Chapter 6: What Sokolov Already Knew
They moved at 4 a.m.
Two cars.
No phones that hadn't been wiped.
Emma asleep against Rachel's shoulder in the back seat, still holding the bear, undisturbed by the city sliding past the dark windows.
Marco drove the lead car.
Luca sat beside him.
"Caruso," Luca said.
"We found him an hour ago." Marco kept his eyes on the road.
"He's at a hotel in Newark.
Checked in under a different name.
He's been there for six days."
"He ran before the apartment."
"Yes."
"He knew it was coming."
"He helped plan it." Marco's voice was flat.
"We pulled his communications.
He's been feeding Sokolov information for fourteen months.
Emma's school.
Rachel's routines.
Your hospital admission three nights ago — Sokolov knew about the sh**ting before it was in the news."
Luca stared at the road ahead.
"He told Sokolov about the heart condition?"
"Everything Dr.
Bennett told you.
Within six hours."
"How?"
"He had someone inside the hospital.
Orderly on the night shift.
Already removed."
Luca's jaw tightened.
"Sokolov planned the Mulberry Street sh**ting knowing I had a heart condition."
"He wasn't just trying to h*t you," Marco said quietly.
"He was trying to trigger a cardiac event.
The stress of the att@ck.
The injury.
The chaos." He paused.
"If your heart had gone the way he expected, there would have been no investigation.
Natural causes under extreme stress.
Clean."
The car moved through an empty intersection.
"He wanted it to look like my body finished what his shooter started," Luca said.
"Yes."
"And when it didn't work, he moved to Emma."
"Because a man who just survived being sh*t and learned he might d*e anyway — that man will do anything to protect his child.
Sokolov was going to use Emma to get you somewhere alone.
Somewhere with no doctors and no Marco."
Luca said nothing for a block.
"Where is Caruso now?"
"Still at the hotel.
He doesn't know we found him."
"Keep it that way."
"For how long?"
"Until I decide what to do with what he knows." Luca looked at Marco.
"He didn't just give Sokolov information.
He gave Voss information.
Which means he may have sold the same package to Reeves in Philadelphia."
Marco exhaled slowly.
"So Reeves knows about Emma."
"Possibly."
"That changes the timeline."
"Yes."
They drove in silence for a moment.
"There's something I haven't told you," Marco said.
Luca looked at him.
"Sokolov called me."
The car felt very still suddenly.
"When?"
"Two hours ago.
While you were with Rachel." Marco's hands stayed steady on the wheel.
"He used a number I haven't given anyone in four years.
I don't know how he had it."
"What did he say?"
"He said he knew you'd discharged yourself.
He said he knew where the safe house was." Marco paused.
"He said he wasn't interested in the girl.
He said he was interested in a conversation."
"A conversation."
"Those were his words."
"What kind of conversation?"
"He wants the Red Hook contract returned.
All of it.
He wants a formal acknowledgment from the three families that he was treated unfairly." Marco glanced at him.
"In exchange, he walks away from Emma.
He forgets she exists.
He pulls Voss back.
He ends it."
Luca stared at the road.
"He's offering a deal."
"He's offering the appearance of a deal."
"You think it's a trap."
"I think a man who tried to kjll you through cardiac failure and then sent people to take your daughter is not genuinely interested in a fair negotiation." Marco's voice was careful.
"I think he wants you in a room."
"So do I."
Marco looked at him sharply.
"Not on his terms," Luca said.
"On mine."
"Luca—"
"He made a mistake calling you."
"How?"
"Because now I know he's afraid." Luca turned to look out the window.
"Men who are winning don't offer deals.
They take what they want.
Sokolov is offering a deal because something has changed.
Something he didn't expect."
"What changed?"
Luca thought about Ms.
Carver's photograph.
About Voss standing in front of Emma's drawings.
About the specific, careful way Sokolov had constructed fourteen months of surveillance without ever making a move.
"He's been patient for over a year," Luca said.
"He waited until I was in a hospital bed before he acted.
That's not aggression.
That's fear of what happens if he moves too soon."
"Fear of you."
"Fear of what I'd do if I knew Emma was exposed." Luca looked back at Marco.
"He needed me weak first.
He needed the sh**ting, the heart condition, the shock of Emma being in danger — all of it at once.
He needed me overwhelmed."
"And instead?"
Luca almost smiled.
"Instead, I'm in a car at four in the morning with a clear head and a reason to finish this."
Marco was quiet for a moment.
"The deal he's offering," he said.
"The Red Hook contract.
The formal acknowledgment."
"Yes?"
"If you refuse it, he escalates."
"I know."
"He'll come after Emma again."
"He'll try."
"That's not the same as saying he'll fail."
Luca looked at him.
"No.
It isn't."
The second car was visible in the mirror.
Rachel and Emma, moving through the dark city toward a location Sokolov didn't know yet.
"Tell Caruso nothing has changed," Luca said.
"Let him think he's still invisible.
I want him in place when I need him."
"For what?"
"Sokolov wants a conversation." Luca's voice was quiet and entirely certain.
"He's going to get one.
But first I need to know everything Caruso sold, to whom, and when."
Marco nodded slowly.
"And Voss?"
"Find out where he is tonight."
"Already working on it."
"Good."
The car turned onto a bridge.
The river below was black and flat and wide.
Luca's phone buzzed.
A message from the second car.
Rachel's number.
*Emma woke up.
She asked if you're still in the other car.
I told her yes.
She said okay and went back to sleep.*
May you like
He read it twice.
Then he put the phone in his pocket and watched the bridge lights pass overhead, one by one, until the city was behind them.
