Chapter 3 - THE BOARDING PASS
The tension in the room instantly turned lethal.
I didn't reach for the gun in my shoulder holster. Moving too quickly would give Silas an excuse to call in his own loyalists, men I currently couldn't separate from my own. I had to play the game he thought he was winning.
I smoothly picked up the silver bracelet and dropped it into my suit pocket.
“Just trash the maids left behind,” I lied, my voice steady, stripped of all the shock and rage boiling underneath. “What do you need, Silas?”
Silas kept his eyes on Clara for a fraction of a second too long before turning his warm, synthetic smile on me.
“Just finalizing the shipping manifest for the docks tonight,” Silas said, stepping further into the office. “We have three containers of unregulated pharmaceuticals moving out at midnight. I need your signature to bypass customs.”
“Leave the paperwork on the table. I’ll review it later,” I said coldly.
“Of course,” Silas nodded. He looked down at my mother, who was glaring at him with a hatred so pure it practically vibrated in the air. “You’re looking pale today, Eleanor. The nurses should really restrict your visitors. This girl is exhausting you.”
He didn't wait for a response. Silas turned on his heel and walked out, closing the heavy oak door behind him.
The moment the latch clicked, Clara collapsed against the wall, sliding down to the floor, her hands covering her face.
“It’s him,” Clara sobbed hysterically. “He took Leo. He knows who I am.”
“Quiet,” I ordered sharply. I moved to my desk, hitting the hidden switch under the lip of the wood to activate the audio jammers in the room. I could no longer trust my own walls.
I looked at my mother. “Silas knew about Thomas?”
“Silas didn't just know,” my mother rasped, gripping the armrests. “Silas convinced your father to give the order. Thomas was going to turn state's evidence before he left for California. He was going to expose Silas’s embezzlement. Your uncle used your father’s pride to eliminate the only threat to his wealth.”
I felt physically sick. The man who taught me how to shoot, the man who stood by me at my father’s funeral, was the architect of my family's destruction.
“Why didn't you tell me this when I took over?” I asked, the betrayal cutting deeper than any knife.
“Because you were young, Bennett. And angry,” my mother said softly. “You would have started a war you couldn't win. Silas controls half the capos. I needed to protect Thomas’s son. The only way to keep Leo safe was to let Silas think he had won.”
But Silas hadn't won. He had found out about the boy.
I walked over to Clara, kneeling in front of her. I reached out and gently pulled her hands away from her face. She was terrified, a mother who had just had her only child ripped away by a monster.
“I will get him back,” I promised her. It wasn't a comfort. It was a blood oath. “But you need to tell me everything you know. Right now.”
Clara sniffled, her brown eyes searching mine for any trace of the ruthless boss the world thought I was. She must have found the uncle instead, because she finally nodded.
“This morning, when I was cleaning your mother’s bathroom,” Clara whispered, reaching into her pocket. “I found something hidden beneath her spare oxygen masks. Someone had dropped it.”
She handed me a crumpled piece of thick, glossy paper.
I smoothed it out on my knee.
It was a boarding pass for a private charter flight out of O'Hare International Airport. The destination was a remote airstrip in Colombia, territory controlled by a cartel we did business with.
The passenger name was blank. But the date was today. The departure time was 11:00 PM.
“Silas isn't just taking Leo,” I realized, the horrifying truth settling over me. “He’s selling him. Or trading him as a hostage to ensure my compliance if I ever find out the truth.”
“He’s shipping my baby away tonight,” Clara cried, grabbing the lapels of my suit jacket. “Bennett, please. He’s only six years old. He’s terrified of the dark. You have to stop him.”
I looked at the clock on my wall. It was 4:00 PM. We had seven hours.
“I will burn the airport to the ground if I have to,” I said, standing up and pulling Clara to her feet. “But we have a bigger problem. If Silas is making his move tonight, it means he’s done waiting for my mother to die naturally.”
I turned to my mother. “You hold leverage over him, don't you? That’s why he hasn't killed you yet.”
My mother offered a weak, grim smile. “I have the original audio recordings of Silas manipulating your father into ordering the hit. If those tapes go to the commission, the other families will execute Silas for killing a made heir.”
“Where are the tapes?”
“In a safety deposit box at First National. The timer expires upon my death, releasing them to the lawyers,” my mother explained. “But if Silas has Leo, he will use the boy to force Clara to retrieve the tapes for him. Once he has them, we are all dead.”
I needed to move my mother to a secure location, rally the men I knew were strictly loyal to me, and intercept Silas at the airport.
But as I reached for my phone, the heavy wooden door to my office didn't open.
It was locked from the outside.
I grabbed the brass handle and pulled. It didn't budge. I drew my weapon, backing away.
Suddenly, a thick, acrid smoke began pouring through the air vents in the ceiling.
My mother began to cough violently, her weakened lungs unable to handle the sudden change in air quality. Clara screamed, covering her mouth with her apron.
May you like
Silas wasn't waiting for tonight. He was erasing us right now.
And as the smoke thickened, blinding me, I heard the unmistakable click of a heavy deadbolt sliding into place on the other side of the wall. We were trapped in my own sanctuary.
