Chapter 6 - The Woman Behind the Bounty
Alessandra answered.
“Where is my son?”
Vanessa’s voice replied.
“Alive.”
“If you hurt him—”
“I’m trying to keep him alive.”
Alessandra froze.
“What?”
Massimo entered behind her.
She put the call on speaker.
Vanessa continued.
“Salvatore ordered Leo taken. I moved first.”
“You kidnapped him.”
“Yes.”
“Give him back.”
“I can’t.”
Massimo stepped closer.
“Vanessa.”
Silence.
“Massimo.”
“Where is Leo?”
“If I tell you, Salvatore hears.”
“Why should we trust you?”
“You shouldn’t.”
At least that was honest.
Vanessa breathed slowly.
“The bounty was mine.”
Alessandra’s face hardened.
“I know.”
“No. You don’t understand. I put two million on you because Salvatore had already offered five.”
Massimo frowned.
“You underbid him?”
“I changed the instruction. His contract was kill and recover. Mine was recover alive.”
Alessandra sat down.
The world had become absurd.
“You tried to save me by putting a bounty on me?”
“I never said it was a good plan.”
“Where is Leo?”
“I’ll return him when you bring me the original ledger.”
“We don’t have it.”
“Yes, you do.”
“No.”
“Matteo hid it four years ago. He gave you the key.”
Alessandra remembered the flash drive.
“VSI?”
“That drive isn’t the ledger. It tells you where to find it.”
Massimo took the phone.
“If Leo has one scratch—”
“He’s eating crackers and watching cartoons.”
A tiny voice sounded in the background.
“Mommy?”
Alessandra grabbed the phone.
“Leo!”
“Mommy, the lady has no dinosaur pancakes.”
Alessandra started crying.
“Baby, listen to me. I’m coming.”
“Okay.”
“Are you hurt?”
“No.”
“Are you scared?”
A pause.
“A little.”
She covered her mouth.
“I love you.”
“I love you too.”
Vanessa returned.
“Find the ledger.”
The call ended.
Massimo immediately ordered a trace.
Nothing.
Alessandra examined the flash drive.
VSI.
Not initials.
Coordinates?
File structure?
She remembered Matteo.
He loved puzzles.
During their relationship, he had hidden birthday gifts behind ridiculous clues.
“VSI could mean Roman numerals.”
Massimo looked at her.
“V is five. I is one.”
“Five-one?”
“No. Maybe V-S-I is an instruction.”
She opened the drive directory.
Five folders.
S was the nineteenth letter.
I was nine.
Folder five.
File nineteen.
Line nine.
They followed it.
A string appeared.
LOCKER 317.
GRAND CENTRAL.
Massimo looked at her.
“I’ll go.”
“So will I.”
“No.”
“Leo is my son.”
“And Matteo is my cousin.”
“Then we both go.”
At Grand Central, Massimo’s men surrounded the area discreetly.
Locker 317 contained a cheap backpack.
Inside was a children’s book.
A photograph.
And a key.
Alessandra opened the book.
Matteo had written inside.
ALI—
IF YOU’RE READING THIS, I FAILED TO COME HOME.
I DIDN’T LEAVE YOU.
I WAS TRYING TO KEEP THEM FROM LEARNING ABOUT THE BABY.
Alessandra stopped.
Tears blurred the words.
Massimo stood silently beside her.
She continued.
THE LEDGER IS WHERE MASSIMO AND I FIRST LEARNED WHAT FAMILY COSTS.
HE WILL KNOW.
M.
Massimo stared at the message.
“I know.”
“Where?”
“Brooklyn.”
They drove to an abandoned boxing gym.
Massimo and Matteo had trained there as teenagers.
Behind an old photograph of Marcello Costa, they found a safe.
The key fit.
Inside sat a thick black ledger.
Not digital.
Paper.
Names.
Payments.
Dates.
Decades of crimes.
Massimo turned pages.
Judges.
Police commissioners.
Executives.
Politicians.
Mob families.
Then Alessandra found Vanessa.
Her name appeared repeatedly.
But beside it was a designation.
COOPERATING ASSET.
“She’s been collecting evidence,” Alessandra whispered.
“For whom?”
The next page answered.
Federal Organized Crime Task Force.
Vanessa had been undercover.
Then a bullet shattered the gym window.
Massimo threw Alessandra down.
Gunfire erupted.
His men returned fire.
Marco shouted.
“Rear exit!”
Massimo grabbed the ledger.
They ran.
Outside, an SUV waited.
They climbed in.
Marco drove.
Alessandra’s phone rang.
Vanessa.
She answered.
“We found it.”
“Then listen carefully. Salvatore knows.”
“How?”
“Someone with you told him.”
Alessandra looked at Marco.
Then Massimo.
Then the guard in the passenger seat.
Vanessa whispered, “Do not go back to Massimo’s house.”
The SUV suddenly turned away from their planned route.
Massimo looked up.
“Marco.”
Marco’s eyes met his in the mirror.
“I’m sorry, boss.”
May you like
The doors locked.
And the man in the passenger seat raised his gun.
