Chapter 3 - Four Minutes Too Late
Adrian reached Elena’s sedan four minutes after Marco's closest security unit.
Four minutes.
It felt like four years.
The sedan sat crooked beside an empty winter road.
One rear window was shattered.
The driver lay on the pavement, conscious but bleeding from the forehead.
The back seat was empty.
“Elena!”
Adrian ripped open the door.
Her purse was there.
Her phone was on the floor.
One ivory glove lay near the broken glass.
No Elena.
Marco approached carefully.
“We have tracks.”
“Where?”
“Toward the trees.”
Adrian ran.
Luca followed.
Snow covered the ground beneath the pines.
Footprints cut through it.
Two large sets.
One smaller.
Elena's.
Then blood.
Adrian stopped.
“Whose?”
Marco crouched.
“Unknown.”
Adrian continued.
Fifty yards.
Seventy.
Then they heard a sound.
A man groaning.
They found him beside a fallen tree.
One attacker.
Alive.
His nose was bleeding.
A broken branch lay nearby.
Marco almost smiled.
“Looks like Elena hit him.”
Adrian looked around.
“Where is she?”
The man laughed through bloody teeth.
Adrian grabbed his coat.
“Where is my wife?”
“You're late, Vale.”
Adrian's fist tightened.
Then he stopped.
Old Adrian would have beaten the answer out of him.
But Elena's voice echoed in his mind.
Stop ordering me.
Stop becoming the thing everyone fears.
He released the man.
“Marco.”
Marco restrained him.
Adrian noticed something in the snow.
A torn piece of ivory fabric.
Elena's coat.
Then footprints continued toward a service road.
Tire marks.
They had taken her.
Adrian stared at the tracks.
His phone rang.
Unknown number.
He answered.
A man's voice spoke.
“You finally understand what losing something feels like.”
“Who are you?”
“You know.”
“Rinaldi.”
A soft laugh.
“Very good.”
“Let Elena go.”
“Your wife is remarkably difficult.”
In the background, Adrian heard breathing.
Then Elena's voice.
“Don't give him anything.”
Relief nearly dropped Adrian to his knees.
“Elena.”
“I'm okay.”
A slap sounded.
Adrian's face became stone.
“If you touch her again—”
“What? You'll kill me?”
The man laughed.
“That threat worked better before you had something to lose.”
“What do you want?”
“A meeting.”
“Where?”
“You'll receive instructions.”
The call ended.
Adrian stood beside the road.
Luca approached.
“Was it him?”
“Rinaldi.”
“Impossible.”
“Apparently not.”
The Rinaldi family had once controlled the eastern docks.
Adrian's father had fought them.
Blood had followed.
Adrian had inherited the war at twenty-three and ended it by twenty-six.
Or so he believed.
Antonio Rinaldi's youngest son, Gabriel, had never been found.
He would now be thirty-nine.
“Why Elena?” Luca asked.
“Because she matters.”
“Why now?”
Adrian looked toward the road.
“Because of the baby.”
Hours later, instructions arrived.
Adrian was to come alone to an abandoned church outside the city.
No weapons.
No tracking.
Luca objected.
Adrian ignored him.
But Elena had known Adrian too long.
When Gabriel Rinaldi entered the room where she was being held, she studied him instead of begging.
He was well dressed.
Controlled.
A silver ring circled his finger.
Snake and cross.
“You're calmer than I expected,” Gabriel said.
“I've been married to Adrian for eight years.”
“Then you know what he is.”
“Yes.”
“Do you?”
Elena looked at him.
“You want me to hate my husband.”
Gabriel smiled.
“I don't need help with that.”
“I don't hate him.”
“You divorced him.”
“Those are different things.”
His smile disappeared.
Interesting.
Elena continued.
“You didn't kidnap me because you care about our marriage.”
“No.”
“You want Adrian angry.”
“Yes.”
“Angry people make mistakes.”
Gabriel studied her.
“You're smarter than Caterina said.”
Elena froze.
Gabriel realized immediately that he had said too much.
Caterina.
Adrian's mother.
“What did you say?”
“Nothing.”
“You said Caterina.”
Gabriel walked away.
Elena's heart began pounding.
His mistake had changed everything.
Hours later, Adrian entered the abandoned church.
Gabriel stood near the altar.
Elena sat twenty feet away.
Her hands were bound.
Adrian saw the torn coat.
The bruise on her cheek.
Something inside him almost snapped.
Elena saw it.
“Adrian.”
One word.
A warning.
Control yourself.
He did.
Gabriel smiled.
“Touching.”
“What do you want?”
“Your empire.”
“No.”
Elena stared at Adrian.
Gabriel laughed.
“That was fast.”
“Because you don't want my empire.”
Gabriel's smile faded.
“You want revenge.”
“Maybe.”
“You could have killed me years ago.”
“Yes.”
“You didn't.”
“No.”
“You waited until Elena became pregnant.”
Gabriel's eyes narrowed.
Adrian continued.
“Why?”
Silence.
Then Adrian understood.
“You needed an heir.”
Elena looked between them.
Gabriel's expression changed.
“An heir to what?”
Adrian stepped closer.
“My father's trust.”
Luca had discovered it hours earlier.
An old agreement.
Assets hidden after the original war.
Millions.
Possibly hundreds of millions.
The trust could only be transferred when Adrian produced a legal heir.
Elena's pregnancy activated it.
Gabriel wanted access.
But he needed Adrian alive.
For now.
Gabriel pulled a gun.
Elena stood suddenly.
“No!”
The distraction lasted one second.
Enough.
Adrian moved.
The gun fired into the ceiling.
Elena dropped.
Adrian slammed Gabriel against a pew.
Security rushed through side entrances.
Gabriel had underestimated Luca.
Within seconds, it was over.
Adrian ran to Elena.
He stopped before touching her.
“Can I?”
The question broke something inside her.
She nodded.
Adrian untied her hands.
“Are you hurt?”
“No.”
“The baby?”
“I think we're okay.”
His eyes closed briefly.
Then Elena whispered.
“Adrian.”
“Yes?”
“He knows your mother.”
Adrian stared at her.
“What?”
“He said her name.”
Before Elena could explain, Luca entered carrying Gabriel's phone.
His face was pale.
“Adrian.”
“What?”
“There are messages on this.”
“From who?”
Luca looked at Elena.
May you like
Then back at his brother.
“The number belongs to Mother.”
