Chapter 5 - THE WOMAN WHO KNEW TOO MUCH
Chloe wanted to leave immediately.
Dominic stopped her at the safe-room door.
“You walk out alone, Vittorio takes the recorder and kills both of you.”
“He has my mother.”
“I know.”
“Then move.”
Dominic did not.
For one dangerous second, Chloe thought he might lock her inside.
Then he stepped aside.
“I’m coming.”
“No.”
“You don’t trust me.”
“No.”
“That doesn’t change what happens next.”
He turned toward Carlo.
“Prepare two vehicles.”
Carlo was pale from blood loss.
“You need men I know aren’t compromised.”
“How many?”
“Three.”
Dominic looked around the surveillance room.
He had once commanded dozens.
Now he trusted three.
Vittorio’s betrayal had reduced the Russo empire to a handful of uncertain loyalties.
Before they left, Luca grabbed Chloe’s hand.
She knelt.
“I have to bring my mom home.”
His lower lip trembled.
“You stay with Carlo.”
Luca shook his head.
“Chloe.”
It was the first time he had spoken her name.
She nearly broke.
“I’m coming back.”
He looked toward Dominic.
Fear returned.
Dominic lowered himself several feet away.
He did not reach for Luca.
“I will bring her back,” he said.
Luca hid behind Chloe.
Dominic accepted it.
Chloe placed the gray wolf in Luca’s hands.
“Hold him for me.”
The boy nodded.
Vittorio ordered Chloe to meet him inside an abandoned church on the South Side.
Dominic recognized the location.
“It belongs to the old Russo foundation.”
“What happened there?”
“Funerals.”
“Meetings.”
“Confessions.”
Chloe looked at him.
“How poetic.”
“No.”
Dominic checked his weapon.
“Nothing about my family is poetic.”
They arrived before noon.
Chloe entered carrying the recorder inside a canvas bag.
Dominic’s men remained outside.
The church smelled of dust and candle wax.
Rebecca Hastings sat in the front pew.
Her wrists were bound.
A bruise darkened one side of her face.
“Mom.”
Rebecca lifted her head.
“Chloe, leave.”
Vittorio stepped from behind the altar.
His wounded shoulder had been bandaged.
The green tie was gone.
Without it, he looked less like an elegant uncle and more like an aging predator.
“You came.”
“Let her go.”
“The recorder.”
Chloe held up the bag.
“First, I want answers.”
Vittorio smiled.
“You inherited that from your mother.”
Rebecca stared at him.
“Do not tell her anything.”
“Mom, how did you know Elena?”
Rebecca closed her eyes.
Vittorio answered for her.
“She helped deliver Luca.”
Chloe looked toward her mother.
“You were there?”
Rebecca had been a registered nurse before lupus forced her to stop working full-time.
She had never spoken about private patients.
“Elena hired me during her pregnancy,” Rebecca said.
“Why?”
“She did not trust the Russo physician.”
“Why not?”
“Because he worked for Vittorio.”
Vittorio appeared amused.
Rebecca continued.
“After Luca was born, Elena contacted me again.”
“She had discovered forged medical shipments.”
“She wanted someone outside the organization to verify the drug labels.”
Chloe thought of the Lakeshore clinic.
“What did you find?”
“Some medications were diluted.”
“Others were counterfeit.”
“Vittorio’s network replaced expensive autoimmune drugs with cheaper compounds, then billed insurers for the real medication.”
Chloe’s stomach turned.
Her mother’s clinic was part of the scheme.
“Was my treatment fake?” Rebecca asked.
Vittorio sighed.
“Not all of it.”
Chloe’s hand tightened around the recorder bag.
“You used sick people to hide trafficking.”
“Medical trucks cross borders with fewer questions.”
“People died.”
“People always die.”
The casual answer stripped away his remaining disguise.
Dominic stepped from the shadowed balcony above.
“Then perhaps you won’t mind joining them.”
Vittorio did not look surprised.
“You were never good at staying hidden.”
Armed men appeared along both side aisles.
Dominic had been surrounded.
Vittorio looked toward Chloe.
“I told you to come alone.”
“I didn’t invite him.”
That was technically true.
Vittorio nodded toward one of his men.
A gun pressed against Rebecca’s neck.
“Give me the recorder.”
Chloe placed the bag on the floor and kicked it forward.
Vittorio opened it.
Empty.
His smile vanished.
Dominic held the recorder above the balcony rail.
“You want this?”
Vittorio raised his weapon toward Rebecca.
Dominic’s face changed.
Chloe understood.
He could kill Vittorio.
But not before the gun fired.
Rebecca spoke suddenly.
“Elena is alive.”
Every weapon in the church seemed to freeze.
Dominic stared at her.
“What?”
Vittorio turned toward Rebecca with fury.
“You stupid woman.”
Chloe’s heart hammered.
“Mom?”
Rebecca continued quickly.
“The body in the car was not Elena.”
“Vittorio needed everyone to believe she died.”
“Where is she?” Dominic demanded.
Rebecca looked toward the stained-glass window.
“Lakeshore.”
Chloe stopped breathing.
Her mother’s treatment clinic.
Elena had been hidden in the same building Chloe visited every month.
Vittorio fired.
Rebecca fell sideways.
Chloe screamed.
Dominic shot the man holding her.
The church erupted.
Gunfire tore through wooden pews.
Dominic’s men entered from the rear.
Chloe crawled toward her mother.
Blood spread across Rebecca’s blouse.
“Mom.”
Rebecca pressed one hand against her side.
“It missed my heart.”
Her voice was weak.
“Go.”
“No.”
“Chloe, listen.”
She pulled a medical bracelet from her wrist.
A number was written beneath the plastic.
ROOM B-19.
“Elena remembers everything.”
“Vittorio keeps her sedated.”
Chloe looked toward the altar.
Vittorio had disappeared through a hidden door.
Dominic reached them.
“Carlo’s bringing the car.”
Rebecca grabbed his sleeve.
“You ordered Nightingale captured.”
“Yes.”
“Vittorio changed it to kill.”
Dominic closed his eyes.
“But Elena survived the explosion.”
“Yes.”
“Why keep her alive?”
“She controls an account.”
“What account?”
Rebecca looked at Chloe.
“The one holding every name Vittorio sold.”
Women.
Children.
Patients.
Judges.
Police officers.
The complete ledger of the hidden empire.
A final gunshot sounded beneath the church.
Then a vehicle engine roared outside.
Vittorio had escaped.
Dominic lifted Rebecca carefully.
Chloe followed.
As they reached the doors, Rebecca whispered one final warning.
“Vittorio knows Luca spoke.”
Dominic stopped.
“What does that mean?”
“He knows the boy remembers the lake house.”
Back at the estate, the surveillance cameras suddenly went dark.
Carlo’s voice came through Dominic’s radio.
May you like
“They breached the west gate.”
Then Luca screamed.
