Chapter 4 - MIA’S RED BACKPACK
At 1:16 the following afternoon, Nora received a phone call from Mia’s school.
She knew something was wrong before the secretary finished saying her name.
“Mia Reyes was picked up approximately twenty minutes ago.”
Nora stopped walking.
She was carrying folded towels through the upstairs hallway.
“What?”
The secretary continued carefully.
“A gentleman came to the office. He said there was a family emergency.”
Nora’s grip loosened.
The towels fell.
“Who?”
“He was listed as your uncle.”
“I don’t have an uncle.”
Silence.
Then:
“Oh.”
Nora’s body went cold.
“What was his name?”
“Victor Reyes.”
“That’s not anybody.”
The phone nearly slipped from Nora’s hand.
“Mia knows she isn’t supposed to leave with strangers.”
“The gentleman knew her mother’s name. He knew your address.”
Nora couldn’t breathe.
“He also had a note.”
“What note?”
“It said you had been injured.”
Nora was already running.
She reached the staircase at the exact moment Dominic came out of his office.
He saw her face.
“What happened?”
“Mia.”
That was all she managed.
Dominic moved immediately.
Within sixty seconds, Carlo had two men checking the school.
Antonio was calling contacts.
Dominic took Nora’s phone and spoke directly to the principal.
No shouting.
No threats.
That frightened the principal more.
“When did they leave?”
“Twelve fifty-eight.”
“Vehicle?”
“We’re checking the cameras.”
“Do it faster.”
He disconnected.
Nora stood beside the foyer table trembling.
“I should’ve brought her here.”
Dominic looked at her.
“No.”
“I knew something was happening.”
“You didn’t know they knew about you.”
“I should’ve—”
“Nora.”
His voice stopped her.
“You are not going to waste time blaming yourself while your sister needs us thinking.”
She looked at him.
Dominic had not slept.
She could tell.
There were shadows beneath his eyes.
His right hand was tucked into his coat pocket.
But his voice remained steady.
“What was Mia wearing?”
“Blue sweater. Jeans. Red backpack.”
“Phone?”
“She has one. Cheap prepaid phone. She’s only supposed to use it for emergencies.”
“Number.”
Nora gave it to him.
Antonio entered.
“School cameras caught a black SUV.”
Nora’s stomach dropped.
Dominic asked, “Plate?”
“Covered.”
“Driver?”
“Unknown. Passenger resembles Tommy Grassi.”
Dominic’s face changed.
Nora didn’t know the name.
Antonio explained.
“Vincent’s driver.”
She nearly collapsed.
Dominic caught her elbow.
With his injured hand.
Pain crossed his face.
He held on anyway.
“They won’t hurt her,” he said.
“How can you know?”
“Because if they wanted to hurt her, they wouldn’t have taken her.”
Nora stared at him.
“That is supposed to make me feel better?”
“No.”
Dominic released her.
“It’s supposed to make you understand they want something.”
Twenty minutes later, they learned what.
A video arrived on Nora’s phone.
Twelve seconds.
Mia sat on a folding chair inside what looked like an empty office.
Her red backpack remained on her shoulders.
No one touched her.
No one appeared behind her.
Mia looked frightened but unhurt.
A male voice said:
“Tell your sister what you need.”
Mia swallowed.
“Nora, don’t come.”
The video ended.
Nora covered her mouth.
Dominic’s eyes narrowed.
“She did that deliberately.”
“What?”
“She was supposed to ask you to come.”
Antonio nodded.
“Smart kid.”
Another message arrived.
This one contained an address.
An abandoned Santoro produce warehouse near Red Hook.
And six words.
NORA ALONE. BRING THE HEAVY FORK.
Dominic stared at the screen.
Nora looked at him.
“What does he want with the fork?”
“Evidence.”
Antonio understood first.
“The modification.”
Dominic nodded.
The fork hadn’t simply been heavier.
Someone had altered a piece of Santoro family silver.
If they could prove where and by whom, it connected Sebastian and Vincent to the campaign against Dominic.
Nora looked toward the pantry.
“It’s upstairs.”
Dominic shook his head.
“No.”
“He has Mia.”
“You are not going alone.”
“He said—”
“I can read.”
“Then you understand.”
Dominic moved closer.
“You spent three months noticing things everyone else missed. Notice this.”
His eyes stayed on hers.
