Chapter 5 - The Price of BloodAnna had never hated anyone as quickly as she hated Gabriel Vale.
Not Russo.
Not even Lorenzo during the first hour after he dragged her from the Baccarat.
Gabriel was different.
He had taken her mother without raising his voice.
Without appearing.
Without needing to threaten what he would do.
The empty doorway had been enough.
Antonio picked up the phone.
“Gabriel.”
“Antonio.”
The voice sounded pleased.
“Twenty years. You’ve become difficult to find.”
“Release Elena.”
“The ledger.”
“You know I can’t give it to you.”
Gabriel sighed.
“Then perhaps your daughter can convince you.”
Anna seized the phone.
“If you hurt her—”
“What?”
Gabriel interrupted.
“You’ll kill me?”
A soft laugh.
“You met Lorenzo yesterday and already sound like a Moretti.”
Lorenzo’s expression became dangerous.
Gabriel continued.
“Ask your father where he hid the ledger.”
The line disconnected.
Anna turned toward Antonio.
“Where?”
He looked exhausted.
“Anna.”
“Where is it?”
“If Gabriel gets it, hundreds of people die.”
“And if he doesn’t, Mom might.”
“It isn’t that simple.”
“It is exactly that simple to me.”
Antonio looked toward Lorenzo.
“Tell her.”
Anna spun.
“Don’t.”
Lorenzo remained silent.
“Do not tell me my mother is an acceptable casualty.”
“I wasn’t going to.”
“Then help me get her back.”
“I will.”
The answer was immediate.
Anna stopped.
Lorenzo stepped closer.
“We get Elena back.”
“And the ledger?”
“We keep it away from Gabriel.”
Antonio shook his head.
“You don’t understand what it contains.”
“Then explain.”
The older man looked around.
“Not here.”
They returned to Sands Point before noon.
Security doubled.
Phones were surrendered.
Every employee was searched.
Lorenzo locked the four of them inside his father’s old study.
Anna stood near the fireplace while Antonio finally explained.
The Black Cross ledger was not a book of money.
It was a map of power.
Judges.
Police commanders.
Senators.
Corporate executives.
Customs officers.
Bankers.
Criminal organizations.
Every debt.
Every bribe.
Every secret.
Twenty-five years of leverage.
“If Gabriel has that,” Leo said, “he can blackmail half the East Coast.”
“He already has copies of portions.”
Antonio nodded.
“The original contains authentication codes. Without them, much of what he possesses is useless.”
Lorenzo looked at him.
“Where is it?”
Antonio’s gaze moved toward Anna.
She immediately understood.
“No.”
“Anna—”
“No.”
Her father reached into his jacket.
He removed the brass key from Grand Central.
“This doesn’t open a box.”
He placed it on the desk.
“It opens a deposit vault.”
“Where?”
“Switzerland.”
Anna laughed in disbelief.
“Of course it does.”
Antonio continued.
“The account is held under two names.”
“Yours and Mom’s?”
“No.”
He looked at Anna.
“Mine and yours.”
Silence.
“I was fourteen.”
“That was the point.”
“A minor heir was harder to trace through conventional financial searches.”
Lorenzo picked up the key.
“What does she need to access it?”
“Biometric verification.”
Anna stared.
“My biometric verification from when?”
“Your fingerprints were registered when you were twelve.”
“You took me to Switzerland?”
“You thought we were visiting Milan.”
Anna pressed both hands against her face.
“My entire childhood was apparently organized crime with sightseeing.”
Lorenzo almost smiled.
She pointed at him.
“Not funny.”
His mouth flattened.
“Completely serious.”
Antonio explained the plan.
Gabriel would expect them to retrieve the ledger.
So they would.
But instead of surrendering it, Lorenzo intended to use it as bait.
Anna listened.
Then shook her head.
“No.”
Lorenzo looked at her.
“No?”
“We don’t know where he has Mom.”
“We’ll find her.”
“How?”
“Gabriel needs communication.”
“So?”
“So communication leaves traces.”
Leo was already working with Moretti technical teams.
Burner phones.
Relay towers.
Traffic cameras.
Financial activity.
Lorenzo’s organization attacked the problem from every direction.
Anna watched him work.
For the first time, she understood why people obeyed him.
He did not shout.
He did not panic.
He made decisions.
Fast.
Precise.
Absolute.
By evening, they had a location.
Red Hook.
An abandoned maritime warehouse leased through a Black Cross shell company.
Anna stood when Leo announced it.
“Let’s go.”
“No.”
Lorenzo did not look up from the map.
She stared at him.
“Excuse me?”
“You’re staying here.”
“My mother is there.”
“Possibly.”
“I’m going.”
“No.”
Anna walked around the desk.
