Chapter 6 - The Pawn in the Crimson Dress
Before heading to the meeting that would decide the fate of Chicago's underworld, we made one essential stop. At a secure safe house in Lincoln Park, Caterina Bardi was waiting for us.
When I entered the sunlit living room of the brownstone, Caterina stood up abruptly from the sofa. She looked completely different without the heavy theatrical makeup and the provocative red dress. In simple jeans and a dark sweater, she looked fragile, haunted, and barely older than twenty-one.
She kept her eyes lowered, her hands clasped tightly in front of her. ""Mrs. Ferretti... I mean, Clara. I don't know what to say to you.""
I walked over and sat on the opposite armchair, waving away the tension in the room. ""You don't have to apologize for surviving, Caterina. Alessandro told me about your brother.""
Her eyes welled with sudden, hot tears. ""Luca told me that if I played along with his games, he would have my brother transferred to a minimum-security facility. He told me that you were cold, arrogant, and that you didn't care about anything except the jewelry. But the moment you walked across that ballroom... the moment you put that ring in my hand and told me what he was really doing... I realized I was just another lamb being led to slaughter.""
""Luca uses people until they have no utility left, and then he discards them in public places to demonstrate his power,"" I said softly. ""You played your part perfectly last night. But now, I need you to do one more thing.""
Caterina wiped her eyes with the back of her sleeve. ""Anything. If it means seeing Luca pay for what he did to my family, I'll do anything.""
""The New York council members are old-fashioned men,"" I explained, leaning forward. ""They believe in contracts, they believe in loyalty, and above all, they hate scandals that attract federal scrutiny. Luca is going to tell them that I ran away because I was unstable, that I fabricated these financial attacks out of spite. I need you to stand before that council and tell them the exact terms under which Luca brought you to my birthday party.""
Caterina’s breath hitched. ""They will kill me if they think I betrayed him.""
""They won't touch you,"" Alessandro spoke from the doorway, his voice carrying an absolute, lethal certainty. ""Because the Moretti name will be standing behind you. And unlike Luca Ferretti, the Moretti family has never abandoned an ally.""
Caterina looked between the two of us. In my eyes, she saw the shared trauma of four years under Luca's suffocating roof; in Alessandro's, she saw the terrifying shield of an ancient, unbroken brotherhood.
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""I'll do it,"" Caterina whispered, nodding firmly. ""I'll tell them everything.""
""Good,"" I said, rising from the chair and offering her a genuine smile. ""Let's go show the city of Chicago what happens when the women Luca Ferretti underestimated decide to speak at the same time.""
