Chapter 7 - THE GIRL IN THE RED WAREHOUSE
Dominic did not remember the drive to Westchester.
He remembered Elena beside him.
He remembered Marco making calls.
He remembered breaking every speed limit between Manhattan and the estate.
But the journey itself disappeared beneath one thought.
Lily.
The front doors were open when they arrived.
One guard was unconscious in the foyer.
Another had been locked inside the security room.
Rosa was conscious.
Barely.
Elena dropped beside her.
“Where’s Lily?”
Rosa’s eyes filled with tears.
“I’m sorry.”
“Rosa.”
“A man came through the service entrance. He knew the codes.”
Dominic crouched.
“Who?”
“I didn’t recognize him.”
“What did he want?”
“Lily.”
Elena made a broken sound.
Rosa grabbed her wrist.
“She fought.”
“What?”
“Your little girl fought him.”
Even Dominic almost laughed.
Of course she did.
“She kicked him,” Rosa whispered. “Bit his hand. Screamed.”
Elena covered her mouth.
“But he took her.”
Dominic stood.
Something in his face frightened every guard in the room.
Marco approached.
“We have a vehicle.”
“Where?”
“Traffic camera caught a gray van headed south.”
“Track it.”
“Already on it.”
Dominic’s phone rang.
Unknown number.
Everyone froze.
He answered.
A distorted voice spoke.
“Pier Seventeen. Red warehouse. One hour.”
“Put Lily on.”
Silence.
“Put my daughter on the phone.”
A pause.
Then a small trembling voice.
“Daddy?”
Dominic stopped breathing.
It was the first time she had called him that.
“Lily.”
“I’m okay.”
Elena began crying silently.
Dominic gripped the phone.
“Listen to me. I’m coming.”
“The man is mad.”
“I know.”
“I bit him.”
Despite everything, Marco almost smiled.
“Good girl.”
The voice returned.
“Bring the Bellmont files. No police.”
The call ended.
Elena turned on Dominic.
“You are not going alone.”
“Yes.”
“No.”
“Elena.”
“That is my daughter.”
“And mine.”
“Then stop acting like only one of us is allowed to be terrified.”
The words hit him.
She was right.
Again.
Dominic looked at Marco.
“Prepare two teams.”
Elena shook her head.
“I’m going inside.”
“No.”
“She’ll be calmer if she sees me.”
“No.”
“You don’t command me.”
“This once I do.”
“No, Dominic.”
Their eyes locked.
Seven years earlier, someone else had decided what Elena could handle.
Dominic saw the parallel.
He hated it.
He changed course.
“You stay behind me.”
Elena nodded.
“That I can accept.”
Pier Seventeen had been abandoned for years.
The red warehouse sat beside dark winter water, its windows broken and its loading docks rusted.
Dominic entered carrying a black case.
Elena followed ten feet behind.
Marco’s team surrounded the property unseen.
Inside, one hanging work light illuminated the floor.
Lily sat in a metal chair.
Her hands were tied loosely in front of her.
A man stood behind her.
Patrick Sloan.
Elena’s former supervisor.
His face looked desperate.
“Stop there.”
Dominic stopped.
Elena whispered, “Patrick?”
Sloan laughed.
“You had to keep digging.”
Elena stared at him.
“You worked for Adrian.”
“I worked for myself.”
“Where is he?”
“In custody, thanks to you.”
Dominic lifted the case.
“You wanted files.”
“Put them down.”
Dominic did.
“Let Lily go.”
Sloan shook his head.
“Not yet.”
“You have no way out.”
“I have plenty.”
“No.”
Dominic’s voice remained strangely calm.
“You kidnapped the daughter of a man whose people have controlled half the freight moving through this neighborhood for twenty years.”
Sloan’s face twitched.
Dominic continued.
“You chose a Moretti warehouse.”
Sloan looked around.
The realization arrived slowly.
Dominic knew the building.
Every exit.
Every tunnel.
Every blind corner.
“You tracked us.”
“Yes.”
“You called police.”
“No.”
That was technically true.
Marco had called federal agents.
Sloan dragged Lily upright.
She winced.
Dominic’s expression became lethal.
“Take your hand off her.”
“Back up.”
Dominic did not move.
Lily looked at him.
“Daddy?”
“I’m here.”
“You promised.”
“I remember.”
Sloan pulled a pistol.
Elena gasped.
Dominic’s body went still.
“Patrick.”
Elena stepped forward.
Sloan swung the weapon toward her.
Dominic moved instantly.
“Don’t point that at her.”
“Then tell her to stop.”
Elena stared at Sloan.
“You don’t want Lily.”
“I want the evidence.”
“You already lost.”
“No.”
“Yes.”
Elena’s voice became calm.
“You think Adrian will protect you? He confessed.”
Sloan blinked.
She saw it.
“You didn’t know.”
His grip loosened slightly.
“He named the accounts,” Elena lied.
Dominic looked at her.
Excellent.
“He named you too.”
“No.”
“He told them Patrick Sloan handled Bellmont.”
“He wouldn’t.”
“He already did.”
Sloan’s breathing became ragged.
Lily looked down.
Her small fingers moved against the rope.
Dominic noticed.
So did Elena.
They both pretended not to.
Sloan shouted, “Shut up!”
Lily pulled one hand free.
The repaired ear on Mr. Pickles had a metal safety pin inside it.
Apparently she had used it on the knot.
Dominic almost smiled.
His daughter.
Definitely.
Lily suddenly dropped.
Sloan grabbed for her.
Elena lunged.
Dominic crossed the distance.
The gun struck the concrete and slid away.
Marco’s team entered from both sides.
Within seconds Sloan was facedown on the floor.
Dominic did not hit him.
He wanted to.
Every violent instinct inside him demanded it.
Instead he walked past.
Lily was crying now.
Elena untied her.
Dominic knelt.
She launched herself at him.
He held her tightly.
“You came.”
“I told you I would.”
“I knew.”
Those two words nearly broke him.
Elena wrapped her arms around both of them.
For several seconds the three remained on the dirty warehouse floor.
No empire.
No mafia name.
No missing millions.
Just a family that should have existed seven years earlier.
Marco approached quietly.
“Agents have Sloan.”
Dominic nodded.
“There’s something else.”
Dominic looked up.
“We found a laptop in his van.”
“So?”
Marco’s expression was troubled.
“It contains Adrian’s full contingency plan.”
“For the takeover?”
“Yes.”
“How bad?”
Marco hesitated.
“Very.”
The plan included bribed executives.
Purchased politicians.
Shell companies.
False evidence prepared against Dominic.
And one particularly dangerous document.
A federal tip drafted months earlier.
It accused Dominic personally of ordering financial crimes he had never authorized.
If Adrian could not remove him through the board, he intended to send Dominic to prison.
Elena looked at the screen.
“What happens now?”
Dominic stared at the records.
“Now I finish it.”
“How?”
He looked at Lily.
Then at Elena.
“By telling the truth.”
Marco’s expression sharpened.
“All of it?”
“All of it.”
Elena understood first.
“You mean the legitimate businesses.”
“And the others.”
Marco stepped closer.
“Dom, once you open those books, there is no going back.”
“I know.”
“You could lose the company.”
“I know.”
“You could lose everything.”
Dominic looked down as Lily placed her small hand inside his.
“No.”
His fingers closed around hers.
May you like
“Not everything.”
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