Chapter 5 - The Night They Came for Sofia
“Don't react.”
Luca spoke quietly as they walked through the hospital corridor.
Alessandro didn't.
“Where is Giovanni?”
“Downstairs.”
“Does he know we know?”
“No.”
“Keep it that way.”
“What are you thinking?”
Alessandro stopped beside an elevator.
“Giovanni thinks we're taking Isabella to my estate.”
“We aren't?”
“No.”
The elevator opened.
“Let him believe we are.”
Three hours later, a convoy left the hospital.
Giovanni rode in the second vehicle.
Isabella and Sofia were nowhere inside.
They had already left through a service entrance with Bruno and two trusted guards.
Alessandro sat in the lead car.
His phone rang.
Giovanni.
“Boss.”
“Yes?”
“Something feels wrong.”
Alessandro looked through the windshield.
“What?”
“There's another vehicle behind us.”
“I see it.”
“Should I intercept?”
“No.”
A pause.
“Boss?”
“Let them come.”
The convoy reached Alessandro's estate twenty minutes later.
The trailing vehicles followed.
Men entered through the rear grounds.
They found an empty guest wing.
Alessandro's security team surrounded them before they understood the trap.
Giovanni tried to leave.
Luca blocked him.
“Going somewhere?”
Giovanni froze.
Alessandro appeared behind him.
Eleven years of loyalty stood between them.
Or what Alessandro had believed was loyalty.
Giovanni lowered his head.
“You shouldn't have found her.”
“Why?”
“Your father made me swear.”
“My father is dead.”
“The promise wasn't to him.”
“Then who?”
Giovanni looked up.
“To the organization.”
Alessandro stepped closer.
“You sabotaged Isabella's car?”
“No.”
“Did you know?”
“Yes.”
“Did you know Sofia was inside?”
Giovanni hesitated.
Alessandro's voice dropped.
“Answer carefully.”
“Yes.”
Luca looked away in disgust.
Alessandro stared at the man who had eaten at his table and protected his back.
“You knew someone intended to kill a five-year-old child.”
“It was bigger than the child.”
“No.”
Alessandro moved closer.
“Nothing is bigger than the child.”
Giovanni swallowed.
“Where is Isabella?”
“Somewhere you'll never reach.”
Giovanni smiled faintly.
“Then you still don't understand.”
“What?”
“Bellini didn't need to find Isabella.”
Alessandro's stomach tightened.
“He needed Bruno.”
Silence.
“The dog?”
“Isabella hid the records somewhere nobody would search.”
Alessandro suddenly remembered the torn collar.
Not removed.
Torn.
“Bruno's collar.”
Giovanni nodded.
“There was a key inside it.”
Alessandro turned immediately.
“Luca.”
Already moving.
They reached the safe location shortly after midnight.
Alessandro entered first.
“Sofia?”
No answer.
“Isabella?”
Then Bruno barked upstairs.
Alessandro ran.
He found Isabella inside a bedroom, holding Sofia behind her.
Bruno stood between them and the open balcony doors.
A man was outside.
Marco Bellini.
“You're becoming predictable, Alessandro.”
Alessandro stopped.
Bellini looked toward Sofia.
“Where's the key?”
Sofia hugged her mother.
“I don't know what you're talking about.”
Bellini looked at Bruno.
“Yes, you do.”
Alessandro stepped between them.
“Marco.”
“Move.”
“No.”
“You'd start a war over them?”
Alessandro looked briefly at Isabella.
Then Sofia.
Then Bruno.
“No.”
Marco smiled.
“Good.”
Alessandro returned his gaze to him.
“I'd end one.”
Police sirens erupted outside.
Marco's smile vanished.
“What did you do?”
“Something my father never would have.”
Alessandro held up his phone.
“I gave the evidence to federal investigators.”
Marco stared at him.
“You destroyed your own empire.”
“The parts built by men like you?”
Alessandro shrugged.
“Maybe they deserved destroying.”
Officers entered the grounds.
Marco backed toward the balcony.
There was nowhere left to go.
Minutes later, he was taken away.
Sofia ran to Alessandro.
He crouched instinctively.
She threw her arms around his neck.
“Are the bad men gone?”
Alessandro closed his eyes.
“Yes.”
“All of them?”
He looked at Isabella.
“All of them.”
Bruno walked toward Alessandro and rested his head against his knee.
Alessandro scratched behind his ears.
“You caused a lot of trouble.”
Bruno's tail wagged.
Sofia smiled.
“He likes trouble.”
Alessandro looked at her.
May you like
“So do I.”
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