Chapter 2 - Four Cars at the Door
Alessandra went white.
Massimo saw it.
“You know that voice.”
“Yes.”
“Who?”
She tightened her arms around Leo.
“Vanessa.”
Massimo drew his gun.
The service corridor went silent.
The woman outside knocked again.
“Alessandra.”
Massimo motioned his men into position.
“Don’t shoot,” Alessandra whispered.
He looked at her.
“Why?”
“Because Vanessa Serrano doesn’t walk into places herself. She sends people.”
Another knock.
“Then who is outside?”
“That’s what scares me.”
Massimo signaled Marco.
Marco checked the security feed on his phone.
His face tightened.
“Boss.”
He turned the screen.
The corridor camera showed a woman in a black coat.
Alessandra recognized her.
“Rachel.”
“Who is Rachel?” Massimo asked.
“My supervisor.”
The woman outside spoke again.
“Vanessa knows you copied the ledger.”
Massimo’s gaze snapped toward Alessandra.
Ledger.
That word mattered.
She saw immediately that it mattered.
“What ledger?” he asked.
“Later.”
“No. Now.”
Gunfire erupted again in the lounge.
Massimo’s jaw flexed.
Rachel shouted through the door.
“They’re going to kill me too!”
Alessandra stepped forward.
Massimo blocked her.
“She could be bait.”
“She has two daughters.”
“So?”
“So she helped me.”
“Did she?”
Alessandra stopped.
That question hurt because she didn’t know.
Twenty-four hours earlier she would have trusted Rachel with Leo.
Now she trusted nobody.
Except perhaps the man holding a gun beside her.
Which was insane.
Massimo leaned toward the door.
“Rachel.”
Silence.
“You have ten seconds to tell me something only Alessandra would know.”
“Who are you?”
“Nine.”
Rachel panicked.
“Her son hates bananas unless they’re sliced into pancakes.”
Leo lifted his head.
“I like bananas.”
Alessandra almost cried.
“That’s her.”
Massimo unlocked the door.
Marco pulled Rachel inside.
She was bleeding from her shoulder.
Alessandra caught her.
“Oh my God.”
“They found me at Penn Station.”
Rachel gasped.
“Vanessa has everyone looking.”
Massimo shut the door.
“Why?”
Rachel looked at Alessandra.
“Because she didn’t just find missing money.”
Alessandra froze.
Rachel continued.
“She found where it went.”
Massimo’s eyes darkened.
“Tell me.”
Rachel looked at him.
Recognition hit.
“Massimo Costa.”
“Apparently everyone knows me tonight.”
Rachel swallowed.
“Vantage has been moving money through port construction contracts. Fifty million this year. Maybe hundreds of millions over the last decade.”
Massimo said nothing.
Alessandra saw something dangerous building behind his eyes.
Rachel continued.
“The ledger connects the payments to judges, customs officials, union officers, police—”
“And Costa businesses,” Alessandra finished.
Rachel stared at her.
Massimo became very still.
Alessandra met his gaze.
“That’s why I knew your name.”
“Were my companies receiving the money?”
“No.”
“Then what?”
“Your companies were being charged.”
Massimo frowned.
Alessandra reached into her purse.
She removed the flash drive.
“Someone has been stealing from you too.”
The words landed harder than gunfire.
Massimo held out his hand.
Alessandra didn’t give him the drive.
“Promise first.”
“What?”
“That Leo stays safe.”
“You’re bargaining with information I may already own.”
“No. I’m bargaining with information people are killing for.”
Massimo stared at her.
Then at Leo.
The dinosaur bandage remained across his knuckle.
“Your son stays under my protection.”
“And me?”
His eyes returned to hers.
“If I protect the boy, his mother comes with him.”
“That isn’t an answer.”
“It is mine.”
She handed him the drive.
Massimo closed his fingers around it.
“Move.”
They escaped through a maintenance tunnel beneath the building.
A black SUV waited two blocks away.
Massimo climbed in beside Alessandra and Leo.
Rachel went with Marco.
As the vehicle accelerated, Alessandra watched the lounge disappear behind them.
