Chapter 3 - The Records They Wanted Buried
My heart stopped.
He put the call on speaker.
"Caroline isn't answering," Marco said. "Her apartment door is open. We found signs someone forced the lock. Her neighbor says she saw a woman and a little boy leaving with two men about ten minutes ago."
I grabbed the phone.
"Was Caroline hurt?"
"We don't know, Miss Russo."
"What about Noah?"
"The neighbor said he was walking. He didn't appear injured."
I pressed my hand over my mouth.
Luca took the phone gently.
"Marco, stay where you are. Call 911. Report a possible abduction. Give them everything you know."
"Boss—"
"Now."
He hung up.
I backed toward the bed.
"No."
Luca reached for me.
"No, Elena. Look at me."
"They have Noah."
"We don't know that for certain yet."
"They have my nephew!"
My voice cracked so sharply it barely sounded human.
Luca let me shout.
He didn't tell me to calm down.
Didn't promise something he couldn't guarantee.
He simply stood there until I could breathe.
Then he asked, "Did Shaw say anything else about Caroline?"
I tried to think.
The coatroom.
The locked door.
Shaw's hand crushing my wrist.
His breath against my cheek.
He had been smiling when he mentioned Caroline.
"He said something about a woman who knew how to pick her battles."
Luca's expression changed.
"What exactly?"
I squeezed my eyes shut.
"He said, 'Your sister should've picked a better place to hide.'"
"Hide?"
"Yes."
"Caroline isn't hiding from anyone."
"That's what I thought."
Luca crossed to his desk.
He opened a drawer and took out a sealed envelope.
I recognized it immediately.
My name was written on the front.
I had given it to him three weeks earlier.
"Why do you still have that?"
"Because you asked me not to open it unless something went wrong."
Inside were copies of financial records from three companies I'd flagged during the restructuring.
One of them belonged to an investment group called Ashford Holdings.
Caroline had worked there briefly as an administrative assistant five years earlier.
A coincidence I'd dismissed.
Until now.
I took the documents.
"Caroline told me Ashford fired her after she refused to alter vendor invoices."
Luca nodded.
"You mentioned that."
"She said her supervisor accused her of being difficult. She couldn't afford a lawyer. Noah was still a baby."
I turned another page.
Ashford Holdings.
Mercer Logistics.
Two shell companies.
One shared financial intermediary.
And Derek Shaw's name appeared on a consultant reimbursement connected to a disputed transaction.
My pulse accelerated.
"Oh my God."
"What?"
"Caroline wasn't hiding from Mercer."
I looked at Luca.
"She was hiding evidence."
His brow tightened.
"Explain."
"She told me she kept copies of the invoices because she was afraid they'd blame her for the missing money. I told her to preserve them in case she ever needed an employment attorney."
"Where are they?"
"In a storage box at her apartment."
Luca looked toward his phone.
Then we both understood.
If Mercer's men had entered Caroline's apartment, they might not have come only for her.
They could have been searching for the records.
I called Caroline again.
Voicemail.
Then my phone vibrated.
An unfamiliar number.
A photograph appeared.
Caroline sat in the back seat of a vehicle, one arm wrapped tightly around Noah.
His face was pressed against her shoulder.
Neither appeared visibly injured.
Below the photograph was a message.
MIDNIGHT. EAST RIVER PIER 19. COME ALONE WITH THE ACCOUNT ACCESS. NO POLICE.
I stared at the screen until the letters blurred.
Luca read it over my shoulder.
"You're not going."
"They have my sister."
"I know."
"They have a seven-year-old child."
"I know."
"Then don't tell me what I'm not doing!"
He stepped back.
The room went completely still.
I'd never raised my voice at Luca like that.
Neither had I ever seen him accept it without argument.
"You're right," he said.
I blinked.
"What?"
"It's your sister. Your nephew. You get a say in what happens next."
My throat tightened.
"But walking into Mercer’s trap alone isn't going to save them."
"Then what will?"
Luca looked at Shaw's phone.
"The thing Mercer doesn't know you have."
I followed his gaze.
Then I understood.
Mercer believed Shaw was alive long enough to deliver the account information.
His threats were written as though Shaw had either failed or betrayed him.
He didn't know what had happened inside the coatroom.
And the phone contained more than messages.
I opened it.
There were photographs of documents, payment instructions, meeting schedules, and a voice recording labeled simply:
MERCER — BROOKLYN.
I played it.
Mercer's voice filled the room.
"Valenti thinks he's getting out clean. He closes those businesses, people start asking where the money came from. People start talking."
A second voice answered.
Shaw.
"What about the girl?"
"She gives you access, you make sure she never opens another ledger."
My blood turned cold.
Then Mercer said:
"And the sister? She's still got those Ashford records. Handle that problem too."
The recording ended.
I stared at the screen.
Luca was completely motionless.
For years, men had feared him because he could turn cold faster than anyone I had ever met.
But this was different.
He looked exhausted.
Almost sick.
"He was going to kill me," I whispered.
Luca didn't soften the truth.
"Yes."
"And Caroline."
"Yes."
I sank into the chair.
"Why would Shaw record him?"
"Insurance. Men like Shaw don't trust the people paying them."
My fingers tightened around the phone.
"Then we give this to the police."
May you like
Luca nodded.
"All of it."
