Chapter 5 - The Boy They Took Twice
Bianca screamed Elena’s name.
Dante caught his mother before her head struck the floor.
Chaos exploded around them.
Guests ran.
Security surged toward the balcony.
Bellini disappeared into the crowd.
Dante pressed his hand against Elena’s shoulder.
Blood seeped between his fingers.
“Ambulance!”
Bianca knelt opposite him.
Elena opened her eyes.
“Leo.”
Dante leaned closer.
“What?”
“Get Leo.”
Dante’s phone rang.
Marco.
He answered.
“Boss.”
The fear in Marco’s voice was worse than the gunshot.
“Leo’s gone.”
Dante stopped.
“What?”
“The east security team was hit. No bodies. Sedative darts. Whoever came knew the house.”
Bianca stared.
“No.”
Marco continued.
“They took him less than ten minutes ago.”
Dante looked toward the ballroom exits.
Bellini.
He had planned everything.
Elena grabbed Dante’s sleeve.
“Not Bellini.”
Dante looked down.
“What?”
Her breathing was shallow.
“Not alone.”
Paramedics arrived.
Bianca watched them lift Elena onto a stretcher.
Dante stood in the middle of the chaos.
The old Dante would have ordered blood.
The old Dante would have chosen rage.
Bianca stepped in front of him.
“Look at me.”
He didn’t.
She touched his face.
“Dante.”
His eyes found hers.
“Leo needs you thinking.”
That reached him.
He closed his eyes once.
Then turned to Marco on speaker.
“Lock down every Bellini property.”
“Already started.”
“Check traffic cameras.”
“Yes.”
“Airports.”
“Yes.”
“Train stations.”
“Yes.”
Dante looked at Bianca.
“His tablet.”
“What?”
“Leo’s tablet has location services.”
Bianca shook her head.
“It stays in his room.”
“His bear?”
She froze.
“What about it?”
“You added something after he wandered into the garden.”
Bianca remembered.
A child locator.
Tiny.
Hidden inside the stuffed bear.
Her hands shook as she opened the tracking app.
A blue dot appeared.
Moving west.
“Oh my God.”
Dante looked.
“Where?”
“Eisenhower Expressway.”
Marco heard.
“I’m sending teams.”
Dante grabbed Bianca’s shoulders.
“You stay with my mother.”
“No.”
“Bianca.”
“I’m the reason he has the bear.”
“And you’re injured.”
“I’m going.”
Dante knew arguing wasted time.
They left together.
Three SUVs pursued the tracker through Chicago.
The blue dot continued west.
Then suddenly turned south.
“Why are they leaving the highway?” Bianca asked.
Dante looked at the map.
“Industrial district.”
Marco’s voice came through the radio.
“We have two vehicles ahead.”
Dante’s pulse hammered.
“Don’t engage until we see Leo.”
The tracker stopped near an abandoned printing warehouse.
The convoy halted two blocks away.
Dante prepared to exit.
Bianca grabbed his arm.
“You promised thinking.”
“I am thinking.”
“You’re holding a gun.”
He looked down.
She had a point.
Dante handed it to Marco.
“You stay behind me.”
Bianca nodded.
They entered through the loading dock.
The warehouse smelled of dust and oil.
A stuffed bear lay under a chair.
Bianca ran toward it.
“Leo!”
No answer.
She picked up the bear.
The tracker had been removed.
A phone rang nearby.
Dante saw it on a crate.
He answered.
Bellini.
“Getting tired?”
“Where is he?”
“I told you, Costa. You don’t give orders tonight.”
Dante controlled his breathing.
“If you want me, you have me.”
Bellini laughed.
“This isn’t about you.”
“Then who?”
Silence.
Then another voice came on the line.
Male.
Older.
Dante recognized it.
His face changed.
Bianca whispered.
“Who?”
The man spoke.
“You always were slow, Dante.”
Dante stared into the darkness.
