Chapter 6 - The Flour and the Gunpowder
Luca reacted with the lethal, synchronized speed of an apex predator.
In less than ten seconds, he strapped on a tactical shoulder holster, racking the slide of a customized Beretta .45, and slipped into a dark Kevlar jacket.
"Stay inside the reinforced vault behind the wardrobe, Sophia," Luca commanded, cupping my face with one large hand, his eyes burning with protective fire. "Elena is stationed outside with four men. Nobody enters this room."
"Luca, wait!" I grabbed his sleeve. "Look at the monitor!"
On the wall-mounted security display, the thermal cameras along the lower terrace showed eight armed men in tactical gear advancing toward the kitchen annex.
Leading them through the servant’s entrance was Julian Vance.
"They're not trying to breach the master bedroom," I realized, my eyes widening. "They're trying to destroy the master servers and the grain stores in the lower vaults!"
"The grain vaults?" Luca frowned.
"Your grandfather's original maritime ledgers," Elena’s voice cut in through the doorway as she entered holding an MP5. "Julian knows the council audit is tomorrow morning. If he burns the archives, he can claim forty million dollars in phantom port losses!"
A sudden, wicked smile spread across my face.
"Luca," I said, catching his hand. "Do you trust my baking?"
Luca blinked down at me, completely bewildered. "What?"
"In bakery school, they taught us one very important chemical fact about grain mills," I said, pulling on a dark sweater. "Fine flour suspended in the air isn't just baking powder. In a confined space with a spark... it's high explosive."
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Luca stared at me for two seconds, and then, for the first time since I met him, the legendary capo of Como threw his head back and laughed—a rich, dangerous, booming laugh that echoed off the stone walls.
"Elena," Luca grinned with lethal delight. "Get the flour sacks."
