Chapter 7 - THE FREIGHT TERMINAL
The old freight terminal in Red Hook had been closed for nearly a decade, but its loading bays still smelled of salt, rust, and diesel. Elena arrived shortly before midnight wearing a dark coat over her work clothes. The cassette was in her pocket. A second copy of the recording, hidden in a secure digital file, had already been sent to a lawyer Sofia trusted.
Dante wanted a team inside every building.
Elena insisted that she would not be used as bait without knowing the plan. They compromised: his men would cover the exits, but no one would move until Greg was free or Elena gave the agreed signal.
“You don’t have to do this,” Dante said beside the car.
“Yes, I do.”
“Because of Greg?”
“Because someone has spent years making decisions about my family while expecting me to be grateful for the scraps they leave behind.”
He absorbed that without protest.
“What happens if this goes wrong?” he asked.
“Then you get Toby somewhere safe. You don’t come after me if it means leaving him unprotected.”
“I can’t promise that.”
“Then don’t ask me to trust you.”
The terminal’s main door stood open. Inside, one row of overhead lights flickered above a maze of crates. Greg sat tied to a metal chair at the center of the floor. His face was swollen, but he lifted his head when Elena entered.
“Don’t come closer,” he rasped. “It’s a trap.”
A man stepped from behind a stack of pallets. Thomas Bellini was older than in the photographs, with silver hair and a neatly buttoned coat. He carried no visible weapon. That somehow made him more frightening.
“Miss Vance,” he said. “You have your mother’s eyes.”
“You arranged the hospital transfer.”
“I arranged a conversation. Your brother was never in danger.”
“You forged my signature.”
“An unfortunate necessity.”
“You tried to kidnap me from a nightclub.”
Thomas sighed. “You have a dramatic view of events. I gave you opportunities. The money in that envelope could have paid your brother’s bills without any of this.”
“Money is how you make people obey.”
“It is how the world works.”
Elena took the cassette from her pocket. “What do you want?”
“Your mother’s evidence. The original records, not a distorted recording from a broken machine.”
“I don’t have the records.”
Thomas’s expression barely changed, but his eyes betrayed him. “Then you don’t understand what you found.”
He nodded toward Greg. One of the men behind him placed a pistol against Greg’s neck.
Elena’s stomach tightened. “Let him go.”
“Give me the tape.”
She held it up. “First, tell me whether my mother is alive.”
Thomas paused.
“That depends on what you mean by alive.”
Elena’s breath caught. Behind the crates, Dante’s team was in position, but he had told her not to signal until Greg was clear. She needed Thomas to keep talking.
“Where is she?”
“Somewhere she chose to go. She had a talent for making dangerous choices and expecting other people to pay for them.”
“You made her disappear.”
“I gave her a way out.”
“You killed her life and called it mercy.”
For the first time, Thomas’s composure cracked. “You have no idea what your mother did. She stole records that could have destroyed people who were not involved in our business. She threatened to hand them to federal investigators. She would have brought the whole city down.”
“Then you were afraid of the truth.”
“I was protecting an empire.”
“You were protecting yourself.”
Thomas’s gaze shifted toward the darkness. He had noticed something. His hand rose slightly, and the man holding Greg tightened his grip.
Dante emerged from behind the crates. “It’s over, Thomas.”
Thomas smiled faintly. “You still think you can end things by walking into a room and speaking softly.”
“No,” Dante said. “I think you’re going to make one last mistake.”
Thomas reached inside his coat. The terminal erupted into motion. Dante lunged toward the gunman. Elena ran to Greg, cutting at the restraints with a small blade she had hidden in her sleeve. A shot thundered through the building, and a crate splintered beside her.
Greg fell forward as the rope gave way. Elena pulled him behind a loading platform. Across the floor, Dante disarmed Thomas and forced him to his knees. The other men surrendered when the exits filled with armed security.
For one breath, it seemed finished.
Then Thomas laughed.
“You think I’m the one you need to fear?” he said, blood trickling from a cut above his eyebrow. “Ask Dante who approved the first payment for Toby’s surgery. Ask him who signed the original trust.”
Dante’s face changed.
Elena turned toward him. “Who?”
He did not answer.
Thomas leaned forward, his smile widening.
“Your mother didn’t trust me, Elena. She was running from the only person who could have protected her.”
From the terminal’s upper walkway came the click of a door opening.
A woman’s voice spoke from the shadows.
“Thomas. That’s enough.”
Elena looked up.
May you like
She knew the voice from the cassette.
Her mother was alive.
