Chapter 7 - The Boy Bellini Should Never Have Touched
Chloe hit Victor.
Her palm struck his cheek hard enough to turn his head.
Every guard in the room froze.
Anthony stared at the floor.
Nobody touched Victor Russo.
Nobody.
Victor slowly looked back at Chloe.
Her face was soaked with tears.
“You promised he was safe.”
Victor said nothing.
“You told me he had more protection than diplomats!”
“I know.”
“Then where is he?”
“We’re finding him.”
“That’s my brother!”
“I know.”
“No, you don’t!”
She shoved him.
Victor allowed it.
“You have warehouses and guards and people who will do anything you tell them. Tommy has me.”
“He has me too.”
Chloe stopped.
Victor’s voice was quiet.
“He has me too.”
The anger remained, but something shifted.
Victor turned toward Anthony.
“Again.”
Anthony brought the city map onto the screen.
“The vehicle carrying Tommy left the medical apartment at 11:23. Bellini’s men used a cloned ambulance. They disabled two guards with sedatives during what looked like a transfer order.”
“Inside help?”
“Almost certainly Crane.”
“Phone trace?”
“Burner. Signal ended near Cicero.”
Victor studied the map.
Chloe wiped her face.
“What did they ask for?”
“Me.”
Victor looked at her.
“Bellini wants me alone.”
“And you’re going?”
“Yes.”
“No.”
Victor blinked.
A minute earlier she had been hitting him.
Now she was stopping him.
“Chloe.”
“If he specifically wants you alone, it’s a trap.”
“Obviously.”
“Then don’t walk into it like you’re immortal.”
Victor’s expression almost softened.
“I’m not.”
“Good. We agree on something.”
She moved closer to the map.
Anthony started to object.
Victor raised a hand.
Let her.
Chloe studied locations.
“You said the signal ended near Cicero.”
“Yes.”
“And Bellini controls warehouses?”
“Several.”
“Which ones use outside cleaning companies?”
Anthony looked confused.
“What?”
Chloe turned.
“Buildings have routines. Trash pickup. Linen services. Cleaning crews. If Bellini moved Tommy somewhere he considers private, he’ll choose someplace with minimal outside staff.”
Victor understood.
“Pull vendor records.”
Anthony began typing.
Chloe continued.
“Also winter heating.”
“What about it?” Victor asked.
“If a warehouse is normally empty but suddenly occupied, gas usage changes.”
Anthony looked at Victor.
Victor looked almost impressed.
“Do it.”
Fifteen minutes later, they had three possibilities.
One stood out.
An abandoned packaging facility registered to a shell corporation Bellini used years earlier.
Heating usage had spiked forty-eight hours before Tommy’s kidnapping.
Victor pointed.
“There.”
Anthony nodded.
“We can have teams in position in twenty minutes.”
“No police,” Victor said.
Chloe turned.
“Why?”
“Because Bellini may have someone monitoring dispatch.”
“You can’t storm the building.”
“I can.”
“That wasn’t admiration.”
Victor almost heard himself from the first morning.
Despite everything, Chloe had thrown his own words back at him.
Victor leaned closer.
“You stay here.”
“No.”
“Absolutely not.”
“He’s my brother.”
“And you are the reason Bellini took him.”
Pain flashed across her face.
Victor closed his eyes.
Wrong words.
Again.
“I mean you’re his target through me.”
“That was not better.”
He exhaled.
“I cannot protect both of you if you walk into that building.”
“Then teach me what to do.”
“No.”
“Victor.”
“Chloe.”
Anthony cleared his throat.
“There may be another way.”
Both turned.
“We use Bellini’s expectation. Mr. Russo arrives visibly. Chloe stays in the secondary vehicle. We breach from the loading side after confirming Tommy’s position.”
Victor stared at him.
“You’re encouraging this?”
“I’m trying to prevent Ms. Bennett from climbing into a trunk.”
Chloe looked offended.
“I was not going to climb into a trunk.”
Anthony raised an eyebrow.
She looked away.
Victor muttered something in Italian.
Twenty-eight minutes later, snow fell heavily over Cicero.
Victor stepped from a black SUV outside the warehouse.
Alone.
At least that was what Bellini’s men saw.
Chloe watched from a van two blocks away, wearing a security vest over her coat.
