Chapter 4 - THE MAN CALLED THE WOLF
Dominic moved us that night.
Not back to the estate.
Not to a hotel.
To a private house on Lake Michigan registered under a corporation with no obvious connection to Vale Atlantic.
For once, I did not argue.
The note had changed everything.
Someone knew who I was.
Someone knew Lily had seen them.
And apparently being broke did not make a person invisible enough to survive mafia politics.
The safe house had six guards.
A doctor.
A cook.
A security system Julian checked twice himself.
Grace remained tired but stable.
Lily became clingier.
Neither girl wanted doors closed.
So we left them open.
Dominic slept badly.
I knew because I did too.
At three in the morning, I found him in the kitchen staring at security footage.
“You should sleep.”
“So should you.”
“I tried.”
He looked toward the hallway.
“Girls?”
“Asleep.”
“Both?”
“Yes.”
He exhaled.
I opened the refrigerator.
It contained ingredients I had seen only on cooking shows.
I found orange juice.
Dominic watched me.
“You can order anything.”
“I can also pour juice.”
“I’m beginning to notice a pattern.”
“What?”
“You dislike being helped.”
I closed the fridge.
“I dislike being indebted.”
“Why?”
Because debt had shaped my entire adult life.
Hospital bills after Mom’s cancer.
Tuition loans.
Rent.
Credit cards.
But I said only, “Experience.”
Dominic nodded.
He understood more than I wanted.
On the screen, a photograph of Vincent appeared.
Dark hair.
Handsome.
Forty.
Smiling at a charity gala.
“Why would he take them?”
Dominic’s jaw tightened.
“My daughters own part of Vale Atlantic.”
I stared.
“They’re seven.”
“My late wife’s father transferred shares to them.”
“Why?”
“He didn’t trust me.”
I almost smiled.
“Smart man?”
Dominic actually laughed once.
Then his expression changed.
“If I die before Lily and Grace turn twenty-one, their voting shares are controlled by a guardian appointed under my wife’s trust.”
“Who?”
“Originally me.”
“And if you can’t serve?”
“My nearest eligible Vale relative.”
“Vincent.”
“Yes.”
There it was.
Money.
Control.
Children turned into leverage.
“Your daughters were kidnapped so Vincent could control company shares?”
“Maybe.”
“What about Reed?”
Dominic looked at the screen.
“Nathan Reed has protected me for eleven years.”
“That’s not an answer.”
“No.”
He rubbed his jaw.
“I trusted him.”
“Maybe somebody made him help.”
Dominic looked at me.
“Why do you keep defending people?”
“I don’t.”
“You defended the possibility that Reed isn’t guilty.”
“Because frightened children remember pieces.”
“What piece am I missing?”
“I don’t know yet.”
I looked at Vincent’s photo.
“Lily called someone ‘the wolf.’”
“Yes.”
“Did Vincent have that nickname?”
Dominic’s eyes narrowed.
“No.”
“Who does?”
Silence.
Then he looked at me differently.
“What?”
“In my family?”
“Yes.”
He stood.
“My father.”
I froze.
“Your father?”
“Dead eight years.”
“Definitely?”
Dominic gave me a look.
“Funeral. Body. Yes.”
“Then why would Lily call somebody wolf?”
Dominic walked to his laptop and opened an old photograph.
Three men outside a warehouse.
A younger Dominic.
His father.
A third man.
Dominic pointed to his father’s signet ring.
A wolf’s head.
“Our family crest used to be a wolf.”
“Used to?”
“I changed it after he died.”
“Why?”
“My father believed fear was branding.”
That sounded accurate.
“Who else wore the ring?”
Dominic stared at the photograph.
“My uncle Gabriel.”
“Vincent’s father?”
“Yes.”
My stomach tightened.
“Alive?”
Dominic became very still.
“He disappeared six years ago.”
“Disappeared?”
“He stole from the family. My father’s old money. When I confronted him, he ran.”
“Did you find him?”
“No.”
“Then maybe Vincent isn’t the wolf.”
Dominic’s phone rang.
Julian.
He answered.
Listened.
Then his face changed.
“Where?”
He grabbed his coat.
“What happened?” I asked.
“Nathan Reed was found.”
“Alive?”
“Yes.”
“Where?”
“Abandoned warehouse.”
Dominic started toward the door.
I caught his arm.
He looked down at my hand.
I released him immediately.
“What?”
“If Reed was part of this, why would they abandon him?”
His eyes narrowed.
“Come.”
“What?”
“You wanted answers.”
“I did not mean physically—”
“You’re staying in the armored car.”
Twenty minutes later, I was outside a warehouse near the Calumet River questioning every decision I had made since finding two children behind a dumpster.
Reed was carried out on a stretcher.
Bruised.
Dehydrated.
One hand badly injured.
But alive.
When Dominic approached, Reed tried to sit.
“Boss.”
Dominic’s face remained unreadable.
“You gave them the route.”
Reed closed his eyes.
“Yes.”
Every guard tensed.
“Why?”
“They had Noah.”
Dominic stopped.
“Your son?”
Reed nodded.
“My boy.”
I had not known Reed had a child.
“They took him from college two days before the girls.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“They sent video.”
Reed’s voice broke.
“Said if I warned you, Noah died.”
“So you gave them the route.”
“Yes.”
Dominic stepped closer.
“My daughters nearly froze to death.”
Reed started crying.
“I know.”
“You helped them take my children.”
“Yes.”
“I trusted you.”
Reed looked destroyed.
“I know.”
Dominic’s hand curled.
I thought he might hit him.
Instead, he asked, “Where’s Noah?”
Reed stared.
“I don’t know.”
That stopped everything.
“They never gave him back.”
Dominic turned toward Julian.
“Find him.”
Reed grabbed Dominic’s sleeve.
“The man behind it isn’t Vincent.”
Dominic froze.
“Who?”
“Gabriel.”
His uncle.
The missing man.
“The wolf,” I whispered.
Reed looked at me.
“You know?”
“Lily remembers the ring.”
He closed his eyes.
“Gabriel made sure she saw it.”
“Why?”
Dominic asked.
Reed swallowed.
“Because this was never supposed to look like a kidnapping.”
“What was it supposed to look like?”
“Your daughters were supposed to die in the crash.”
The air left my lungs.
Dominic did not move.
Reed continued.
“The van was rigged.”
“What?”
“Gabriel wanted police to find them.”
“Dead?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
Reed looked at Dominic.
“To make you lose control.”
Dominic’s voice became quiet.
“For what?”
“War.”
Gabriel wanted Dominic to believe a rival family had murdered his daughters.
Dominic would retaliate.
The city would explode.
Vale Atlantic’s board would remove him or federal authorities would take him down.
Then Vincent would step into the legitimate company.
Gabriel would control him from behind the scenes.
A dead pair of seven-year-olds would become the spark that burned half of Chicago.
Except the van crashed before reaching the planned site.
The driver died.
The second kidnapper chased the girls but lost them in the storm.
And Lily and Grace ran.
Straight to me.
Reed whispered, “Gabriel didn’t expect them to survive.”
Dominic’s face became terrifying.
“Where is he?”
Reed looked toward the river.
“He has my son.”
May you like
Then he said:
“And now he wants Emily.”