Her refuge had lasted less than twenty minutes.
Massimo made a call.
“Lock down the house. Nobody enters without my authorization.”
He listened.
Then said, “Prepare the east bedroom.”
Alessandra looked at him.
“One night.”
He put away the phone.
“We’ll discuss that.”
“No. We already did.”
Leo leaned sleepily against her.
Massimo glanced at him.
“Does he always sleep through gunfire?”
“He thinks it’s thunder.”
Massimo looked out the window.
“Keep it that way.”
For the first time, Alessandra heard something beneath his control.
Regret.
They reached Massimo’s townhouse shortly before midnight.
It was guarded like a fortress.
Alessandra hated it immediately.
Not because it was ugly.
Because it felt safe.
Safe was dangerous.
Safe made people stop running.
A housekeeper named Teresa met them inside.
Her face softened when she saw Leo.
“Poor baby.”
“He needs dry clothes,” Alessandra said.
“And food.”
“I’m not hungry,” Leo mumbled.
Teresa smiled.
“That means you are three.”
Leo considered this suspiciously.
Massimo spoke quietly to Marco while Alessandra removed Leo’s wet jacket.
Then Leo looked at Massimo.
“You still have it.”
Massimo glanced at his hand.
The dinosaur Band-Aid.
“Yes.”
“Good.”
Leo allowed Teresa to carry him upstairs only after Alessandra promised to follow.
Massimo caught Alessandra’s arm.
She looked down at his hand.
He released her immediately.
“Five minutes.”
“For what?”
“The drive.”
“My son first.”
“Five minutes.”
She went upstairs.
Leo was asleep again before Teresa finished changing him into borrowed pajamas.
Alessandra kissed his forehead.
When she returned downstairs, Massimo was waiting in a study.
The flash drive was connected to an isolated laptop.
Rows of transactions covered the screen.
Massimo stood behind the desk.
“How much did you see?”
“Enough.”
“Who is Vanessa working for?”
“I thought she was the top.”
“She isn’t.”
“How do you know?”
“Because these accounts belong to dead men.”
Alessandra moved closer.
Massimo pointed to three names.
“These people died years ago.”
“Then somebody is using their identities.”
“Yes.”
“Who?”
Massimo enlarged one transfer.
The receiving company was registered in Malta.
Another in Cyprus.
A third in Delaware.
Then Alessandra saw a repeated authorization code.
MRC-17.
“I saw that before.”
“Where?”
“In archived payroll.”
“How old?”
“Twenty-eight years.”
Massimo stopped.
“That’s impossible.”
“Why?”
He stared at the code.
“Because MRC was my father’s private designation.”
Alessandra felt cold.
“Your father?”
“He died twenty-two years ago.”
A floorboard creaked behind them.
Both turned.
Nobody stood at the door.
Massimo drew his gun.
“Stay here.”
He moved into the hallway.
Alessandra looked at the laptop.
One folder remained encrypted.
She recognized the password architecture.
Vanessa had used the same system on executive payroll.
Alessandra typed.
ACCESS GRANTED.
A list appeared.
Names.
Dates.
Payments.
Then one document opened automatically.
It was not financial.
It was a scanned hospital record.
Alessandra stared.
Patient: LEO FERRARO.
She stopped breathing.
Massimo returned.
“What happened?”
She couldn’t answer.
The record showed Leo’s birth date.
Blood type.
Mother.
Alessandra Ferraro.
Then a field she had never seen completed on any official copy.
PATERNAL IDENTIFICATION.
A name appeared.
Alessandra whispered, “No.”
Massimo stepped toward the screen.
Before he could see it, the laptop went black.
A message replaced the document.
HELLO, ALESSANDRA.
Massimo reached for the keyboard.
Another line appeared.
YOU SHOULD HAVE LEFT THE BOY OUT OF THIS.
Then footsteps sounded upstairs.
From Leo’s bedroom.
Alessandra ran.
Massimo followed.
She reached the bedroom door.
It was already open.
May you like
Leo’s bed was empty.
And the window was moving.
