Chapter 2 - The Mafia Boss She Was Warned About
Nico opened Elena’s passenger door.
“Move over.”
“I can drive.”
“With two dying tires?”
“I’ve driven worse.”
“I’m sure you have.”
He got in anyway.
Elena stared at him.
“You always bring twelve cars?”
“No.”
“How many normally?”
“Two.”
“That’s reassuring.”
“It shouldn’t be.”
Outside, Nico’s men surrounded the black sedan.
Owen Pike wasn’t inside.
Only two Meridian security contractors.
Nico’s phone rang.
He answered.
“Talk.”
A voice spoke quickly.
Nico’s expression darkened.
“Let them go.”
Elena turned toward him.
“What?”
Nico ended the call.
“You heard me.”
“They followed me.”
“Yes.”
“They sabotaged my tires.”
“Probably.”
“And you’re releasing them?”
Nico looked through the windshield.
“If I keep them, Vale knows you reached me safely. If I release them, they return with a message.”
“What message?”
“That I’m not afraid of him.”
Elena studied him.
“That sounds like ego.”
“It is.”
She almost smiled.
Almost.
“South yard,” Elena said.
“What’s there?”
“Proof.”
Twenty minutes later, three Russo SUVs stopped one block from Meridian’s logistics yard.
Nico pointed toward the gate.
“You stay here.”
“No.”
“Elena.”
“The evidence is in my locker.”
“You were fired two hours ago.”
“Exactly. My badge may already be dead.”
“So?”
“So I know another entrance.”
Nico sighed.
“You have a habit of ignoring good advice.”
“I was engaged to Adrien. Clearly.”
That earned the smallest smile.
They entered through a maintenance corridor behind an abandoned loading platform.
Locker C9 was open.
Empty.
Elena stopped.
“No.”
Nico inspected the broken latch.
“Someone beat us here.”
“Tessa.”
“What about her?”
“She knew.”
Elena grabbed her phone.
No answer.
Again.
Nothing.
Then a text appeared.
Unknown number.
STOP LOOKING FOR 47B.
Elena showed Nico.
He immediately called someone.
“Find Tessa Cole.”
“Nico—”
“Now.”
They returned outside.
One of Nico’s men approached.
“Boss.”
“What?”
“We found Pike’s car.”
“Where?”
“St. Agnes.”
Elena’s head snapped around.
“The hospital?”
Nico looked at her.
“Why would Meridian security go there?”
Elena understood.
“The logger.”
They drove to St. Agnes.
At the receiving dock, Elena found Dr. Maya Lin, the pharmacist who had signed the flood-night delivery.
Maya recognized Elena instantly.
“You shouldn’t be here.”
“Neither should Owen Pike.”
Maya’s face changed.
Nico noticed.
“He came here?”
Maya looked toward the corridor.
“Twenty minutes ago.”
“What did he want?”
“The Route 47B archive.”
Elena stepped closer.
“What happened that night?”
Maya hesitated.
Nico spoke quietly.
“If you’re afraid of me, fine. But somebody used your hospital to hide nineteen minutes.”
Maya swallowed.
“The truck arrived at 8:48.”
Elena froze.
Not 8:29.
8:48.
Exactly nineteen minutes later.
“Was the insulin damaged?”
“No. Temperature was within range.”
“Then why falsify the time?”
Maya lowered her voice.
“Because the truck wasn’t carrying only insulin.”
Nico’s expression sharpened.
“What else?”
“I don’t know. Two sealed Meridian containers were unloaded before our medical shipment.”
“By whom?”
“Private security.”
“Compass pins?” Elena asked.
Maya nodded.
Nico and Elena exchanged a look.
Adrien hadn’t stolen medicine.
He had used humanitarian shipments to move something else.
“What was in the containers?” Nico asked.
“I never saw.”
A crash sounded from the pharmacy archive.
Nico moved first.
He opened the door.
Owen Pike stood beside a metal cabinet.
In his hand was a small electronic logger.
“Elena,” Pike said.
“Put it down.”
Pike smiled.
“You should’ve gone home.”
“You bled my tires.”
“I was trying to give you time to think.”
“About what?”
“About whether being right was worth what happened next.”
Nico stepped into view.
Pike’s smile disappeared.
“Russo.”
“Pike.”
“You don’t understand what you’re protecting.”
Nico nodded toward Elena.
“I’m not protecting her.”
Elena glanced at him.
Nico continued.
“I’m protecting the truth she’s carrying.”
Pike shoved the logger into his pocket and ran through the emergency exit.
Nico’s men pursued him.
Elena noticed something on the floor.
A torn shipping label.
She picked it up.
STATE EMERGENCY PROCUREMENT — E. SHAW
Nico read it over her shoulder.
“The commissioner?”
Elena stared at the label.
“Adrien wasn’t hiding this from the state.”
May you like
She looked at Nico.
“The state was part of it.”