“Vincent took Mia because he thinks you matter more to me than the evidence.”
Nora’s breath caught.
Neither of them spoke for a moment.
Antonio looked away.
Dominic continued.
“If you go alone, he gets both.”
“My sister is ten.”
“And because she is ten, we are going to get her back without giving Vincent exactly what he wants.”
Nora’s eyes filled.
Dominic’s voice softened.
“I promise.”
It was the wrong promise for a Mafia boss.
Too personal.
Too absolute.
He made it anyway.
They studied the video again.
This time Nora forced herself to look beyond Mia.
Gray wall.
Metal shelves.
Flickering light.
A sound in the background.
Three beats.
Pause.
Three beats again.
“What is that?” Nora asked.
Antonio listened.
“Could be machinery.”
“No.”
Nora took the phone.
She raised the volume.
Clang.
Clang.
Clang.
Then silence.
Again.
Her eyes widened.
“That’s not the Red Hook warehouse.”
Dominic turned.
“How do you know?”
“Mia knows that place.”
Everyone stared at her.
Nora explained.
Six weeks earlier, the Santoro charity office had held a clothing drive.
Nora volunteered.
Mia came along.
The donations were sorted in the Red Hook warehouse.
“She would recognize it.”
Dominic looked at the video.
“She told you not to come.”
“She was trying to tell me the message was wrong.”
Nora replayed it.
Mia’s knees were visible beneath the folding chair.
Her right foot tapped.
Three times.
Stopped.
Three times.
Nora’s heart jumped.
“When we were little, our mother taught us a game for when we got separated in stores.”
Antonio leaned in.
“What game?”
“Three taps meant wrong place.”
Dominic stared at Mia’s foot.
Nora continued.
“Two taps meant look again.”
They replayed the video.
Mia tapped three times.
Pause.
Then twice.
Wrong place.
Look again.
Dominic’s expression changed.
“Look at what?”
Nora watched.
The shelves.
Wall.
Floor.
Backpack.
Then she saw it.
A white powdery line across Mia’s left shoe.
Flour.
Not dust.
Flour.
Nora whispered, “She’s near food storage.”
Dominic turned toward Antonio.
“How many properties does Vincent control with commercial flour storage?”
Antonio was already reaching for his phone.
“Three.”
One had closed.
One was operating twenty-four hours and crowded.
The third was a bakery supply depot in Sunset Park.
Owned through a company connected to Vincent’s brother-in-law.
Dominic looked at Nora.
“Stay here.”
“No.”
“Nora.”
“No.”
Her voice cracked.
“That is my sister.”
Dominic held her gaze.
He could command captains.
Dockworkers.
Restaurant owners.
Men twice Nora’s age.
He could not command a terrified twenty-five-year-old woman to wait politely while someone held the child she had raised.
He understood that.
“Fine.”
He turned toward Carlo.
“She stays in the car.”
Nora opened her mouth.
Dominic pointed toward her.
“That part is not negotiable.”
Thirty-eight minutes later, three vehicles stopped two blocks from the Sunset Park depot.
Dominic’s people moved quietly.
No sirens.
No spectacle.
Nora sat in the second SUV gripping Mia’s old friendship bracelet in her fist.
Five minutes passed.
Seven.
Then the rear door opened.
Nora spun around.
Carlo stood there.
And beside him—
“Mia!”
The little girl launched herself into Nora’s arms.
Nora sobbed.
Mia buried her face against her shoulder.
“I knew you’d see my shoe.”
Nora laughed through tears.
“You’re grounded forever.”
Mia laughed too.
Then her face changed.
“Nora.”
“What?”
“There was a man there.”
“Vincent?”
Mia shook her head.
“He left before they came.”
Dominic appeared behind Carlo.
Mia looked at him nervously.
Dominic crouched despite the stiffness in his shoulder.
“What did the man say?”
Mia glanced at Nora.
Then answered.
“He said Mr. Vincent is scared because somebody else knows what happened the night you got shot.”
Dominic went still.
“Who?”
Mia reached inside her red backpack.
She pulled out a folded white restaurant napkin.
On it was one name written in blue ink.
FRANK BELLINI.
One of Dominic’s oldest captains.
May you like
One of the eleven men who had sat at his table the night before.
And the only one who had not looked surprised when Nora replaced the heavy fork.
