Chapter 5 - The Woman Who Came Back From the Dead
I demanded to go.
Adrian refused.
We argued for twenty minutes.
He finally slammed both hands on the table.
"No."
I slammed mine back.
"She's my best friend!"
"And Rizzo knows that."
"So we abandon her?"
"We don't abandon anyone."
"Then take me."
"That is exactly what he wants."
"I don't care."
"I do."
The room went quiet.
Adrian seemed to realize what he'd said.
So did I.
Vincent watched us from across the security room.
He cleared his throat.
"We can argue about feelings after nobody's kidnapped."
Adrian glared at him.
Vincent shrugged.
I nearly laughed despite everything.
Instead, we built a plan.
I would go to Pier Nineteen.
But not alone.
Adrian's men would position themselves around the waterfront.
Vincent would monitor cameras.
A tracking device would be sewn into my coat.
Adrian would remain within thirty seconds of me.
"You don't move unless I tell you," he said.
"You know I don't work for you."
"Tonight you do."
"Bossy."
"Alive."
At 11:58 p.m., I walked onto Pier Nineteen.
The same pier where my brother's final night had begun.
Wind came off the harbor.
Container cranes towered above the water.
A warehouse door stood open.
I entered.
Grace sat tied to a chair.
"Grace!"
"Sofia, don't—"
Marco stepped from behind a container.
Gun in hand.
Elena appeared beside him.
Alive.
She looked older than I remembered.
Thinner.
A scar ran from her temple into her hairline.
But it was her.
"Hello, Sofia."
My hands shook.
"You were dead."
"That was the idea."
"Did you kill Daniel?"
Pain flashed across her face.
"No."
"Then why are you with him?"
I gestured toward Marco.
Elena looked at him.
"I'm not."
Everything happened instantly.
She drove her elbow into Marco's throat.
His gun dropped.
Grace tipped her chair sideways.
I ran.
Gunshots exploded from outside.
Adrian's men entered.
Marco escaped through a side door.
Adrian reached me first.
He grabbed my shoulders.
"Are you hit?"
"No."
He checked anyway.
Then he saw Elena.
His entire body became still.
"You."
"Good to see you too."
"Where have you been?"
"Running."
"Why stage your death?"
"Because Rizzo wasn't the only person hunting me."
Vincent freed Grace.
I hugged her until she cried.
Then Elena handed Adrian a small metal key.
"Daniel gave me this before he died."
"What does it open?" I asked.
"A safe."
"Where?"
"Under DeLuca Shipping."
Adrian frowned.
"My building?"
Elena nodded.
"Your father built it."
Adrian's father had been dead seven years.
Elena continued.
"Daniel discovered your father had been working with Rizzo long before you inherited the organization."
Adrian's expression darkened.
"My father hated Rizzo."
"No. He hated sharing power with him."
She explained that Rizzo's weapons network started as a partnership.
Adrian's father financed it.
After his death, Rizzo continued using accounts hidden inside legitimate DeLuca companies.
Daniel found them.
"That debt was created to discredit him," Elena said. "When he refused to stop digging, they killed him."
"They?" I asked.
Elena looked at Adrian.
"Someone inside your organization helped."
Vincent stiffened.
"Who?"
"I don't know."
Adrian's gaze sharpened.
"Then how do you know?"
"Because the safe contains your father's original ledger."
We drove straight to DeLuca Shipping.
The key opened a concealed compartment beneath the old records room.
Inside was a steel safe.
Adrian entered the combination using his father's birthday.
The lock clicked.
Inside sat one ledger.
One pistol.
And an envelope.
FOR ADRIAN.
He opened it.
His father's handwriting.
Adrian,
If you're reading this, I failed to clean up what I created.
Anthony Rizzo knows too much.
Trust Vincent.
Protect the Bellini boy.
And if Daniel Bellini is dead, someone close to you betrayed us both.
Adrian stopped.
Vincent whispered, "Close to you."
The ledger contained years of transactions.
There were initials beside payments.
One appeared repeatedly.
M.V.
Marco Vieri.
Another:
T.D.
I looked at Adrian.
"Who is T.D.?"
His face went pale.
Vincent answered.
"Thomas DeLuca."
"Who?"
Adrian stared at the ledger.
"My uncle."
His father's younger brother.
I had never met him.
"Where is he?"
Vincent's silence frightened me.
Adrian said:
"He lives in this house."
I stopped breathing.
"The townhouse?"
"Guest wing."
"But I haven't seen him."
"He's been in Sicily."
"When does he return?"
The security alarm on Adrian's phone sounded.
Vincent checked the system.
His face changed.
"What?"
Vincent looked toward Adrian.
"Someone just entered your townhouse using a family access code."
Adrian grabbed his coat.
"Thomas?"
Vincent enlarged the camera feed.
A man crossed the foyer.
Silver hair.
Expensive coat.
He stopped beneath the camera.
Then looked directly into it.
May you like
He smiled.
And beside him stood Marco Vieri.
