Chapter 4 - THE BAGGAGE CAROUSEL
"Terminal Three," Luca repeated, staring at the small yellow ticket in my trembling hand.
The coincidence was impossible.
Mia was at Terminal Three. My father had a baggage claim ticket for Terminal Three.
"Daniel is there right now with Mia," Luca said, pulling his phone from his pocket.
He dialed his head of security. The phone rang three times before Daniel answered, his voice breathless and tight with adrenaline.
"Boss, we have a situation," Daniel said over the loud background noise of airport announcements.
"Are you with Mia?" Luca demanded, walking rapidly toward the apartment window.
"I have her. She’s safe. But the terminal is crawling with men I don't recognize. At least six of them. They’re walking the concourse, checking faces. They’re armed."
"They’re Romanos," Luca said, his voice turning to ice. "They aren't looking for Mia. They’re looking for a sixty-eight-year-old man."
"We’re pinned down near Baggage Claim Carousel Four," Daniel reported. "I can't move her without walking right past them."
"Hold your position. I’m ten minutes away."
Luca hung up and looked at me. "Can you run?"
I touched my tightly bandaged ribs. "To save my dad? I can fly."
We scrambled down the fire escape and practically threw ourselves into the SUV.
Luca drove like a madman, weaving through the late-night Chicago traffic, blowing past red lights.
"Why would my dad go to the airport?" I asked, my mind racing. "He hasn't taken a flight in twenty years."
"He didn't go to fly," Luca said, his eyes glued to the road. "He went to retrieve a bag he checked into the long-term hold. The Romanos must have figured it out. That’s why they tore his apartment apart—they were looking for the claim ticket."
"But he left it hidden in his coat," I realized.
"Which means he went to the airport knowing he couldn't get the bag himself," Luca said grimly. "He went there to meet someone."
We skidded to a halt outside the departures curb at Terminal Three.
Luca didn't bother parking. He left the SUV idling by the curb, ignoring the shouts of the traffic warden.
He grabbed my arm to support my side, and we ran through the sliding glass doors into the massive, echoing terminal.
It was past eleven o'clock. The crowds were thin, mostly exhausted travelers waiting for delayed flights.
We rushed down the escalators toward the baggage claim level.
The massive carousels were mostly empty, slowly rotating with a few forgotten suitcases.
Luca scanned the massive room.
Standing near a set of dark, out-of-service vending machines were two men in heavy dark coats. They were scanning the crowd, their hands resting suspiciously inside their pockets.
Romanos.
Luca pulled me behind a thick concrete pillar.
"Daniel is at Carousel Four," Luca whispered. "That’s all the way at the end. We have to go around them."
We slipped through the shadows of the oversized baggage claim office, moving quietly until we reached the far end of the terminal.
Tucked behind a massive stack of delayed luggage, I saw a familiar face.
Daniel.
He had his gun drawn, held low against his leg.
Crouching behind him, looking terrified but remarkably composed, was Mia.
When she saw her father, a small sob escaped her lips.
Luca knelt down, pulling his daughter into a fierce, desperate hug.
"I’ve got you," Luca whispered into her hair. "You're safe."
Mia clung to him, burying her face in his shoulder.
"I’m sorry, Dad," she cried. "I’m so sorry I left."
"You have nothing to be sorry for," Luca said firmly, kissing her forehead.
He pulled back and looked at Daniel. "Any sign of Rachel’s father?"
"Nothing," Daniel said tightly. "But the Romano men are converging near the long-term luggage desk. I think they found out which bag he checked."
Mia wiped her eyes and looked at me.
"Rachel," she whispered.
She reached into her coat pocket.
"When Vanessa came into the guest room today to yell at me," Mia said, her voice shaking, "she was on her cell phone. She thought I was in the bathroom crying."
Mia opened her hand.
"She was yelling at someone. She said, 'If you don't find him, I’ll kill him myself. He has the only thing that can ruin me.'"
Mia held out her hand.
Resting in her palm was a heavy, braided leather bracelet with a small silver anchor charm.
"She dropped this on the floor when she pulled her phone out of her purse," Mia explained. "I picked it up after she left."
I stared at the leather bracelet.
My vision blurred with fresh tears.
I reached out and touched the silver anchor.
"It was my mother’s," I choked out. "She gave it to my dad before she died. He never takes it off."
Vanessa had already caught him. She had ripped it from his wrist.
"She took him," I sobbed, covering my mouth. "She has him."
Suddenly, a loud, metallic crash echoed through the baggage claim hall.
We all jumped.
Over near the long-term luggage desk, a heavy metal security gate had been violently slammed shut.
The two Romano men started sprinting toward the noise.
Luca stood up, his gun raised.
"Daniel, stay with Mia," Luca ordered.
He grabbed my shoulder. "Stay behind me."
We ran toward the luggage desk, keeping low behind the carousels.
When we rounded the corner, the Romano men were violently kicking the metal door of the baggage office.
But they weren't trying to get in.
They were trying to get to the man who had just locked them out.
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Standing on the other side of the reinforced glass window, bleeding from a deep cut above his eye, clutching a dusty black duffel bag to his chest, was my father.
"Dad!" I screamed.
