Chapter 7 - THE EMPTY ROOM
When Carmine returned home, Leo was missing.
The moment the SUV stopped, Marco saw the open side door.
Two security guards were unconscious in the hallway.
Carmine ran upstairs.
“Leo!”
No answer.
He entered the bedroom.
The blankets were on the floor.
The window was locked.
Leo’s stuffed bear lay beside the doorway.
Carmine picked it up.
His hands shook for the first time in years.
“Helena.”
They ran downstairs.
The library door was open.
Helena was gone.
One guard was bleeding from the forehead.
Marco crouched beside him.
“What happened?”
The guard struggled to speak.
“She said the child was sick.”
“She screamed for help.”
“When we opened the door, someone hit us from behind.”
Carmine’s face went white.
“Who?”
“I didn’t see.”
Marco checked the security system.
“The rear service gate opened fourteen minutes ago.”
Carmine was already moving.
“Track every vehicle.”
Marco called the control room.
A minute later, he looked toward Carmine.
“One estate SUV is missing.”
“GPS?”
“Disabled.”
Carmine grabbed his phone.
Then he saw a message.
Unknown number.
A photograph loaded.
Leo sat in the back seat of a vehicle.
His eyes were closed.
Helena sat beside him.
Below the image was one sentence.
BRING SOFIA’S LETTER.
Carmine’s blood turned cold.
Marco looked at the phone.
“They want the original.”
“Why?”
“Because it links Helena and Matteo to the foundation.”
Carmine stared at Leo’s face.
The boy looked asleep.
Or drugged.
Carmine dialed the number.
No answer.
A second message arrived.
MIDNIGHT.
OLD BELLUCCI WAREHOUSE.
COME ALONE.
Marco shook his head.
“No.”
Carmine looked at him.
“They have my son.”
“That’s why you cannot walk into a trap.”
Carmine folded Sofia’s letter and placed it inside his coat.
“I’m going.”
“I know.”
Marco grabbed his arm.
“But not alone.”
Carmine stared at him.
Marco continued.
“Your father made me promise something before he died.”
“What?”
“If you ever became too angry to think, I was supposed to think for you.”
Carmine almost laughed.
It would have been funny on any other night.
Marco continued.
“Give me twenty minutes.”
Carmine looked toward the photograph again.
Leo’s small head rested against Helena’s shoulder.
He hated the sight of her touching him.
“Fifteen.”
Marco nodded.
They moved quickly.
Four trusted men gathered in the security room.
No one used family channels.
No one called Matteo.
Carmine understood now that he did not know how deep the betrayal went.
Marco placed an old map on the table.
“The warehouse has three entrances.”
“Main loading bay.”
“River entrance.”
“And an underground service tunnel that was sealed ten years ago.”
Carmine pointed toward it.
“Was it really sealed?”
Marco looked at him.
“No.”
Carmine understood.
His father had always prepared for betrayal.
Tonight, that paranoia might save Leo.
At eleven forty-seven, Carmine’s SUV stopped two blocks from the warehouse.
He stepped out alone.
At least that was what Matteo’s watchers saw.
Carmine entered through the main door.
The warehouse lights were dim.
Helena stood thirty feet away.
Leo was tied to a chair beside her.
His head hung forward.
Carmine’s heart nearly stopped.
“Leo.”
The boy moved.
“Daddy?”
Relief nearly broke him.
Helena held a pistol.
Carmine slowly raised his hands.
“Where is Matteo?”
Helena laughed.
“You still think Matteo is in charge?”
Carmine stared at her.
A door opened behind Leo.
Someone stepped from the darkness.
Carmine recognized the man immediately.
And for the first time that night, even he was shocked.
It was Vittorio Bellucci.
Carmine’s uncle.
May you like
Matteo’s father.
The man everyone believed had died seven years earlier.
