Chapter 6 - THE SIEGE
Dominic drove through Chicago traffic like the city belonged to him.
Perhaps once it had.
Now every red light felt like an enemy.
Chloe sat beside her wounded mother in the back seat, pressing towels against the gunshot wound.
Rebecca’s face had become gray.
“Stay awake.”
“I’m trying.”
“Talk to me.”
“You always hated when I sang.”
“Then sing.”
Rebecca laughed weakly.
Dominic glanced toward them in the mirror.
“Hospital is three minutes away.”
“We don’t have time,” Chloe said.
“The estate is under attack.”
“Your mother dies if we don’t stop.”
The choice tore through her.
Luca inside a breached mansion.
Rebecca bleeding beside her.
Dominic turned toward the hospital.
Carlo would have to hold the house.
At the emergency entrance, doctors took Rebecca immediately.
Chloe tried to follow.
A nurse stopped her.
“We need space.”
“My mother—”
“We will help her.”
Dominic touched Chloe’s elbow.
She pulled away.
“Don’t.”
His hand dropped.
The phone rang.
Carlo.
Dominic answered on speaker.
“The west team is down.”
“Luca?”
“Safe room.”
“Who is with him?”
“Two guards.”
“Names?”
Carlo hesitated.
Dominic swore.
“You don’t trust them.”
“I trust one.”
“That is not enough.”
They left the hospital before Rebecca entered surgery.
Chloe hated herself for leaving.
She hated Vittorio more.
The Russo estate appeared through smoke.
One guard lay near the gate.
Another vehicle burned beside the fountain.
Dominic entered through the service tunnel beneath the garage.
Chloe followed.
“You stay behind me.”
“No.”
“This is not a debate.”
“You lost the right to order me around when your family took my mother.”
“My family?”
“Your uncle used your empire.”
“And I will end him.”
“That doesn’t make me safe behind you.”
Dominic turned.
“No.”
His voice lowered.
“It makes you safer than in front of me.”
The honesty stopped her.
They moved through the basement.
Gunfire sounded above.
The safe-room corridor had been breached.
Carlo crouched near the library door with blood soaking his bandage.
“You should be in a hospital,” Chloe said.
“So should everyone today.”
He handed Dominic a second weapon.
“The camera loop started six minutes before the attack.”
“Inside access?”
“Yes.”
“Who?”
Carlo looked toward a dead guard.
“Paolo.”
Dominic’s jaw tightened.
Paolo had served the family for fifteen years.
Vittorio’s loyalty ran deep.
They reached the safe-room door.
It stood open.
One guard was dead.
The second was missing.
The couch was empty.
Luca’s gray wolf lay on the floor.
Chloe picked it up.
“No.”
Dominic’s face became terrifyingly calm.
Carlo checked the security console.
“The emergency tunnel.”
They ran.
The tunnel led toward the boathouse near Lake Michigan.
Rain hammered the shoreline.
A black SUV waited with its rear door open.
A man carried Luca toward it.
Chloe saw the boy’s bare feet.
“Luca!”
He turned.
The captor covered his mouth.
Dominic fired.
The bullet struck the man’s leg.
He dropped.
Luca fell onto the wet stone.
Chloe reached him first.
She covered his body as bullets struck the boathouse wall.
Dominic moved between them and the attackers.
Carlo fired from the tunnel entrance.
The SUV accelerated away, leaving two men behind.
Within seconds, it was over.
One attacker was dead.
The other surrendered.
Dominic turned toward Luca.
The boy clung to Chloe.
“Are you hurt?”
Luca shook his head.
Dominic stepped closer.
The boy recoiled.
Dominic stopped immediately.
Chloe examined Luca’s wrists.
Red marks circled them.
Her anger rose.
“Who tied him?”
The surviving attacker laughed from the ground.
Dominic walked toward him.
Carlo blocked his path.
“We need him alive.”
Dominic looked as though the concept offended him.
Chloe carried Luca back inside.
The boy refused to release her neck.
In his room, she changed his wet clothes and wrapped him in blankets.
Dominic stood outside the door.
He had learned not to enter without permission.
Luca whispered, “Green man.”
Chloe crouched.
“Vittorio?”
He nodded.
“What did he want?”
“House.”
“The lake house?”
Another nod.
“Did Mommy take you there?”
Luca’s eyes filled.
“She was sleeping.”
“When?”
“After car.”
Chloe went cold.
“You saw her after the explosion?”
He nodded.
A memory had survived beneath the silence.
“Who was with her?”
“Green man.”
Vittorio.
“Anyone else?”
Luca looked toward the hallway.
“Carlo.”
Chloe stopped breathing.
Carlo had claimed he did not know Elena survived.
“Are you sure?”
Luca nodded.
Then he made a shape with his fingers.
A gun.
“He shot Daddy.”
“Carlo shot Dominic?”
Luca shook his head violently.
“Other Daddy.”
Chloe did not understand.
Luca climbed from the bed and opened his toy cabinet.
He removed a photograph of Dominic with his younger brother, Matteo Russo.
Matteo had reportedly died six years earlier.
The brothers looked remarkably alike.
Luca pointed at Matteo.
“Other Daddy.”
Chloe stared at the picture.
“Matteo was at the lake house?”
Luca nodded.
A shadow moved beyond the bedroom doorway.
Chloe turned.
Carlo stood there.
His face had gone pale.
Dominic appeared behind him.
“What is it?”
Chloe held up the photograph.
“Luca remembers Matteo.”
Dominic went still.
“My brother died before Luca was born.”
Luca pointed toward the photo again.
“Not dead.”
Carlo lowered his eyes.
Dominic looked at him.
“What do you know?”
Carlo’s silence answered.
Dominic drew his weapon.
“Tell me.”
Carlo raised both hands.
“Matteo is alive.”
The room seemed to tilt.
Dominic’s brother had been presumed dead for six years.
Elena had been presumed dead for two.
May you like
Both had been seen at the same lake house.
And Carlo had known.
