Chapter 7 - THE FREIGHT TERMINAL
Dominic hated my plan.
That made two of us.
At 11:55 p.m., I walked into the abandoned Hudson freight terminal alone.
At least, Salvatore believed I was alone.
The microSD card hung on a chain beneath my blouse.
A transmitter was hidden in my coat button.
Matteo’s team waited outside the perimeter.
Federal agents waited farther back.
Dominic was supposed to remain in the command vehicle.
I knew better.
Men like Dominic Moretti did not sit safely in vehicles while other people walked into danger for their families.
The terminal smelled like rust, river water, and old diesel.
One light burned near the center.
Salvatore stood beneath it.
Dr. Harris was tied to a chair beside him.
Alive.
Barely.
His face was bruised.
His white shirt was covered in blood.
“I’m sorry,” he whispered when he saw me.
Salvatore struck him across the mouth.
“Quiet.”
I stopped fifteen feet away.
“Why keep him alive?”
“Because doctors are useful.”
Salvatore smiled.
“You came.”
“You threatened my daughter.”
“An effective motivation.”
I wanted to hit him.
Instead I said, “What’s on the card?”
His smile faded.
“Give it to me.”
“Tell me first.”
“You’re surprisingly demanding for a housekeeper.”
I stared at him.
“You’re surprisingly talkative for a man surrounded by federal agents.”
His face changed.
Only slightly.
He looked toward the darkness.
I smiled.
“Relax. If they were close enough to arrest you, you’d already be on the floor.”
Technically true.
He studied me.
“You’ve been around Dominic too long.”
“Six years.”
“Long enough to become loyal.”
“To Ethan.”
“And Dominic?”
The question felt deliberate.
I ignored it.
“What’s on the card?”
Salvatore sighed.
“Bank records.”
“Of your stolen money?”
“Of everyone’s.”
He spread his hands.
“The Moretti empire was never clean.”
“I know.”
“Dominic likes pretending his legitimate companies make him different from his father.”
“Maybe he is different.”
Salvatore laughed.
“No Moretti is different.”
That sounded like a belief he needed to justify himself.
“What did Isabella discover?”
“She discovered I was planning for the future.”
“By stealing ninety million dollars?”
“By protecting what belonged to me.”
“Ethan’s shares never belonged to you.”
“They would have.”
“If he died.”
“Yes.”
The word came casually.
My stomach turned.
“You ordered the cake poisoned.”
“Yes.”
“Dr. Harris?”
Salvatore looked at him.
“Had debts.”
Harris lowered his head.
“I never wanted Ethan dead.”
Salvatore laughed.
“You replaced the medication.”
“You threatened my daughters.”
So that was it.
Not gambling.
Blackmail.
“You lied about the debt,” I said.
Harris looked at me.
“I’m sorry.”
Salvatore’s smile disappeared.
“Everybody has a price.”
“No.”
I thought of Lily smashing the cake.
“Some people simply have something they love more than they fear you.”
That irritated him.
Good.
I needed him talking.
“Why frame yourself?” I asked.
“The ring. The silver box. The override.”
Salvatore smiled again.
“I didn’t.”
That answer chilled me.
“What?”
“I ordered Carlo to use Matteo’s credentials.”
“Carlo?”
“The man Lily saw.”
“Who is he?”
Salvatore nodded toward the darkness.
A man stepped forward.
Gray suit.
Black hair.
Heavy build.
Lily had been right.
On his hand was a Moretti crest ring.
Not Salvatore’s.
A duplicate.
Then Carlo turned his face toward me.
I knew him.
Daniel Russo.
The estate manager.
The man who had worked for the Morettis nineteen years.
My boss in the household hierarchy.
The man who approved my hiring six years earlier.
My stomach dropped.
“You.”
Daniel smiled.
“Hello, Elena.”
“You were in the cold room.”
“Yes.”
“You went into Lily’s bedroom.”
His smile widened.
“She saw me.”
Something inside me went feral.
“You touched her things?”
“I needed to know what she remembered.”
I moved before thinking.
Salvatore raised his gun.
“Careful.”
I stopped.
Daniel continued.
“Salvatore wanted suspicion pointed toward him temporarily.”
I frowned.
“Why?”
Salvatore answered.
“Because Dominic becomes predictable when angry.”
“You wanted him to kill you?”
“No.”
He smiled.
“I wanted him to try.”
Then I understood.
“If Dominic killed you without proof…”
“The captains would question his judgment.”
“Your allies would remove him.”
“And Ethan would be without his father.”
My blood froze.
Then Salvatore would control the succession and the boy.
Unless Ethan died later.
“You planned both.”
“Eventually.”
A voice came from the darkness.
“You always did talk too much.”
Dominic.
Salvatore spun.
Dominic stepped from behind a shipping container, gun raised.
I wanted to scream at him for being there.
I also nearly cried with relief.
“You were told to stay home,” Salvatore said.
Dominic smiled coldly.
“I’ve always struggled with authority.”
Daniel raised his weapon.
Matteo appeared behind him.
“Drop it.”
Suddenly everyone moved.
Federal floodlights exploded through the windows.
Agents shouted.
Daniel fired.
Matteo shot him in the shoulder.
Salvatore grabbed me.
His arm locked around my throat.
Gun pressed against my ribs.
Dominic froze.
“Put it down.”
Salvatore dragged me backward.
“Gun down, Dominic.”
Dominic looked at me.
I shook my head.
Do not.
He lowered the gun anyway.
Of course he did.
Salvatore smiled.
“You see?”
He whispered near my ear.
“He has something to lose now.”
Dominic’s eyes never left mine.
“You’re right.”
Then he dropped his weapon completely.
Salvatore relaxed.
That was his mistake.
I drove my heel backward into his knee.
He cursed.
I twisted.
Years of moving furniture, carrying laundry crates, and raising a toddler had given me more strength than he expected.
The gun fired.
Pain exploded near my ear.
Dominic crossed the distance between us.
He hit Salvatore once.
Then again.
Then kept going.
“Dominic!”
He didn’t hear me.
Salvatore was on the floor.
Dominic’s fist rose again.
I grabbed his wrist.
“Stop.”
He looked at me.
I had never seen his eyes like that.
Not anger.
Grief.
Isabella.
Ethan.
Four stolen years.
His son almost dead.
His family shattered.
“Stop,” I said again.
“If you kill him, he gets exactly what he wanted.”
Dominic breathed hard.
Then slowly lowered his fist.
Federal agents pulled Salvatore away.
Daniel Russo was arrested.
Dr. Harris was freed.
Matteo recovered the card.
It contained everything Isabella promised.
Accounts.
Names.
Payments.
Proof Salvatore engineered her crash.
Proof he controlled the clinic where she had been imprisoned.
Proof of the plot against Ethan.
Enough evidence to put him away for the rest of his life.
Outside, dawn began to color the Hudson.
Dominic stood beside me.
Neither of us spoke.
Then he said, “You could have died.”
“So could you.”
“I’m serious.”
“So am I.”
He turned.
“Elena.”
“What?”
His voice changed.
“I don’t know how to do this.”
“Do what?”
“Have people I can’t afford to lose.”
My heart stopped.
Before I could answer, my phone rang.
Matteo.
I answered.
His voice sounded strange.
“Elena.”
“What happened?”
“Lily woke up.”
“That’s good.”
“No.”
Silence.
“She’s crying.”
My stomach dropped.
“Why?”
May you like
Matteo took a breath.
“She says Ethan is gone.”
