Chapter 9 - THE WOMAN IN THE AMBULANCE
The truce lasted exactly long enough to plan the attack.
Dominic and Sofia did not shake hands.
They divided routes.
Moretti vehicles blocked the western access road.
Federal agents approached from the south.
Matteo and Carlo covered the hangars.
Dominic rode with Chloe.
“You should stay with Reyes.”
“No.”
“You are not trained.”
“My mother may be the only person Elena trusts.”
“That does not make bullets avoid you.”
Chloe checked the borrowed protective vest.
“Neither does your last name.”
The convoy appeared near the airfield gates.
Three ambulances.
Two black SUVs.
Vittorio’s men opened fire when they saw the blockade.
The first ambulance crashed into a barrier.
The second reversed.
The third accelerated toward the runway.
“Elena,” Chloe said.
Dominic followed.
The ambulance reached a cargo plane.
Men opened the rear ramp.
Dominic rammed their vehicle into the ambulance’s front wheel.
Metal screamed.
The ambulance spun.
Chloe’s head struck the window.
Dominic drew his gun and exited.
She followed despite his shout.
The rear doors opened.
A guard fired.
Dominic shot him.
Chloe climbed inside.
Medical equipment lined the walls.
A woman lay strapped to a stretcher.
Her dark hair had been cut short.
Burn scars crossed one side of her neck.
Her eyes were closed.
“Elena?”
No response.
Chloe checked her pulse.
Alive.
A tube delivered medication into her arm.
Chloe removed it.
Elena’s eyes opened slightly.
“Rebecca?”
“I’m Chloe.”
Recognition moved slowly.
“Her daughter.”
“Yes.”
“Luca?”
“Safe.”
Elena began crying.
“Dominic?”
Chloe hesitated.
“Here.”
Fear entered Elena’s face.
“Don’t let him—”
“He knows about Vittorio.”
Elena stared at her.
Then gunfire erupted outside.
Chloe released the stretcher straps.
Dominic appeared at the door.
He saw his wife.
Everything inside him stopped.
“Elena.”
Her eyes found him.
For two years, he had mourned her.
For two years, she had survived because he believed the wrong man.
She turned her face away.
“Don’t touch me.”
Dominic froze.
Chloe placed herself between them without thinking.
“We need to move her.”
Dominic nodded.
No anger.
No demand.
They carried the stretcher toward a federal vehicle.
Vittorio emerged from the cargo plane holding a detonator.
“Put her down.”
Dominic turned.
Explosives lined the fuel truck beside the runway.
“If I release this switch,” Vittorio said, “half the field burns.”
Sofia Moretti aimed from behind a vehicle.
Vittorio smiled.
“You shoot me, everyone dies.”
Elena’s eyes opened.
“Dominic.”
He looked down.
“His left hand shakes.”
Dominic understood.
Vittorio had nerve damage from Carlo’s bullet.
The detonator required continuous pressure.
A sudden strike might force release.
But he needed someone close.
Chloe saw Matteo moving beneath the aircraft wing.
Vittorio did not.
Dominic kept him talking.
“You killed Elena’s driver.”
“Yes.”
“Placed another woman in the car.”
“Yes.”
“Who was she?”
Vittorio shrugged.
“No one important.”
Chloe felt Elena’s hand tighten.
Every victim had been treated as no one.
Vittorio continued.
“You were easy to guide.”
“A message on a phone.”
“A grieving child.”
“A dead wife.”
“You turned your anger into my army.”
Dominic’s face remained still.
“Why keep her alive?”
“The ledger required retinal confirmation.”
Elena had encrypted the names.
Vittorio needed her eyes and voice to open the account.
She refused.
So he kept her sedated, hoping time would weaken her.
“You could have killed Luca,” Dominic said.
“I needed him.”
“For what?”
“Children open mothers.”
Elena turned pale.
Vittorio had planned to use Luca to force her cooperation.
Matteo moved closer.
Vittorio noticed too late.
Matteo struck his wrist.
The detonator fell.
Dominic kicked it beneath the ambulance.
Sofia fired.
The bullet struck Vittorio’s leg.
Federal agents rushed forward.
Vittorio fell but continued laughing.
“You think arrest ends this?”
Dominic stood over him.
“No.”
“Truth does.”
Vittorio looked toward Elena.
“She still hasn’t told you why she chose Nightingale.”
Dominic’s gaze moved to her.
Elena closed her eyes.
Vittorio smiled.
“Ask your wife who ordered the first investigation into the Russo family.”
Elena answered before anyone could.
“I did.”
Dominic went still.
She looked at him.
“I was not only investigating Vittorio.”
“I was investigating you.”
The words changed the rescue.
Elena had not been merely a loyal wife uncovering one corrupt uncle.
She had been building a case against Dominic’s entire organization.
Including Dominic.
He stared at her.
“You planned to send me to prison.”
“Yes.”
“Before or after taking Luca?”
“Before you turned him into another Russo man.”
Dominic looked as though she had struck him.
Vittorio laughed from the ground.
“There is your dead wife.”
“Still loyal to no one.”
Elena turned toward him.
“I was loyal to my son.”
May you like
Then she looked at Dominic.
“And you had forgotten how.”