“Do you remember what happened the last time you told me what I was going to do?”
“Yes.”
“You kidnapped me.”
“I recruited you.”
“You threatened me.”
“Effective recruiting.”
“Lorenzo.”
He finally looked up.
“This is not a negotiation.”
Anna leaned toward him.
“You don’t get to decide which risks I take for my family.”
His eyes hardened.
“I do when the risk involves walking into a building controlled by the man who murdered mine.”
The room went silent.
Anna straightened.
There it was.
Not control.
Fear.
Lorenzo was afraid she would die.
The realization changed her anger.
Not enough to make her agree.
But enough to make her understand.
“I saved your life last night.”
“Yes.”
“I recognized Russo’s code when none of your men did.”
“Yes.”
“And today I found the Grand Central clue.”
“Yes.”
“Then stop treating me like luggage.”
Lorenzo stared at her.
Anna lowered her voice.
“You hired me because I understand things your soldiers don’t.”
A pause.
“Use me.”
Something fierce moved through his expression.
“Those words are extremely dangerous to say to me.”
Heat rose unexpectedly into Anna’s face.
Leo abruptly looked at the ceiling.
Antonio muttered something in Italian.
Anna ignored them.
“You know what I mean.”
“I do.”
Lorenzo stood.
He was close enough that she had to tilt her head back.
“If you come, you follow every instruction I give.”
“Reasonable instructions.”
“Every.”
“Reasonable.”
His jaw tightened.
Anna crossed her arms.
Finally he exhaled.
“Stay behind me.”
“That I can do.”
They reached Red Hook at eleven fifteen.
Rain had begun.
The warehouse stood beside the dark water.
Lorenzo’s men entered from three sides.
Anna waited inside an armored SUV with Leo.
She hated every second.
Then gunfire sounded.
She reached for the door.
Leo locked it.
“Don’t.”
“My mother—”
“Lorenzo will get her.”
Minutes passed.
Then Leo’s radio crackled.
“Clear.”
Anna was out before he finished.
She ran into the warehouse.
Two men lay wounded near the entrance.
Moretti soldiers moved between shipping containers.
“Mom!”
No answer.
Lorenzo emerged from an office.
Anna knew immediately.
“She isn’t here.”
His face confirmed it.
“What did you find?”
He handed her a phone.
On its screen was a live video.
Elena sat in a chair.
Alive.
Uninjured.
Behind her was a white wall.
Nothing else.
Gabriel appeared beside her.
He was in his late fifties.
Silver hair.
Elegant suit.
The face of a university president rather than a criminal architect.
“Good evening, Anna.”
It was prerecorded.
“You found the warehouse faster than I expected.”
He smiled.
“Lorenzo always was talented.”
Lorenzo’s expression became stone.
Gabriel continued.
“Bring the ledger to New York within seventy-two hours.”
A location appeared.
Ellis Island.
Midnight.
Three nights from now.
“Come alone, Anna.”
Lorenzo laughed once.
Cold.
Gabriel seemed to anticipate it.
“If Lorenzo comes within one mile of the island, Elena dies.”
Anna’s stomach twisted.
“If Antonio comes, Elena dies.”
The screen changed.
A photograph appeared.
Lorenzo’s estate.
Taken that afternoon.
Then another.
Teresa leaving a grocery store.
Another.
Leo’s wife and teenage son.
Leo went white.
Gabriel’s voice returned.
“I have spent twenty years learning where the Moretti family sleeps.”
A pause.
“Do not test me.”
The video ended.
No one spoke.
Anna looked at Lorenzo.
“I’m going alone.”
“No.”
“You heard him.”
“He wants you isolated.”
“He has my mother.”
“And if you hand him the ledger, he will have no reason to keep either of you alive.”
Anna knew he was right.
She hated him for it.
“What do we do?”
Lorenzo looked at the dark screen.
“We make Gabriel believe he has won.”
“How?”
His eyes moved toward her.
“We give him the ledger.”
Antonio, who had just entered behind them, shook his head.
“Absolutely not.”
Lorenzo ignored him.
Anna studied his face.
“You have a plan.”
“Yes.”
“Will I like it?”
“No.”
“Will my father?”
“Considerably less.”
Antonio swore.
Lorenzo took Anna’s hand.
It was the first time he had done it without pulling her away from danger.
His fingers threaded through hers.
“Trust me.”
Anna looked down at their hands.
Then up.
“You’re asking a lot.”
“I know.”
“You threatened to kill me twenty-four hours ago.”
“I’ve revised my position.”
“To what?”
His thumb moved once across her knuckles.
“To killing anyone who tries.”
Anna’s heart stumbled.
May you like
Neither noticed Antonio watching them.
Or perhaps both noticed and deliberately ignored him.
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