“Uncle Vittorio.”
Bianca had heard the name.
Vittorio Costa.
Dante’s father’s younger brother.
Officially retired in Naples.
A man who had helped raise Dante after his father died.
Dante’s voice dropped.
“What are you doing?”
“Correcting your sister’s mistake.”
“Where is Leo?”
“With family.”
“He is family.”
“That depends which family wins.”
The line ended.
Dante stood perfectly still.
Marco cursed.
“Vittorio?”
Dante nodded.
Bianca’s thoughts raced.
“Why would your uncle work with Bellini?”
Dante stared at the phone.
“Because Bellini isn’t the one trying to control Leo.”
“Then who is?”
“My uncle.”
They returned to the hospital.
Elena survived surgery.
Barely.
When she woke, Dante sat beside her.
Bianca remained near the door.
Elena looked at him.
“You know about Vittorio.”
“Yes.”
“I tried to stop him.”
“Why did you disappear?”
“To protect Leo.”
Dante’s face twisted.
“You let me think you were dead.”
“I had to make Vittorio think the same.”
“No. You chose to.”
Elena closed her eyes.
“You sound like Bianca.”
Dante almost laughed.
Almost.
“Tell me everything.”
Elena did.
Years earlier, Vittorio had discovered Sofia’s relationship with Rafael Bellini.
When Sofia became pregnant, Vittorio saw opportunity.
A child joining Costa and Bellini blood could one day unite both organizations.
Sofia saw a nightmare.
She fled.
Michael Moretti helped her.
He claimed Leo as his son.
They falsified the birth date.
They married.
Then Michael gathered evidence proving Vittorio and Bellini had quietly cooperated in laundering money.
“Sofia wanted to expose them,” Elena whispered.
“What happened?”
“Vittorio ordered Michael killed.”
Dante stopped breathing.
“And Sofia?”
Elena’s eyes filled.
“She was supposed to survive the crash.”
Bianca covered her mouth.
Dante stood.
He walked to the window.
“My uncle killed my sister.”
“Yes.”
“And you knew.”
“Not until later.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Because you would have killed him.”
“Yes.”
“And been killed next.”
Dante turned.
“You should have trusted me.”
Elena looked toward Bianca.
“Yes.”
One word.
A lifetime inside it.
Dante understood.
The Costa family had spent generations confusing secrecy with protection.
He had repeated the same mistake with Bianca.
And nearly lost her.
A nurse entered carrying an envelope.
“This was left for Mr. Costa.”
Dante opened it.
Inside was a photograph.
Leo sat in a chair.
Alive.
Holding Bianca’s stuffed bear.
Behind him was a clock.
11:42.
Recent.
Bianca exhaled.
On the back, an address was written.
And one sentence.
BRING BIANCA FERRARO ALONE.
Dante tore the photograph in half.
“No.”
Bianca took it.
“Yes.”
“Absolutely not.”
“They asked for me.”
“That is precisely why you are not going.”
“What if it’s the only way to get Leo?”
“I’ll find another.”
“When?”
He said nothing.
Bianca stepped closer.
“You called me family in front of Chicago.”
“I meant it.”
“Then stop treating me like a possession you lock away.”
Dante recoiled.
She softened.
“I’m scared too.”
He looked at her.
“I cannot lose you both.”
“Then don’t.”
Her hand found his.
“Trust me.”
Dante stared at their joined hands.
Trust.
The thing his family never gave each other.
The thing he had denied Bianca.
Slowly, painfully, he nodded.
But when Bianca looked again at the address on the photograph, she recognized the street.
Her face went white.
Dante noticed.
“What?”
Bianca looked at him.
“That’s my father’s old house.”
Dante stared.
Bianca had told him her father died when she was seventeen.
She turned the photograph over again.
May you like
Below the address, in tiny handwriting neither of them had noticed before, were four words:
YOUR FATHER IS WAITING.
