Chapter 8 - THE WOMAN IN THE WAREHOUSE
Z
The Patterson textile mill had been abandoned for sixteen years.
Broken windows stared over the river.
Rust streaked the brick walls.
At eleven fifty-seven, Elena stepped from Alessandro’s car wearing a hidden microphone beneath her coat.
Alessandro came around the vehicle.
“No weapons visible,” she reminded him.
“I heard the instructions.”
“You look like you’re about to murder the building.”
“I’m considering it.”
“Elena.”
She stopped.
His expression changed.
For one second the mafia boss disappeared.
Only the man remained.
“Come back out.”
She swallowed.
“So romantic.”
“I’m serious.”
“I know.”
His hand lifted.
This time she did not make him ask.
She stepped forward and let him touch her face.
“I’m coming back.”
“You can’t promise that.”
“Neither can you.”
Their eyes held.
Then Elena kissed his cheek.
Not his mouth.
Not yet.
Alessandro closed his eyes.
“Cruel woman.”
“You’ll survive.”
“Debatable.”
Inside, the mill smelled of dust, oil and river water.
Elena walked beside Lena.
Both women wore microphones.
The real evidence remained elsewhere.
Marcus had created replicas.
Alessandro, Dominic and a tactical team waited beyond the perimeter.
A single light burned on the second floor.
They followed it.
Rachel Russo sat tied to a chair.
Alive.
Dominic’s breath came sharply through Elena’s earpiece.
A man stepped from the shadows.
Charles Hale.
Victoria’s father.
Elena had seen him at charity events.
Tall.
Silver-haired.
Polished.
The kind of man magazines called visionary.
“Mrs. Carter,” he said.
Then looked at Elena.
“And the maid.”
Elena smiled.
“You rich people really need new insults.”
Charles did not smile.
“Where is the drive?”
Lena held up the replica.
“Let Rachel go.”
“I’m afraid not.”
“Then you get nothing.”
Charles sighed.
“So much unnecessary courage.”
Elena studied Rachel.
Bruised cheek.
Torn sleeve.
But alert.
Rachel subtly shook her head.
Something was wrong.
Elena looked around.
No Victoria.
No armed guards visible except two near the stairs.
Too easy.
“This isn’t the real meeting,” Elena said.
Charles’s gaze shifted.
“What?”
“You don’t care about the drive.”
He smiled slowly.
“Interesting.”
“You brought Rachel here because you wanted Alessandro focused on this building.”
Silence.
Elena’s stomach dropped.
“Where is Victoria?”
Charles applauded once.
“Well done.”
Alessandro’s voice exploded in Elena’s earpiece.
“Get out. Now.”
Then gunfire sounded outside.
Not at the mill.
Through Alessandro’s radio came another voice.
“Boss, the apartment is under attack.”
Noah.
Lena screamed.
Charles smiled.
Alessandro had divided his security.
Exactly as the Hales wanted.
“Move!” Elena shouted.
The lights went out.
Chaos erupted.
Rachel threw herself sideways with the chair as Lena reached her.
Elena heard footsteps.
A man grabbed her arm.
She drove her heel down onto his foot, twisted and ran.
Alessandro had shown her basic defensive moves months earlier after a stranger followed her from a grocery store.
At the time she had accused him of being paranoid.
Now she silently thanked him.
A shot cracked.
Glass shattered.
Then emergency lights illuminated the staircase.
Alessandro appeared.
He was not supposed to be inside yet.
Of course he had ignored the plan.
Charles Hale backed toward a service door.
Alessandro raised his weapon.
“Don’t.”
Charles stopped.
“You won’t shoot me.”
“Why?”
“Because if I die, you never learn who actually ordered Matteo’s death.”
Everything froze.
Alessandro’s face hardened.
“You.”
“No.”
“Victor?”
“No.”
“Victoria?”
Charles smiled.
“My daughter has many flaws. Murdering Matteo wasn’t one of them.”
“Then who?”
Charles looked directly at Rachel.
Dominic arrived seconds later.
He saw his wife.
“Rachel.”
Her face crumpled.
Charles spoke.
“Ask her.”
Dominic cut Rachel loose.
She immediately gripped his shirt.
“I’m sorry.”
“For what?”
Rachel started crying.
“The baby.”
Dominic’s face broke.
“What baby?”
“I was pregnant.”
“When?”
“Four years ago.”
He staggered backward.
“You told me you had surgery.”
“I lied.”
“Why?”
Rachel looked at Alessandro.
“Because the child wasn’t Dominic’s.”
The room went silent.
Dominic turned white.
Rachel sobbed.
“It wasn’t Matteo’s either.”
Elena frowned.
Then whose?
Charles laughed.
“You still don’t see it.”
Alessandro stepped closer.
“Talk.”
Rachel looked at him.
“Victor assaulted me.”
Even Charles Hale stopped smiling.
Dominic’s face transformed.
Not jealousy.
Not anger at his wife.
Horror.
Rachel continued.
“I found out I was pregnant weeks later. I told Matteo because I didn’t know who else to trust. He helped me arrange a termination outside New York so Victor wouldn’t find out.”
Dominic closed his eyes.
Rachel clutched him.
“I wanted to tell you. I was ashamed.”
“You had nothing to be ashamed of.”
Dominic pulled her into his arms.
Alessandro looked at Charles.
“Why does this matter?”
“Because Matteo confronted Victor.”
Charles’s voice became colder.
“And Victor came to me afterward, terrified Matteo would expose both the assault and our financial operation.”
“So Victor killed him.”
“No.”
“Stop playing games.”
“Victor wanted Matteo frightened.”
Charles paused.
“My daughter wanted Matteo dead.”
Alessandro went still.
Victoria.
Charles smiled bitterly.
“She had been sleeping with Victor for over a year. Matteo discovered them. He threatened to expose everything.”
Elena remembered Victoria’s photograph with Victor.
The pieces aligned.
Alessandro’s fiancée had helped murder his brother.
“Where is she?” Alessandro asked.
Charles looked at Elena.
“At the apartment.”
Lena made a sound of panic.
Alessandro’s radio crackled.
“Boss.”
Static.
Then Marcus’s voice.
“We have Noah.”
Everyone breathed again.
“But Victoria escaped.”
Alessandro’s relief lasted only a second.
Marcus continued.
“She took Rosa.”
Elena’s heart stopped.
Victoria had lost the engagement.
Lost her leverage.
May you like
Lost her father’s protection.
And now she had the one woman who knew every Moretti secret.
