Chapter 3 - The Missing Ribbon
Luca reached the side door before anyone else.
“Emma!”
No answer.
Elena screamed her daughter’s name.
Marco rushed into the corridor.
Carlo hit the security alarm, sealing exterior exits without broadcasting the reason to the dons downstairs.
Luca picked up the pink ribbon.
It was Emma’s.
The knot was still tied.
“Elena.”
She stared at it.
Her face collapsed.
“She wouldn't take that out.”
“I know.”
“You said she was safe.”
Luca felt the accusation.
Accepted it.
Then buried the guilt beneath action.
“Carlo, cameras.”
“Already pulling them.”
“Marco, stairwells.”
Marco moved.
“Elena stays with me.”
“I’m looking for my daughter.”
“So am I.”
“Then move.”
It was the first command Elena Bellini had ever given Luca Romano.
He obeyed.
The building had twenty-nine floors controlled by Luca’s organization.
Only the top four belonged exclusively to his private operations.
Every elevator required coded access.
Every stairwell had cameras.
Every service corridor had staff checkpoints.
A child could not simply disappear.
Which meant someone inside had helped.
Carlo’s voice came through Luca’s earpiece.
“Found movement.”
“Where?”
“Service corridor twenty-seven.”
Luca and Elena ran.
Carlo continued.
“Camera shows Emma walking alone.”
“Alone?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“She's following someone out of frame.”
Luca’s stomach tightened.
“Show me.”
They reached the security station.
The footage displayed Emma stepping through a service door.
She looked frightened but not physically forced.
Then she disappeared around a corner.
Carlo changed cameras.
Nothing.
“Blind spot,” he said.
“In my building?”
“It shouldn't exist.”
“Fix that sentence.”
Carlo’s jaw tightened.
“Someone disabled two cameras.”
Marco arrived.
“Stairwell clear.”
Luca looked at the map.
“Where does that corridor lead?”
“Laundry storage, utility access, old freight lift.”
Elena whispered, “The kitchen hallway.”
Luca turned.
“What?”
“The same hallway Emma mentioned.”
They ran.
The old freight lift had supposedly been decommissioned three years earlier.
Carlo pulled open the outer gate.
The elevator was gone.
Marco stared into the shaft.
“Somebody reactivated it.”
Luca looked at the floor indicator.
Twenty-two.
Descending.
“Can we stop it?”
Carlo hit the emergency control.
Nothing.
“Override has been cut.”
Elena grabbed Luca’s arm again.
“My daughter is in there.”
“We don't know that.”
“Yes, we do.”
The indicator reached eighteen.
Then seventeen.
Luca turned to Marco.
“Get men to the basement.”
Marco left.
Luca took the stairs.
Elena followed.
He did not tell her to stay behind.
By the time they reached the basement, the freight elevator stood open.
Empty.
A paper drawing lay on the metal floor.
Elena rushed forward.
“Emma made this.”
The picture showed three stick figures.
A woman.
A little girl.
And a tall man in a dark suit.
Above the man Emma had drawn a crown.
Luca stared at it.
“Why does she draw me?”
Elena looked away.
“Because she likes you.”
“That isn't all.”
“Not now.”
Carlo found another item near the loading door.
A phone.
Disposable.
It rang.
Luca answered.
The same distorted male voice.
“You should have canceled the meeting.”
“Where is she?”
“Your alliance ends today.”
“You took a child.”
“You've taken more.”
“Where is Emma?”
“You have twenty minutes.”
“For what?”
“Send the five dons away.”
“And Emma?”
“She goes home.”
Luca’s voice dropped.
“If a hair on that child—”
“You don't get to threaten me, Romano.”
The call ended.
Marco appeared from the loading bay.
“Tire tracks. Vehicle left five minutes ago.”
“Plate?”
“Obscured.”
Luca looked toward Carlo.
“Trace traffic cameras.”
“Already working.”
Elena stood motionless.
Then she said, “Give them what they want.”
Luca turned.
“Send the dons away.”
“If I do that, whoever is behind this knows they can use Emma again.”
“I don't care.”
“I do.”
“She’s my child!”
“And that's exactly why this cannot end with one payment.”
Elena stared at him.
“Payment?”
“Compliance. Fear. Whatever word you prefer.”
“I prefer my daughter alive.”
“So do I.”
“Then prove it.”
The words hit him.
Luca walked closer.
“I will.”
“How?”
“By finding her before they decide I won't obey.”
“And if you can't?”
He looked directly into her eyes.
“Then I send every don home.”
Elena studied him.
“You’d destroy seven years of negotiations?”
“For Emma?”
He paused.
“Yes.”
Elena’s expression softened despite herself.
Marco looked away.
They returned upstairs.
The five dons were furious.
Marchetti stood in the library.
“We've waited long enough.”
Luca closed the door.
“I have a security situation.”
Falcone rose.
“Meaning?”
“Meaning you leave now.”
Five men reacted at once.
Russo swore.
Santoro demanded explanation.
Deluca accused Luca of wasting their time.
Only Marchetti remained quiet.
Then he said, “Someone threatened the meeting.”
Luca looked at him.
Marchetti knew.
“How?”
“Because I was young once.”
Luca said nothing.
Marchetti continued.
“If you wanted us dead, you'd keep us here. If you're sending us away, you think someone else wants us dead.”
The room fell silent.
Luca nodded.
“Correct.”
Falcone pushed back his chair.
“Who?”
“I don't know.”
“Caruso?”
Luca noticed how quickly the name emerged.
“Why Caruso?”
