Chapter 5 - They Kidnapped My Best Friend to Trade for My Father's Evidence—But They Underestimated the Woman Who Treated a Mafia Boss With No FearSophia’s room was empty.
The window was open.
There was blood on the sill.
Not much.
Enough.
I stopped functioning like a doctor.
I became something simpler.
Angry.
“Find her.”
Dante stood in the hallway with Marco.
“We will.”
“No. You will find her now.”
“Isabella—”
“She was dragged into this because of you.”
“I know.”
“Then fix it.”
Dante did not argue.
He turned to Marco.
“Every camera. Every vehicle. Lock down the county.”
Marco moved.
Dante caught my wrist when I tried to follow.
“Where are you going?”
“With them.”
“No.”
I looked at his hand.
He released me immediately.
“Do not tell me what I’m allowed to do.”
“They want the drive.”
“Obviously.”
“And you have it.”
“Exactly.”
His expression changed.
“No.”
“Yes.”
“You’re not trading yourself.”
“I said the drive.”
“They’ll demand both.”
“Then we make them think they can have both.”
Dante stared.
“You’re proposing bait.”
“I’m proposing veterinary medicine.”
That confused him.
“Come downstairs.”
Twenty minutes later, I was standing over a map.
Marco had recovered footage showing Sophia being forced into a dark van.
One attacker had been identified.
A man named Nathan Pike.
Former Romano security.
Former because Dante had fired him for participating in illegal narcotics shipments.
“They’ll contact us,” Dante said.
They did.
My phone rang.
Unknown number.
I answered.
“Isabella Santos.”
A distorted voice responded.
“Doctor.”
My skin crawled.
“Where is Sophia?”
“Alive.”
“Prove it.”
A moment later, a video arrived.
Sophia sat tied to a chair.
Bruised.
Terrified.
Alive.
“Give us the drive.”
“Where?”
“Instructions will follow.”
“I want Sophia first.”
The man laughed.
“You are in no position to negotiate.”
“You kidnapped a veterinary assistant because you’re terrified of a USB stick hidden by a veterinarian who has been dead six years. I think you’re more desperate than you want me to believe.”
Silence.
Dante looked at me.
Something almost like pride flashed across his face.
“Midnight,” the voice said. “Tillamook sawmill. Come alone.”
The call ended.
Dante immediately said, “No.”
I looked at Marco.
“Can you track them?”
“Not from that.”
“Then we go.”
Dante shook his head.
“They’ll kill you.”
“They’ll kill Sophia if we don’t.”
“They might kill her anyway.”
“I know.”
His voice softened.
“Isabella.”
I looked at him.
“I cannot lose another person because of my family.”
That was when I saw it.
Not the mafia boss.
The fifteen-year-old boy trying to save his mother.
The twenty-four-year-old brother who had buried Gabriel.
The man carrying every death like stones inside his chest.
I stepped closer.
“You’re not going to lose me.”
“You can’t promise that.”
“No.”
I repeated his own words.
“But I can promise I’m not going to sit here while somebody else risks their life for me.”
At 11:47 p.m., I drove toward the abandoned sawmill.
Alone.
At least, that was what it looked like.
The flash drive sat inside my jacket.
It was fake.
The real drive was already with an attorney connected to Evelyn Carter.
Dante had hated that part.
Not because he wanted the evidence.
Because once it left our control, there was no going back.
Neither of us said that aloud.
The sawmill appeared through the rain.
I parked.
“Get out.”
A man stepped from the shadows.
Nathan Pike.
I recognized him from Marco’s photograph.
“Where’s Sophia?”
“Inside.”
“Let me see her.”
He grabbed my arm.
I reacted instinctively.
My knee connected with his thigh.
Not enough.
He twisted my arm behind my back.
“You’re brave.”
“No.”
I gritted my teeth.
“I’m angry.”
He dragged me inside.
Sophia sat near the far wall.
Her eyes widened.
“Bella!”
“I’m okay.”
“You idiot!”
“Good to see you too.”
Another man approached.
Older.
Expensive coat.
Silver hair.
Dante’s uncle.
Vincent Romano.
I had seen photographs.
“Dr. Santos.”
He smiled.
“You look like your father.”
Every part of me went cold.
“You knew him.”
“Very well.”
“You killed him.”
Vincent smiled again.
That was answer enough.
Rage became strangely quiet.