Anthony handed her headphones.
“You do exactly what I say.”
“Victor already gave me that speech.”
“I’m better at it.”
Inside the warehouse, Matteo Bellini waited beside Tommy.
Tommy’s hands were tied.
There was dried blood beneath his nose.
Victor saw it.
His rage became silent.
Matteo smiled.
“Finally.”
“Release the boy.”
“You arrived quickly.”
“Release him.”
“You have always had poor manners.”
Victor looked at Tommy.
“Are you hurt?”
Tommy tried to smile.
“I’ve had better Uber rides.”
Victor nearly smiled.
Even now.
Matteo slapped the back of Tommy’s chair.
“Quiet.”
Victor’s face changed.
Matteo noticed.
“There. That look. Not for the boy, though, is it?”
Victor said nothing.
“For the sister.”
Matteo laughed.
“All those years alone. I started thinking you were made of stone. Then a maid climbs into your bed.”
Victor’s eyes narrowed.
“You know very little.”
“I know enough.”
Matteo slid papers across a table.
Transfer documents.
Three freight companies.
Two warehouses.
Dock access.
“Sign.”
“And you release him?”
“Yes.”
Victor picked up the pen.
In the surveillance van, Chloe whispered, “He’s actually going to sign.”
Anthony replied, “Paper can be recovered.”
“My brother can’t.”
That was Victor’s logic too.
He signed the first page.
Then Tommy looked toward the loading dock.
Something moved behind stacked pallets.
One of Victor’s men.
Tommy’s eyes widened.
Matteo noticed.
He turned.
Everything exploded.
Lights went out.
Security breached the west entrance.
Victor crossed the distance to Tommy.
Gunfire echoed from the far side of the warehouse.
Chloe heard Anthony shout through her headset.
“Stay in the van!”
Then she saw a man running outside toward a side door.
Elliot Crane.
He was escaping.
And he was carrying Tommy’s medical bag.
Chloe jumped from the van.
“Chloe!”
She ran.
Crane saw her.
“Stop!”
He didn’t.
Chloe grabbed a metal snow shovel leaning beside the loading dock and swung it toward his legs.
He fell hard.
The bag skidded across the pavement.
Crane rolled and grabbed her ankle.
Chloe screamed.
Then Anthony tackled him.
“Are you insane?”
“Probably.”
“Victor is going to kill me.”
“Get in line.”
Inside, Victor cut Tommy’s restraints.
“Your sister is going to murder me.”
Tommy rubbed his wrists.
“She does that.”
A shot rang out.
Victor jerked.
Tommy screamed.
Blood spread across Victor’s side.
One of Bellini’s men had fired from behind a column.
Security dropped the shooter seconds later.
Victor remained standing.
Barely.
“Get Tommy out.”
“No!”
“That’s an order.”
“Chloe said you’re bad at those.”
Victor almost laughed.
Then his knees gave.
Outside, Chloe heard Anthony’s radio.
“Russo is hit.”
Everything inside her stopped.
She ran toward the warehouse.
Anthony caught her arm.
“Wait.”
“Let go.”
“Scene isn’t secure.”
“I said let go!”
Tommy appeared between two guards.
“Chloe!”
She grabbed him.
Held him.
Checked his face.
His arms.
Everything.
“You’re okay.”
“I’m okay.”
Then she looked behind him.
Victor was carried out.
Blood stained his white shirt.
Chloe released Tommy and ran.
Victor’s eyes opened when she reached him.
She touched his face.
“You idiot.”
His mouth moved.
“You hit Crane with a shovel.”
“How do you know?”
“Anthony talks too much.”
Her tears fell.
Victor reached weakly for her hand.
“Tommy?”
“Safe.”
His eyes closed briefly in relief.
Chloe gripped his fingers.
“Don’t you dare die.”
Victor looked at her.
“You’d miss me?”
She laughed through tears.
“I would personally drag you back just to kill you again.”
A faint smile appeared.
“Good.”
Then he lost consciousness.
For the next forty minutes, Chloe sat in the ambulance beside the man whose world had almost gotten her brother killed.
She should have hated him.
Part of her did.
But when Victor’s hand went limp in hers, Chloe understood something she could no longer deny.
May you like
Losing him would hurt almost as much as losing Tommy.
And that terrified her more than Bellini ever could.
