Chapter 6 - THE PRICE OF A MOTHER
Dora grabbed Leonardo’s phone.
“If you hurt her—”
Victor laughed.
“There she is. The waitress with the coffee pot.”
“Let me talk to my mother.”
“You already did.”
The call ended.
Dora turned on Leonardo.
“We give him the ledger.”
“No.”
“My mother—”
“He’ll kill her anyway.”
“You don’t know that.”
“I know Victor.”
“And I know my mother!”
The argument filled the moving SUV.
Dante drove.
Isabella sat beside him.
Nobody interrupted.
Dora’s eyes burned.
“She lost twelve years because of your family.”
Leonardo flinched.
“She doesn’t lose another minute because you want revenge.”
“This isn’t revenge.”
“Then what is it?”
“The ledger is leverage. The second Victor has it, Helen becomes useless.”
Dora hated that he made sense.
She hated even more that his world required thinking like that.
“What do we do?”
“We make him believe he has won.”
At 11:42 p.m., Leonardo entered an abandoned Atlantic Crown warehouse carrying the ledger.
Alone.
At least, Victor was supposed to believe he was alone.
Dora watched from a surveillance van three blocks away.
“This is insane.”
Dante adjusted an earpiece.
“It’s one of his better plans.”
“That does not reassure me.”
Inside, Leonardo placed the ledger on a table.
Victor Salerno emerged with six armed men.
Helen was beside him.
Her hands were tied.
Leonardo’s jaw tightened.
“Release her.”
“Ledger first.”
Leonardo opened the case.
Victor smiled.
“You know, your father always said you were too emotional.”
“My father said many things.”
“He was right about one.”
Victor glanced at Helen.
“You’ll burn an empire for a woman.”
Leonardo looked directly toward the hidden camera.
Toward Dora.
“Yes.”
Victor took the ledger.
Then pushed Helen forward.
Leonardo caught her.
For one second, it worked.
Then Victor opened the book.
His smile vanished.
Blank pages.
“You think I’m stupid?”
“No,” Leonardo said.
“I think you’re predictable.”
Police sirens erupted outside.
Victor raised his gun.
Leonardo shoved Helen behind a steel pillar.
Gunfire exploded.
Dora tore off her headset.
“I’m going in.”
Dante caught her.
“No.”
“My mother is inside.”
“Leonardo has her.”
Another gunshot.
Then silence.
Dante’s radio crackled.
“Boss is hit.”
Dora stopped.
“What?”
She ran.
Dante cursed and followed.
Inside, police tactical teams flooded the warehouse.
Victor was on the ground.
Helen was safe.
Leonardo sat against a pillar.
Blood covered his shirt.
Dora dropped beside him.
“No.”
He looked up.
“Hello, waitress.”
“Don’t.”
“It’s not that bad.”
“You’re bleeding through your shirt.”
“I’ve had worse.”
“That line was stupid the first time.”
His mouth moved faintly.
Dora pressed both hands against the wound.
“Ambulance!”
Leonardo looked at her.
“Your mother?”
“Safe.”
“Good.”
His eyes closed.
“Leonardo.”
No response.
“Leonardo!”
At Massachusetts General, Dora sat beside Isabella for four hours.
Finally a surgeon appeared.
“He’s stable.”
Dora’s entire body weakened.
The bullet had missed Leonardo’s heart by less than an inch.
When she entered his room the next morning, he was awake.
“You look terrible,” she said.
“So did your duct-tape bandage.”
She sat.
Silence settled.
Then Leonardo said, “Victor confessed.”
“To kidnapping Mom?”
“To that and more.”
He looked toward the window.
“Carlo hired him to stage your mother’s death. Later Victor realized the information Helen possessed was worth more alive than dead.”
“Why keep her institutionalized?”
“Insurance.”
Dora shook her head.
“Your world is exhausting.”
“I know.”
He looked at her.
“That’s why I’m leaving it.”
Dora thought she had misheard.
“What?”
“The ledger copies went to federal investigators this morning.”
“You turned over everything?”
“Yes.”
“Including your organization?”
“Yes.”
“What happens to you?”
“I don’t know.”
For the first time, Leonardo Costas looked uncertain about his future.
“I’ve done things I’ll have to answer for.”
Dora swallowed.
“Prison?”
“Possibly.”
“How long?”
“I don’t know.”
She looked down.
It should have been easy.
He was dangerous.
Complicated.
A criminal.
She had known him for weeks.
So why did the possibility of losing him feel like someone had pressed a fist beneath her ribs?
Leonardo reached for her hand.
“I won’t ask you to wait.”
Dora looked at him.
“Good.”
His expression fell almost imperceptibly.
“Because I don’t take orders.”
A weak smile appeared.
Dora squeezed his fingers.
“But I’ll decide what I do.”
The door opened.
Dante entered carrying an envelope.
“Boss, you need to see this.”
Leonardo opened it.
His expression darkened.
Inside was a photograph of Dora leaving the hospital.
Taken twenty minutes earlier.
On the back:
VICTOR WAS NEVER IN CHARGE.
Dora read it.
“Then who is?”
Dante answered quietly.
“We have a bigger problem.”
He placed another photograph beside it.
A man stood next to Carlo Costas.
Dora recognized him.
Her stomach dropped.
“That’s impossible.”
Leonardo looked at her.
“You know him?”
Dora whispered the name.
“Frank Delaney.”
May you like
“Who is Frank Delaney?”
“My boss at Rusty’s.”