“You murdered my father.”
“He made unfortunate choices.”
“He tried to expose you.”
“He stole from us.”
“He stole evidence of murder.”
Vincent shrugged.
“Semantics.”
I wanted to kill him.
For one terrifying second, I understood Dante.
Not approved.
Understood.
“Drive.”
I removed it.
Held it up.
“Release Sophia.”
Vincent laughed.
“You really are Rafael’s daughter.”
He gestured.
Pike untied Sophia.
She ran toward me.
Halfway across the room, Vincent raised his gun.
I had expected that.
So had Dante.
The first shot came from above.
Not Vincent’s.
A light exploded.
Darkness.
Then chaos.
Dante’s men entered from three sides.
I grabbed Sophia and pulled her behind heavy machinery.
Gunfire thundered.
“Stay down!”
“Where’s Dante?” Sophia shouted.
As if summoned by the question, he appeared through smoke and darkness.
He moved toward Vincent.
His injured arm was strapped against his body.
His other held a pistol.
Vincent fired.
Dante ducked.
Marco returned fire.
Pike appeared behind Dante.
I saw the knife before Dante did.
“Dante!”
He turned too late.
Pike lunged.
Thor came out of nowhere.
Eighty pounds of German Shepherd slammed into Pike.
The knife clattered away.
“Thor!”
The dog had been hidden in Marco’s vehicle.
Dante kicked the weapon aside.
Marco restrained Pike.
Vincent ran.
Dante followed.
I followed Dante.
Of course I did.
“Isabella, stay back!”
“No!”
We reached the loading dock.
Vincent stood at the edge.
Below him, black river water churned beneath the mill.
He had a gun pointed at Dante.
“You were always weak,” Vincent said.
Dante stopped.
“Maybe.”
“You think turning legitimate makes you better than your father?”
“No.”
“You think one veterinarian will wash the blood off your hands?”
Dante glanced at me.
“No.”
His answer surprised Vincent.
“She doesn’t save me from what I’ve done.”
Dante lowered his weapon.
“She reminds me I still get to choose what I do next.”
Vincent laughed.
Then aimed at me.
Dante fired.
One shot.
Vincent’s gun flew from his hand.
He screamed and dropped to his knees.
Dante approached.
He could have killed him.
Everyone knew it.
Vincent knew it.
Dante pressed the barrel against his uncle’s forehead.
“You killed Rafael Santos.”
Vincent smiled through pain.
“And dozens more.”
Dante’s finger tightened.
I said his name.
“Dante.”
He closed his eyes.
“Don’t become him.”
A long silence.
Then Dante lowered the gun.
Sirens approached.
Federal agents.
Evelyn Carter had received our message.
Vincent looked stunned.
“You called the government?”
Dante stared down at him.
“No.”
He looked at me.
“She did.”
Federal agents flooded the sawmill.
Vincent Romano was arrested.
Nathan Pike was arrested.
Sophia was safe.
Thor received approximately forty minutes of continuous praise.
And Dante?
Dante stood in the rain outside the sawmill watching federal agents carry away boxes containing the remains of his family’s criminal empire.
I approached him.
“It’s over.”
“No.”
He looked toward the flashing lights.
“It’s beginning.”
“What?”
“The drive implicates me too.”
My chest tightened.
“You knew that.”
“Yes.”
“What happens now?”
“I cooperate.”
“And then?”
“I answer for what I did.”
I looked at him.
For some reason, that frightened me more than the gunfire had.
“Prison?”
“Possibly.”
“How long?”
“I don’t know.”
The rain ran down his face.
I realized he was shaking.
Not from cold.
“Dante.”
He looked at me.
Then I did something incredibly stupid.
I kissed him.
It was not gentle at first.
It was relief.
Fear.
Anger.
Everything I had refused to acknowledge.
Then Dante’s hand came to my face.
He stopped.
Pulled back.
His forehead rested against mine.
“You don’t owe me this.”
“I know.”
“I brought danger into your life.”
“I know.”
“I’ve done things you might never forgive.”
“I know.”
His voice broke.
“Then why?”
I looked into those pale blue eyes.
“Because I’m not kissing the man you were.”
I touched his face.
“I’m kissing the man who lowered the gun.”
May you like
And this time, when he kissed me back, it felt less like falling into danger.
It felt like watching someone decide he wanted to become worthy of surviving it.
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