Chapter 5 - THE MUDDY COAT
“What do you mean, empty?!”
Matteo’s voice shook the crystal chandelier above the dining table.
On the speakerphone, Marco sounded terrified.
“We stopped Sloane’s men on the interstate, boss. We pulled them out of the SUV. But when we opened the back door... there was nobody inside.”
Daniel Mercer threw Leo’s leg brace onto the table.
It landed next to the silver watch.
The metal joints clattered against the polished wood.
“He ran,” Daniel said.
I stared at the brace.
I knew exactly how hard it was for Leo to walk without it.
He dragged his left foot.
He got tired after ten minutes.
He was out there, somewhere in the dark, on an interstate, without his brace.
“Where did you find that?” I demanded, pointing at the brace.
Daniel looked at me.
His smugness was gone.
Now, he just looked tired.
“In the mud. Near a rest stop off Route 41. I was tracking Sloane’s hired thugs. By the time I caught up to the SUV, your men were already there. But I found this in the woods nearby.”
Matteo hung up the phone.
He turned to Sloane.
“Who did you hire?”
Sloane was thrashing against the guards holding her.
“Just men! Professionals!”
“Give me their names.”
“I don't know their names! I went through a broker!”
Matteo stepped so close to her that she stopped moving.
“My nephew is seven years old. He is lost in the woods at midnight in November. If he freezes to death tonight, Rebecca, I will bury you in that same forest.”
Sloane sobbed hysterically.
Rose DeLuca walked forward and picked up the small leg brace.
She held it gently in both hands.
“Matteo.”
“I’m sending everyone,” Matteo said to his security chief. “Every man we have. Search the woods off Route 41.”
I grabbed my jacket from the back of a chair.
“I’m going with you.”
Matteo looked at me.
“Emily, no. It’s too dangerous. We don't know who else is out there.”
“I don't care!” I shouted.
It was the first time I had ever raised my voice at him.
I didn't care about the mafia.
I didn't care about his rules.
“He won't come out for your men with guns! He’s terrified of strangers! He only trusts me!”
Matteo stared at me.
For a long moment, the ruthless boss disappeared, and I saw a man desperate to find the last piece of his dead brother.
He nodded once.
“You ride with me.”
He turned to the guards holding Sloane.
“Lock her in the wine cellar. Do not let her father near her.”
Daniel Mercer chuckled.
“I don't want her, DeLuca. I want the boy. He’s my grandson.”
“He is DeLuca blood,” Matteo said coldly. “You touch him, you lose the hand.”
Ten minutes later, we were in the back of a bulletproof SUV tearing down the highway.
The rain had started.
Cold, freezing November rain.
I stared out the window into the pitch black.
My hands were shaking so hard I couldn't clasp them together.
Matteo reached over and placed his warm, large hand over mine.
“We will find him, Emily.”
I looked at him.
“He’s afraid of the dark, Matteo. He hides when he’s scared.”
“Where does he hide?”
“Small places. Closets. Under beds. Anywhere he feels enclosed.”
Matteo pulled out his radio.
“Tell the men to check drainage pipes. Under overpasses. Abandoned cars.”
We arrived at the rest stop off Route 41 twenty minutes later.
The flashing lights of three black SUVs illuminated the heavy rain.
Matteo’s men were fanning out into the dense forest with heavy flashlights.
I jumped out of the car before it even fully stopped.
The cold hit me like a wall.
“Leo!” I screamed.
The wind swallowed my voice.
Matteo was right beside me, holding a massive flashlight.
“Emily, stay behind me.”
We pushed into the woods.
The mud was thick and slippery.
Every shadow looked like a child.
Every broken branch sounded like a footstep.
“Leo! It’s Em! Please, buddy, answer me!”
We searched for an hour.
Nothing.
My clothes were soaked.
My throat was raw from screaming.
I tripped over an exposed root and fell hard into the mud.
Matteo caught my arm, pulling me up effortlessly.
“You're shivering,” he said, pulling off his heavy wool coat.
“No, I'm fine—”
He wrapped the coat around my shoulders.
It smelled like expensive cologne and rain.
“We aren't stopping until we find him,” Matteo promised.
Then, one of the guards shouted from fifty yards away.
“Boss! Over here!”
Matteo drew his gun instantly.
He pushed me behind him and ran toward the voice.
We burst through a thicket of thorn bushes.
The guard was shining his light at the base of a massive, hollowed-out oak tree.
There was something huddled inside it.
A small bundle of clothes.
My heart stopped.
I pushed past Matteo and dropped to my knees in the mud.
“Leo!”
I reached into the hollow tree and pulled the bundle out.
It wasn't Leo.
It was a muddy, soaking wet child’s jacket.
Blue with yellow stripes.
The jacket I had bought him for his birthday.
I clutched the wet fabric to my chest and sobbed.
He had taken it off because it was soaked.
Which meant he was out here in just a t-shirt in freezing rain.
Matteo knelt beside me.
He took the jacket from my hands.
He shined his flashlight into the pockets.
He pulled something out.
A small, heavy object.
He wiped the mud off it with his thumb.
I gasped.
It was a solid gold money clip.
Engraved with the initials D.M.
Daniel Mercer.
Matteo stood up slowly.
His eyes were lethal in the flashlight beam.
“Daniel was here.”
May you like
He looked at me.
“He didn't find the brace after Leo ran. He chased him.”