Falcone looked around the table.
Nobody volunteered an answer.
Finally Marchetti spoke.
“Vittorio has opposed this alliance privately for months.”
Luca’s eyes narrowed.
“He supported it publicly.”
“Vittorio supports whatever keeps him invited to dinner.”
Santoro added, “He loses money if our disputes end.”
“How?”
“Shipping.”
Falcone explained.
“Conflict forces each family to use separate routes. Caruso profits from all of them.”
Luca understood instantly.
Peace consolidated contracts.
Consolidation reduced Caruso’s leverage.
“And Sofia?”
Nobody answered.
Marchetti sighed.
“You’re marrying his daughter, Luca.”
“You think she knows?”
“I think people raised inside families like ours know more than they admit.”
Luca's phone vibrated.
Carlo.
FOUND THE VEHICLE.
Luca stepped away.
“Where?”
“Abandoned near Pier 41.”
“Emma?”
“Not there.”
“Anything else?”
“A second vehicle left the area three minutes later.”
“Direction?”
“North.”
“How far?”
“Working on it.”
Luca turned back toward the dons.
“Meeting adjourned.”
Marchetti shook his head.
“No.”
Luca stared at him.
Marchetti buttoned his coat.
“If someone wanted five dons dead, this isn't your problem alone.”
Falcone nodded reluctantly.
Russo followed.
Santoro cursed, but stayed.
Deluca closed his folder.
Marchetti asked, “Who did they take?”
Luca hesitated.
“A six-year-old girl.”
Something changed in the room.
Men who had lived brutal lives still understood certain boundaries.
Marchetti’s face became cold.
“Whose?”
“My maid’s daughter.”
“Why?”
“I intend to find out.”
Marchetti picked up his phone.
“You'll have five families looking.”
Luca had expected suspicion.
Not assistance.
Within ten minutes, traffic contacts from New Jersey to Connecticut were searching anonymously for the vehicle.
Elena sat outside the security room.
Luca joined her.
She stared at Emma's drawing.
“The crown,” he said.
“What?”
“Why did Emma draw a crown over me?”
Elena gave a tired smile.
“She thinks you're a king.”
“I’m not.”
“I know.”
“What did you tell her?”
“Nothing.”
“Then why?”
Elena looked down.
“Because one night she asked why everyone gets quiet when you walk into a room.”
“And?”
“I told her powerful men sometimes carry invisible crowns.”
Luca almost smiled.
“She believed you.”
“She believes everything.”
Silence.
Then Luca asked, “Who is Emma’s father?”
Elena stiffened.
He had wondered for years.
Elena never mentioned a husband.
Emma carried Bellini, Elena’s surname.
“She doesn't have one,” Elena said.
“Everyone has one.”
“Not everyone has one worth naming.”
Luca did not press.
Carlo opened the security room.
“We found the second vehicle.”
They rushed inside.
A camera image showed a black SUV entering an underground parking garage belonging to a Caruso-controlled hotel.
Marco swore.
“That's Vittorio’s property.”
Luca stared at the screen.
“Call him.”
Marco did.
No answer.
Again.
No answer.
Then Luca’s phone rang.
This time it was Sofia.
“Luca.”
Her voice sounded breathless.
“Where are you?”
“You need to listen to me.”
“Where is Emma?”
A pause.
“So they took her.”
Luca's eyes hardened.
“You knew?”
“I knew something was happening.”
“What?”
“My father has been meeting with people I don't recognize.”
“Where are you?”
“I left because I realized someone had put something in Elena’s purse.”
“You had her purse.”
“I was bringing it to you.”
“Why not tell me?”
“Because I didn't know who I could trust.”
“You could trust me.”
“No, Luca. That's what you don't understand.”
“What don't I understand?”
“My father isn't the person giving orders.”
Luca’s attention sharpened.
“Who is?”
Sofia breathed into the phone.
“I think it's someone inside your family.”
Marco looked at Luca.
“Name.”
“I don't have one.”
“Then give me something.”
“There’s a room beneath the Caruso Grand Hotel. Old wine storage. My father uses it when he wants no cameras.”
“Is Emma there?”
“I don't know.”
Luca was already moving.
“Luca.”
He stopped.
“What?”
“If you go there openly, they’ll move her.”
“So?”
“Use the service tunnel.”
He paused.
“What service tunnel?”
Sofia whispered, “The one your father built with mine twenty-five years ago.”
Luca went cold.
He had never heard of it.
“Why are you helping me?”
Sofia didn't answer immediately.
Then she said, “Because your maid knows why your mother really died.”
The call ended.
Luca looked at Elena.
She had heard.
Her face told him Sofia was telling the truth.
“Elena.”
“Get Emma first.”
“Did Vittorio kill my mother?”
“Get my daughter.”
Luca stepped closer.
“Did he?”
Elena’s eyes filled with tears.
“No.”
Luca stopped breathing.
“Then who?”
Before Elena could answer, Carlo spoke from the computer.
“I've got movement at the hotel.”
The underground camera showed the service door opening.
A small figure appeared between two adults.
Emma.
Alive.
Elena gasped.
Then another person entered the frame.
Luca leaned toward the monitor.
The man turned his face toward the camera.
Marco whispered, “No.”
Luca said nothing.
He knew that face.
It belonged to the man who had taught him to fire his first pistol.
The man who had stood beside Luca’s father at his mother’s funeral.
The man Luca had called Uncle for thirty years.
May you like
Marco DeSantis stared at the screen.
Because the man holding Emma’s hand was Marco’s older brother.
