Chapter 3 - THE PRICE OF SILENCE
Nora did not run.
Running would confirm fear, and the man beside the black SUV already looked confident enough.
His name, she would later learn, was Vincent Bale.
At that moment he was simply a stranger holding a photograph of her seventeen-year-old brother, Eli.
“Pretty kid,” Vincent said.
Nora’s stomach turned.
“What do you want?”
“Mr. Bellini would like a conversation.”
Thomas.
She kept her face blank.
“I don’t know anyone named Bellini.”
Vincent smiled.
“You clean his boss’s hospital room.”
“I clean forty rooms.”
“Tonight you cleaned one that matters.”
Nora looked toward the hospital entrance.
Two security guards stood behind the glass.
Neither was watching her.
That told her enough.
“What happens if I say no?”
Vincent looked at Eli’s photograph.
“You’re smart.”
Nora’s hand tightened around her purse.
Inside it was nothing useful. No weapon. No phone—the burner was still with Zeo.
Only forty-two dollars, a bus card, and an unopened letter from the insurance company denying another portion of Eli’s neurological rehabilitation.
“Get in.”
A voice came from behind them.
“Actually, she’s coming with me.”
Gabriel Rossi stood beneath the hospital awning.
Two men flanked him.
Vincent’s smile disappeared.
Nora closed her eyes for half a second.
Of course.
More mafia.
Gabriel stepped forward.
“My cousin asked me to make sure Ms. Hale got home safely.”
So Zeo knew her last name.
She did not like that.
Vincent slipped Eli’s photograph into his coat.
“Tell Zeo to stay dead.”
Gabriel smiled without warmth.
“Tell Thomas he should’ve learned how to finish a job.”
Vincent entered the SUV.
It pulled away.
Nora rounded on Gabriel.
“I told him I didn’t need protection.”
“And he ignored you.”
“I noticed.”
“He does that.”
“Is it a family trait?”
“Mostly.”
Gabriel offered her a car ride.
She refused.
He offered money.
She refused that too.
Finally he said, “They know about your brother.”
Nora stopped.
Gabriel’s tone changed.
“If Thomas can’t reach Zeo through the organization, he’ll reach him through the civilian who helped him.”
“I am not important to Zeo.”
“That may not matter.”
Nora hated that he was right.
Eli lived at Brighton Neurological Center.
He had suffered a traumatic brain injury eighteen months earlier when a drunk driver crossed a median and struck the car carrying him home from school.
Their mother had died at the scene.
Eli survived.
Survival turned out to be expensive.
Nora had dropped out of nursing school, sold their mother’s house, and taken every job she could find.
She cleaned St. Jude’s at night.
She served breakfast at a diner on weekends.
She occasionally cared for elderly patients when agencies needed emergency coverage.
Every dollar went toward Eli.
Zeo learned all of that before sunrise.
He hated himself slightly for ordering the investigation.
He hated the results more.
Nora had no criminal record.
No secret bank accounts.
No connection to Thomas.
No connection to Camilla.
No connection to any Rossi enemy.
She had simply been in the wrong bathroom at the right time.
By seven in the morning, Zeo was no longer at St. Jude’s.
The hospital announced that his condition had become unstable and that he had been moved to an undisclosed specialist facility.
In reality, he sat shirtless inside a fortified townhouse in Brooklyn while Dr. Aris stitched his chest again.
Gabriel entered carrying a folder.
“Everything on Nora Hale.”
Zeo did not touch it.
“Tell me.”
Gabriel did.
When he finished, Zeo looked toward the window.
“How much?”
“For what?”
“The brother.”
Gabriel understood.
“Rehabilitation, surgeries, private care? She’s drowning. Around two hundred and eighty thousand already. More coming.”
“Pay it.”
Gabriel stared.
“All of it?”
“All of it.”
“She’ll know.”
“Then make it anonymous.”
“She’ll still know.”
Zeo looked at him.
“Why?”
“Because nobody anonymously clears three hundred grand in medical debt twelve hours after a mafia boss discovers you have three hundred grand in medical debt.”
Zeo swore.
Gabriel grinned.
“Subtlety has never been your gift.”
The phone rang.
Camilla.
Zeo stared at the screen.
Then answered without speaking.
Her sob came immediately.
“Gabriel?”
Zeo’s expression hardened.
She believed the number belonged to his cousin.
“Gabriel, something happened. Zeo was transferred. Nobody will tell me where.”
Zeo pressed a button, putting the call on speaker.
Camilla continued.
“Thomas thinks one of Zeo’s captains took him. You have to help me.”
Gabriel mouthed, She deserves an Oscar.
Then Camilla’s voice changed.
“Because if Zeo wakes up, we are all dead.”
Zeo’s eyes became cold.
A man spoke faintly in the background.
Thomas.
“Camilla, hang up.”
The call ended.
Gabriel looked at Zeo.
“Well.”
“Trace it.”
“Already did.”
The location came back twenty seconds later.
A warehouse near Red Hook.
Zeo stood.
Dr. Aris protested.
Zeo ignored him.
Then another phone rang.
Nora’s burner.
Only Nora knew the number.
Zeo answered.
No one spoke.
“Nora?”
A shaky breath.
Then her voice.
“They took Eli.”
Zeo’s blood went cold.
“Where are you?”
“Brighton Center. His room is empty.”
“When?”
“Twenty minutes ago. Two men came with transfer papers.”
Zeo closed his eyes.
Thomas had moved faster than expected.
“Nora, listen carefully. Do not leave the building.”
“They took my brother because of you.”
“I know.”
“No, you don’t know.”
Her voice cracked.
“He cannot walk without assistance. He gets confused when he’s frightened. He hates elevators. He—”
“Nora.”
Silence.
“I will bring him back.”
“How?”
Zeo looked at the Red Hook location glowing on Gabriel’s tablet.
“I know where they are.”
Nora inhaled.
“I’m coming.”
“No.”
“He is my brother.”
“And Thomas wants you there.”
“I don’t care.”
“I do.”
The words escaped before Zeo could stop them.
Gabriel looked up.
So did Dr. Aris.
Zeo turned away.
“Nora, give Gabriel thirty minutes.”
“I’m not waiting.”
The call disconnected.
Gabriel sighed.
“She’s going to Red Hook.”
“Yes.”
“You sound surprised.”
“I’m not.”
Gabriel reached for his jacket.
Zeo did the same.
Dr. Aris stepped between them.
“You have two fresh bullet wounds.”
Zeo buttoned a black shirt over the bandages.
“And Thomas has her brother.”
“That does not make you bulletproof.”
“No.”
Zeo checked the pistol Gabriel handed him.
“But it makes me motivated.”
Across the city, Nora entered a taxi.
Her phone buzzed.
Unknown number.
A photograph appeared.
Eli sat tied to a chair.
Behind him stood Thomas.
The message contained one sentence.
BRING ZEO ROSSI TO WAREHOUSE 17 OR YOUR BROTHER DOESN’T SEE SUNSET.
Nora stared at the photograph until tears blurred it.
Then a second message arrived.
This one was worse.
May you like
COME ALONE, NORA.
WE ALREADY HAVE SOMEONE BESIDE ZEO.
