Total pages in book: 67
Estimated words: 65054 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 325(@200wpm)___ 260(@250wpm)___ 217(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 65054 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 325(@200wpm)___ 260(@250wpm)___ 217(@300wpm)
“How does she know about the service elevator?” I ask.
Chiara closes her eyes.
I don’t need the answer after that.
My jaw tightens, but I say nothing. I cannot waste anger on the wrong person.
“Service level,” I tell Luca.
The feed changes. My hand closes around the back of his chair.
“Why is there no feed?”
Luca types fast enough that the keys sound like rain.
“Camera three went down.”
“When?”
He pulls the log. Rafe leans in. The timestamp appears. Three minutes before Sofia reaches the elevator. The room goes very quiet.
“Someone killed the camera,” Rafe says.
“Yes.”
“She found the exit herself,” Chiara says softly. “But someone made sure she could use it.”
I look at the blank feed. The timing is so precise. Someone was watching her the whole time, guiding her.
“Pull service door exterior,” I say.
That feed works just fine, like whoever messed with the feed wanted to make sure we could see this.
Sofia steps into the alley behind the building. She hesitates beneath the security light, looking back once toward the door. For one second, I think she might come back. Then a car appears at the end of the alley. Sofia’s phone lights up in her hand. She looks at it, then at the car. The back door opens.
Rafe curses under his breath.
Sofia walks toward it. The car pulls away.
“Find the car,” I say.
Luca starts typing.
“No,” I correct, voice low. “Find the person who killed that camera.”
Rafe’s phone buzzes. He looks at it, then at me. His expression changes.
“What?” I ask.
He hesitates.
That is unlike him.
“What?” I repeat.
He looks at Chiara first. “You should go upstairs.”
“No,” she says immediately.
“Chiara.”
“If this is about Sofia, I’m staying.”
I do not have time to argue with my sister. “Say it.”
Rafe turns his phone toward me. It’s displaying a system log. Service security access for one Tomasso Vieri.
My body goes still.
Behind me, Tomasso says nothing. That is almost enough to give him away.
I want to turn around. I want to put my hand around his throat and drive his head through the nearest monitor. I want him bleeding on the floor before he has time to explain himself. Then I see Sofia stepping into that car again. I see the door opening. I see her getting inside because grief made her reckless.
Killing Tomasso won’t bring her back. Keeping him alive and pretending nothing’s wrong might.
I take Rafe’s phone from his hand and keep my face still.
“Security dispatch,” I say.
Rafe’s eyes flick to mine.
He understands in half a second.
“Looks that way,” he says.
“Then we start there,” I say. “Every man on that shift gets pulled. Phones, cars, bank accounts, everything.”
Luca swallows hard. “Yes, sir.”
“Now.”
He turns back to the keyboard with shaking hands.
Chiara looks between Rafe and me. She knows me too well. She knows when I’m angry, but more than that, she knows when I’m hiding it. Her eyes narrow slightly, but she says nothing.
Tomasso steps closer. “Security dispatch had access?”
I turn toward him slowly. He looks concerned.
“It appears so,” I tell him.
“That explains the safe house too.”
I stare at him until he looks away first.
“Find the car,” I tell Rafe. “Every street camera within eight blocks. Private feeds. Traffic feeds. ATMs. Doorbells. If it has a lens, I want it.”
Rafe nods and moves toward the table, phone already in hand. I follow him out of the security room. Tomasso moves with us.
“Stay here,” I tell him.
He stops. “Why?”
I step closer. Not enough to touch him. Enough to remind him who I am.
“The mother of my child just got into a stranger’s car after her father was kidnapped. If I tell you to stand in a corner and count the fucking lights, you will ask me what number to stop at. Do we understand each other?”
For the first time all night, his mask slips. There is resentment underneath. Old. Bitter. Familiar. Then it’s gone.
“Understood,” he says.
“Good.”
I leave him there with Chiara, Luca, and two guards I trust. Rafe follows me into the hall. The second the door closes behind us, his expression changes.
His mouth tightens. “Dom.”
“Do not tell me what I should have done.”
“I was going to say that was the right move.”
I keep walking. Rafe falls into step beside me. We reach the dining room table, where maps and phones have already taken over the polished wood. I stop at the head of it and force myself to think.
I have built a life around control. Every route planned. Every debt tracked. Every enemy watched. Every person I care about kept behind walls thick enough to survive the worst this city can send at us. Tonight, the walls cracked open from the inside.
“I’ve just gotten confirmation that the car drove to Brooklyn.”
“That barely helps,” I mutter.
I look toward the security room door.
“We need him to lead us to her,” I say quietly. “I’m going to tell him to go home. He’ll rush to Calderone’s side.”