Chapter 5 - The Hospital Bracelet
The silence in the alley was deafening, broken only by the relentless rain.
I couldn’t breathe. My mother was supposed to be safe. She was supposed to be on her way to Queens.
“You touch one hair on her head, Victoria, and I will burn your family to the ground,” Dominic’s voice wasn’t a threat; it was a demonic promise.
“Bring me the old man, Dominic,” Victoria sang into the phone. “You have twenty minutes.”
The line went dead.
My legs gave out. I collapsed against the brick wall, sliding down into the cold mud. “My mom. She has my mom.”
Dominic dropped to one knee in front of me. He grabbed my shoulders, his hands warm and steady despite the freezing rain.
“Rachel, look at me,” he commanded.
I forced my eyes up to his.
“I protect what is mine,” Dominic said fiercely. “You protected my grandfather tonight. That makes you under my protection. Victoria is not going to touch your mother.”
“How?” I sobbed. “She’s at the hospital. She has armed men!”
Dominic stood up, his eyes burning with a lethal focus. He turned to his grandfather. “Frank. The photograph of the Bellini car. Where is it?”
Frank swallowed hard, trembling. “She took it, Dominic. Victoria snatched it from my hands at the mansion.”
“She took the photo?” Dominic frowned, his tactical mind racing. “Then why is she demanding we bring it to her in exchange for Rachel’s mother?”
I froze.
“She doesn’t have it,” I realized, wiping the rain from my face. “If she had it, she would have destroyed it. She’s bluffing. She lost it during the commotion at the mansion.”
“Exactly,” Dominic smiled, a dark, terrifying grin. “She lost it. Which means it’s still at my house. And she’s desperate to get it back before I see it.”
Dominic grabbed a heavy iron crowbar resting near the dumpsters and smashed the window of a parked delivery van in the alley. He unlocked the door, hot-wired the ignition in under thirty seconds, and shoved the passenger door open.
“Get in,” Dominic ordered.
I helped Frank into the back of the van, then climbed into the passenger seat.
“We’re not going to the mansion,” Dominic said, throwing the van into drive and peeling out into the street. “We’re going to St. Jude’s.”
“But we don’t have the photo to trade!” I panicked.
“We don’t trade with terrorists, Rachel,” Dominic said coldly. “We eliminate them.”
The drive to the hospital was a blur of neon lights and screeching tires. Dominic drove like a madman, his jaw set in stone. I kept my hand in my pocket, gripping the silver watch containing Frank’s deadly secret. I had chosen to keep it hidden, but the weight of it was suffocating me.
We pulled into the emergency bay of St. Jude’s Hospital.
“Stay here with Frank,” Dominic ordered, pulling his handgun from his holster.
“No,” I said, unbuckling my seatbelt. “That’s my mother up there. I’m going with you.”
Dominic looked at me. He saw the sheer, unyielding desperation in my eyes. He didn’t argue.
“Stay behind me,” he said.
We left Frank locked in the back of the van and slipped through the loading dock doors of the hospital. We bypassed the main lobby, taking the service elevator to the fourth floor—the cardiac recovery wing.
The hallways were eerily quiet. Too quiet.
As we approached my mother’s room, Room 412, Dominic held up a hand, signaling me to stop.
Standing outside the door were two men in dark suits. Bellini hitmen.
Dominic didn’t hesitate. He stepped out from behind the corner, raised his weapon, and fired two silenced shots. Both men dropped to the linoleum floor without a sound.
I gasped, covering my mouth. I had never seen a man killed before. But Dominic moved with the cold precision of a predator protecting its pack.
He stepped over the bodies and kicked the door to Room 412 open.
I rushed in right behind him.
The room was empty.
The hospital bed was unmade. The IV stand was knocked over.
“Mom!” I screamed, running into the small bathroom. Empty.
Dominic checked the closet. Nothing.
“She’s gone,” I choked out, falling to my knees beside the bed. “Victoria took her.”
Dominic stood over the bed, his eyes scanning the room. “Look.”
He pointed to the floor near the window.
Resting on the white linoleum was a torn plastic hospital ID bracelet.
But it didn’t belong to my mother.
I picked it up, reading the printed name.
Patient: Leonardo Rossi.
My blood ran cold.
Leo Rossi was Dominic’s underboss. His second-in-command. The man Dominic trusted more than anyone else in the syndicate.
“Leo was here?” Dominic whispered, his face draining of color.
“Why would Leo’s bracelet be in my mother’s room?” I asked, trembling.
Dominic took the torn plastic band from my hands. His eyes darkened as he realized the horrifying truth.
“Because Victoria didn’t kidnap your mother, Rachel,” Dominic said, his voice laced with absolute betrayal. “Leo did. Leo is working with the Bellinis.”
Before the shock could fully register, the television mounted on the hospital wall suddenly flickered to life.
It wasn’t broadcasting the news. It was a live video feed.
On the screen was the grand foyer of Dominic’s mansion.
Standing in the center of the marble floor was Victoria, looking pristine in a new white dress. Beside her stood Leo Rossi, holding a gun to my mother’s head.
And tied to a chair in front of them was Marcus, Dominic’s head of security, bleeding heavily from his mouth.
Victoria stepped toward the camera, staring directly into the lens. She knew we were in the hospital room. She had led us there on purpose.
“Hello, Dominic,” Victoria smiled. “I hope you liked my little breadcrumb trail. Since you refuse to play by the rules, I’ve decided to change the game.”
She held up a small, crumpled piece of photo paper.
It was the photograph. The one proving her father killed Dominic’s parents.
“I found it,” Victoria laughed, tossing the photo into the fireplace behind her. We watched it burn to ashes in seconds.
Dominic gripped the edge of the hospital bed so hard the metal frame groaned.
“You have one hour, Dominic,” Victoria said, her smile vanishing into a look of pure malice. “Bring me your grandfather’s head in a box. Or I kill the maid’s mother, I kill your head of security, and I assume control of the Commission as your grieving widow.”
She leaned closer to the camera.
“And just to prove I’m serious…”
Victoria nodded to Leo.
Leo raised his gun and fired a single shot into Marcus’s chest.
Marcus slumped forward in the chair, dead.
I screamed, burying my face in Dominic’s chest.
Dominic didn’t flinch. He didn’t scream.
May you like
He stared at the screen as it went black, his eyes turning into endless, pitch-black voids of vengeance.
“Rachel,” Dominic whispered softly, resting his hand on the back of my head. “I’m going to need a new tie. Because I am going to paint my house in blood.”
