means killing spree,” Nico said.
Matt pushed off the cabinet. “Do you think that’s good? A lot of innocent will be caught in the cross fire. What do we do?”
Luca met his eyes. “Then we bleed quietly.”
No one liked that answer.
A runner burst in suddenly. “We lost a courier.”
“Lost how?” Rafaelle demanded.
“He didn’t show. His phone is dead and no one has seen him pass the route where he was supposed to pass so as to be get the package delivered safely.”
Luca felt that cold thing in his chest shift again.
“How long ago?”
“Ten minutes.”
Luca grabbed his jacket. “He was kidnapped.”
As they moved for the door, Luca’s phone vibrated once more.
Unknown number.
He answered.
Static.
Then a voice, distorted but calm.
“You’re looking in the wrong places.”
The line went dead.
Luca stopped walking.
Nico turned. “What?”
Luca stared at the phone in his hand.
“They’re closer than we think,” he said.
Outside, somewhere in the city, an engine revved, and didn’t stop.
- Writer
