Chapter 12 - The Black Hand
The next morning the quiet life they had built shattered in an instant.
Hannah was organizing files for her global textile conservation charity in her home office.
She received an urgent phone call from the foundation's chief financial officer in Chicago.
The CFO sounded like he was hyperventilating on the other end of the line.
He told Hannah that the foundation's primary bank accounts had been frozen by an unknown shell corporation.
The corporation was claiming ownership of the philanthropic trust through a loophole in the original mafia bylaws.
Vincent walked into the room and saw the distress on his wife's beautiful face.
He took the phone and demanded to know the name of the shell company blocking their funds.
The CFO swallowed hard and read the name off the legal documents.
It was called The Black Hand Holdings.
Vincent felt his stomach drop to the floor.
The Black Hand was the exact name of the street gang his father had started when he first immigrated to America.
Lorenzo was not just trying to scare them with bloody dresses and cryptic notes in the night.
He was legally hijacking the billions of dollars Vincent had converted into legitimate charity money.
Vincent hung up the phone and walked over to his heavy iron safe in the bedroom closet.
He had promised Hannah he would never touch a weapon again.
He stared at the locked metal door for a long time before punching in the code.
He pulled out a single suppressed pistol and loaded a full magazine.
Hannah stood in the doorway watching him break the vow he had made to her.
She did not yell at him or beg him to put the gun away.
She walked over to the safe and pulled out a secondary tracking device they had saved from the Marcus incident.
She slipped the device into the lining of Vincent's dark tailored jacket.
She told him that if he was going to walk into the dark to face the devil he was not going in blind.
Vincent smiled and realized he had married a brilliant tactician.
His phone buzzed with an unknown caller ID.
He answered it and heard a raspy ancient voice that made his blood run completely cold.
His father told him it was time for the prodigal son to come home and pay his debts.
Lorenzo gave him an address for an abandoned meatpacking plant on the edge of the city.
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He ordered Vincent to come alone or he would send his men to burn the estate to the ground.
Vincent looked at Hannah and promised he would be home for dinner.
