Chapter 6 - The Safehouse
We drove for three hours deep into the Catskill Mountains, leaving the chaos and the betrayal of the city far behind us. I owned a secluded cabin at the end of a forgotten logging road, an off-the-grid safehouse known only to me and my most fiercely loyal capo, Carlo.
The cabin was entirely pitch black when we arrived. I killed the engine, the sudden silence of the wilderness a jarring contrast to the gunfire we had just escaped.
"Wait here," I told Harper, stepping out into the freezing night air. I drew my weapon and cleared the perimeter of the cabin, checking the tripwires and the motion sensors I had installed years ago. Everything was perfectly intact. No one had been here.
I opened the heavy wooden door, punching in the security code to disable the interior alarms, and ushered Harper inside. The cabin was rustic but heavily fortified, stocked with non-perishable food, medical supplies, and an armory that could supply a small militia.
I threw some logs into the stone fireplace and ignited them. The warm, flickering light illuminated the room, chasing away the bone-chilling cold of the mountain air.
Harper sat down on the heavy leather sofa, unwrapping Luca from the cashmere blanket. He was awake now, cooing softly, looking around the new environment with wide, curious eyes. The color in his face was a miracle I still couldn't fully comprehend.
"He's hungry again," Harper murmured, looking at me with a slight blush spreading across her cheeks.
"Do what you need to do," I said softly, turning my back to give her privacy. I walked over to the kitchen counter and poured myself a glass of water, my mind spinning with the sheer magnitude of Vincenzo’s betrayal.
As I listened to the quiet sounds of my son nursing, a profound sense of gratitude washed over me. For months, I had been surrounded by doctors with Ivy League degrees and bodyguards with military training, and all of them had failed me. It took a twenty-three-year-old maid, carrying the weight of a shattered heart, to step into the darkness and save my heir.
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"You saved his life, Harper," I said quietly, looking out the window into the dark woods. "I don't know how to repay a debt like that."
"You don't owe me anything, Matteo," she replied softly from the sofa. "I lost my little girl. When I heard Luca crying... I couldn't let another mother's child die. Not when I had the power to stop it."
