Chapter 6 - The Day My Bakery Became the Most Dangerous Place in Chicago
We returned to Chicago before sunrise.
The bakery was still standing.
Barely.
Vincent's men searched every room.
My mother waited in the SUV.
I walked into the kitchen alone.
Something felt different.
I stared at the old brick oven.
My father had built it himself.
I touched the bricks.
One sounded hollow.
I removed it.
Inside was a metal cylinder.
My hands shook as I opened it.
There was a small memory card.
Vincent appeared behind me.
“What is it?”
“I don't know.”
He connected it to a secure laptop.
Files appeared.
Bank transfers.
Names.
Photographs.
Audio recordings.
And one folder titled COSTELLO.
Vincent opened it.
His face went blank.
Inside was a list of everyone who had betrayed him.
Including someone currently sitting in his inner circle.
His lieutenant, Daniel Russo.
Vincent didn't move.
“Daniel is family.”
“Apparently not.”
Suddenly the bakery doors slammed shut.
We were trapped.
Gas began filling the room.
Vincent covered my mouth with his shirt.
“Back door!”
We ran.
The back door was locked.
Someone had welded it shut.
Vincent fired at the lock.
Nothing.
Smoke thickened.
I remembered the old delivery hatch.
I pulled a ladder.
Behind a shelf was a narrow opening.
We crawled through.
We emerged into the alley.
Police surrounded the block.
But there was something strange.
They weren't arresting us.
They were waiting.
A woman stepped forward.
Detective Sarah Monroe.
She had investigated my father's death.
She removed her badge.
“I know who killed your father.”
Vincent raised his gun.
She shook her head.
“Not me.”
She handed me a folder.
Inside was evidence proving that Daniel Russo had been working with the Crow for years.
Vincent's face hardened.
“He sold information about every shipment.”
“He also ordered the attack on the alley,” Monroe said.
“And the attack on the bakery.”
“Yes.”
A black car approached.
Daniel stepped out.
He was holding my mother at gunpoint.
Vincent froze.
“Let her go.”
Daniel smiled.
“You should have listened when I told you to forget the Bennetts.”
My mother looked at me.
“Run.”
I didn't.
Daniel raised his gun.
Vincent stepped forward.
“Take me instead.”
Daniel laughed.
“Always the hero.”
“You don't know anything about me.”
“I know everything.”
Daniel turned to me.
“Do you know why your father really died?”
My blood ran cold.
“He didn't die because he found the Crow.”
“Then why?”
“Because he refused to give them you.”
Daniel smiled.
“He made a deal.”
“What deal?”
“He traded his life for yours.”
The world went silent.
My father had died protecting me.
I had spent years thinking he abandoned me.
Daniel's expression twisted.
“And your mother disappeared because she couldn't live with the guilt.”
My mother closed her eyes.
Vincent took another step.
“Enough.”
Daniel fired.
Vincent pushed me aside.
The bullet struck his shoulder.
He fell.
“Vincent!”
Daniel aimed again.
I grabbed the brick fragment from the ground and threw it at his wrist.
The gun fell.
Detective Monroe fired.
Daniel collapsed.
Silence.
Vincent lay on the pavement.
Blood spreading across his shirt.
I knelt beside him.
“You idiot.”
He smiled weakly.
“That's what you called me before.”
“You keep proving me right.”
His hand found mine.
“I couldn't let you die.”
Tears filled my eyes.
“Why?”
He looked at me.
“Because I've spent nineteen years trying to protect the woman your father asked me to protect.”
He squeezed my hand.
“And somewhere along the way, I stopped doing it because I owed him.”
May you like
My heart stopped.
“I started doing it because I love you.”
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