Chapter 5: The Night the Vescari Knew Her Name
The call rang out.
Dominic tried again.
Four rings.
Voicemail.
He was in the SUV before the second attempt finished.
His chief of security, Marco, was already in the front seat.
"Brooklyn," Dominic said.
"Now."
Marco didn't ask questions.
He never did.
Dominic called the building's front desk from the car.
No answer.
He called the one number he had for Sophia — the mobile number his people had quietly located two days ago when he'd first started pulling her file.
Voicemail again.
He sat with the phone in his hand and made himself think instead of react.
The Vescari man had been outside the building at six.
Lily had arrived at the mansion at four seventeen.
Which meant someone had been watching Sophia's building before Lily ever walked through his door.
Before Dominic had any reason to go to Brooklyn.
Before tonight had happened at all.
They hadn't followed him there.
They already knew.
"How fast?" he said to Marco.
"Eighteen minutes if I push it."
"Push it."
The city moved past the windows in streaks of yellow and white.
Dominic kept his phone in his hand.
He thought about the drawing on the refrigerator.
The two figures.
The unsteady letters.
*Me and Mama.*
He thought about Sophia's face when she said: *I chose safe.*
His phone rang.
Unknown number.
He answered it.
"Mr.
Moretti." A man's voice.
Smooth, unhurried, with the particular calm of someone who believes they are holding all the cards.
"I hope I'm not interrupting your evening."
Dominic recognized the voice.
Carlo Vescari.
Not an intermediary.
Not a lieutenant.
Carlo himself.
"Carlo."
"I understand you had an interesting afternoon."
"What do you want?"
"Only to talk.
We haven't spoken directly since the truce.
I've always felt that was a missed opportunity.
Two reasonable men, so much history between our families—"
"What do you want, Carlo."
A small pause.
The performance of patience.
"I want you to understand something," Carlo said.
"What I know, and what I choose to do with what I know, are two entirely separate decisions.
I haven't made the second one yet."
"You're telling me you know about the child."
"I'm telling you that information travels, Mr.
Moretti.
Especially when someone inside your own organization has been careless with it." Another pause.
"Your cousin is not as discreet as he believes himself to be."
Vincent.
Vincent had been the leak.
Not intentionally — or perhaps intentionally.
Dominic filed that away.
"What's your price?" Dominic said.
"I don't want money.
I want the Greenpoint territory.
The three blocks your people have held since 2019.
You pull back, I move in, and whatever I know about your personal situation remains personal."
"That territory is worth four times anything you could offer me."
"Perhaps.
But your daughter is worth considerably more than territory." The smoothness in Carlo's voice didn't waver.
"Think of it as a father's investment."
The SUV turned onto Sophia's street.
"I'll call you back," Dominic said.
"Don't take too long.
My patience is one of my better qualities, but it isn't infinite."
The call ended.
Marco pulled up outside the building.
Dominic was out before the vehicle stopped.
The front door of the walk-up was unlocked.
That was wrong.
It was always locked after eight.
He took the stairs two at a time.
Sophia's door was closed.
He knocked.
Three sharp raps.
Nothing.
Then: "Who is it?"
Her voice.
He exhaled once.
"Dominic."
A pause.
The deadbolt turned.
Then the second lock.
She opened the door still holding her phone, her face tight with something that loosened slightly when she saw him.
"I called you," he said.
"I know.
I saw it after.
I had Lily in the bath, I didn't hear it." She looked past him at the empty hallway.
"What's wrong?"
"There was a Vescari man outside your building tonight.
Six to seven."
The colour left her face.
"Lily was on the train at six."
"I know."
"She was alone on the train at six and there was a Vescari—" Her voice broke on the last word.
She pressed her hand flat against the door frame.
"She was alone."
"She's here.
She's safe."
"She was alone, Dominic."
"I know." He stepped inside.
"Pack what you need for a week.
Both of you.
You're not staying here tonight."
"I'm not going to your—"
"Not the mansion.
Somewhere else.
Somewhere clean that Carlo Vescari has never heard of." He looked at her.
"I just got off the phone with him.
He knows about Lily.
He's using her as leverage."
Sophia stood very still.
"He called you."
"Yes."
"He called you, which means he's had your number, which means he's been watching you, which means—" She stopped.
Her eyes moved to the hallway where Lily's room was.
"How long has he known?"
"I don't know yet.
But I'm going to find out."
From down the hall came a small voice.
"Mama?
I can't find my rabbit."
Sophia closed her eyes for one second.
Just one.
"I'll get it, baby."
She looked at Dominic.
Her voice dropped to almost nothing.
"If anything happens to her—"
"Nothing is going to happen to her."
"You can't promise that."
"I can promise that I will burn down everything I have built before I let anyone touch her." He said it the way he said everything — quietly, without drama, the way a man states a fact he has already decided.
"Pack the bag, Sophia."
May you like
She held his gaze for a long moment.
Then she went to find the rabbit.
