Chapter 10 - The LocketThey found Denise Jenkins in an abandoned chapel in Queens.
It had once served a working-class Italian neighborhood before luxury condos rose around it like polished teeth. Now its stained-glass windows were cracked, its pews covered in dust, its altar stripped bare except for a single candle burning in the center.
Too theatrical.
Too deliberate.
Vincent wanted Matteo to feel history watching.
Camryn entered between Matteo and Rocco, refusing to stay in the car no matter how many guards objected. Fear lived in every bone of her body, but fear had been living there for years. Debt. Hospital rooms. Eviction notices. Late-night calls. Her mother coughing blood into tissues and saying she was fine.
Fear was not new.
This was.
Her mother sat in the front pew, wrapped in a hospital blanket, pale but conscious.
“Mom!”
Camryn ran.
Denise held up both hands. “Stop.”
Camryn froze.
A wire ran beneath the blanket.
Matteo saw it at the same moment.
His men shifted, but he lifted one hand.
No panic.
No sudden moves.
From behind the altar, Vincent DeLuca stepped into view.
“Touching reunion,” he said.
Camryn’s eyes filled with tears. “Let her go.”
Vincent smiled. “I did. She chose to sit.”
Denise’s voice shook. “He said if I stood up, people outside would die.”
Matteo’s expression did not change, but Camryn felt the air sharpen.
Vincent looked at him. “Do not worry, nephew. I know you prefer clean threats now. Your maid has civilized you.”
Matteo said nothing.
Vincent seemed annoyed by that.
“You were easier when you were angry.”
“I know,” Matteo said.
Vincent’s smile faded.
Camryn moved one step closer to her mother.
Denise shook her head, crying silently.
“Baby, I’m sorry.”
“For what?”
Denise reached beneath the collar of her hospital gown and pulled out a thin chain.
A gold locket.
Camryn’s breath caught.
Denise looked at Matteo. “Isabella gave it to me the morning she died. She said if she didn’t come back, I should keep it away from everyone. Even you.”
Matteo flinched.
Vincent laughed. “And yet here we are.”
Denise’s fingers trembled as she opened the locket.
Inside was not a picture.
It was a tiny storage chip wrapped behind the frame.
Rocco whispered, “My God.”
Vincent’s voice hardened. “Give it to me.”
Denise looked at Camryn.
“I kept it because Isabella saved me once,” she whispered. “Serafina threw me out when she found out I was pregnant.”
Camryn went cold.
“What?”
Denise closed her eyes.
Matteo turned sharply.
Vincent smiled again, slowly this time.
“Oh,” he said. “You didn’t tell her?”
Camryn stared at her mother. “Tell me what?”
Denise sobbed. “Your father was a driver in the DeLuca house. He died before you were born. Isabella gave me money to leave. She said this family would swallow my baby if I stayed.”
Camryn could barely breathe.
Her whole life shifted under her feet.
She had not wandered into the DeLuca penthouse by accident.
Her mother had escaped it.
And now Camryn had walked right back through the service elevator carrying cleaning supplies.
Matteo’s voice was low. “Who was her father?”
Denise looked at him with haunted eyes.
“Antonio Bellini.”
Rocco stiffened. “Mara’s brother.”
Camryn turned. “The bodyguard?”
Denise nodded. “Mara is your aunt.”
The chapel spun.
Camryn grabbed the edge of a pew.
Vincent clapped slowly. “Family. Always so messy.”
Matteo looked like he was putting pieces together at terrible speed.
“Antonio died in a dock accident,” he said.
Vincent’s smile remained.
Matteo’s eyes darkened. “You killed him too.”
Vincent spread his hands. “Antonio listened to women. Dangerous flaw.”
Camryn’s shock burned into fury.
“You destroyed everyone who tried to protect a child.”
Vincent looked at her. “No, Miss Jenkins. I destroyed everyone who forgot their place.”
That was when the side door opened.
Mara Bellini stepped inside with a gun lowered at her side.
Rocco’s men reacted instantly.
Matteo lifted his hand. “Hold.”
Mara’s eyes went straight to Camryn.
The scar on her chin pulled tight as her face broke.
“You look like him,” she whispered.
Camryn could not answer.
Mara turned to Vincent. “It’s over.”
Vincent sighed. “You always were dramatic.”
Mara held up her phone.
On the screen was a live video call.
Federal agents.
Local police.
A prosecutor Matteo clearly did not own.
Vincent’s face changed.
Mara said, “Every word streamed.”
For the first time, Vincent DeLuca looked truly afraid.
Then he smiled.
And lifted his hand.
The chapel doors slammed shut.
Men moved in the shadows.
Leo had called him the red man.
May you like
But Camryn realized then Vincent had never been a man of fire.
He was a man of traps.
