Chapter 4 - The Warehouse on Pier 3
The industrial maintenance bay under the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway was dark, wet, and deserted. The roar of overhead traffic muffled the sound of the sedan’s engine as Lucas brought the vehicle to a trembling halt near a row of rusted shipping containers.
Lucas threw the car into park and raised his hands, turning around in the seat with tears streaming down his flushed face.
“Adrian! Listen to me, please!” Lucas cried, his voice cracking into a desperate plea. “They have my sister! The Falcones snatched Maria from her apartment in Queens three weeks ago! They told me if I didn't give them the Newark codes and track your movements, they would send her back to me in pieces!”
Adrian didn’t draw a weapon. He looked at his driver, the silence in the car growing so heavy it felt like water filling the cabin.
“Why didn't you come to me?” Adrian asked.
“Because you would have gone to war!” Lucas wept, clutching his steering wheel. “And in a war, hostages die first! I thought... I thought if I just gave them the manifests, you would lose money, but Maria would live!”
“You thought wrong,” Adrian said, his voice slicing through the gloom. “When you feed a wolf a piece of meat, it doesn't leave your door. It comes back for the whole house. The Falcones were never going to release Maria. They were going to kill her the second Newark was raided, and then they were going to put a bullet through you to close the loose end.”
The side door of the maintenance bay rolled upward with a mechanical groan. Three black SUVs pulled into the shelter, their high-beam headlights blinding the interior of the car.
Marco, Adrian’s towering chief of tactical operations, stepped out of the lead vehicle, flanked by four men in dark coats.
Adrian opened his door and stepped onto the concrete. He gestured toward the driver’s seat.
“Marco. Take Lucas’s phone. Extract the IP trace on the Falcone safehouse holding Maria,” Adrian ordered.
“And Lucas, boss?” Marco asked, his hand hovering near his shoulder holster.
May you like
Adrian looked back at the sobbing young man in the front seat. “Take him to the safehouse cellar. Put a guard on him. If his sister is alive, he lives to face the council. If he lied to me, leave him for the harbor police.”
He turned toward Marco’s vehicle. “Bring the tactical squad to the diner. We extract Sophia and Emma now.”
