Chapter 7 - THE NIGHT LEO DISAPPEARED
Dominic did not sleep.
Nobody expected him to.
By dawn, forty men had searched every camera feed, road, airport, marina, and known Carbone property in three states.
Leo remained inside the Moretti estate.
Under guard.
Yet Dominic knew men like Carbone.
A threat was rarely only a threat.
It was preparation.
Dr. Kaplan wanted to postpone Leo’s procedure.
The planned surgery was minor but important, intended to address chronic damage that had worsened his conductive hearing loss.
Dominic agreed immediately.
Leo did not.
He signed furiously.
NO.
Dominic stared.
“You want the operation?”
YES.
“It can wait.”
NO.
“Leo.”
The boy’s hands moved.
DOCTOR BAD TOOK TWO YEARS.
His expression hardened.
NO MORE.
Dominic stopped.
His six-year-old son had inherited Moretti stubbornness.
Elena stood beside them.
“He has a point.”
Dominic looked at her.
“Please do not encourage him.”
“I’m not. I’m agreeing with him.”
“That is worse.”
Leo almost smiled.
The surgery was moved to a private surgical center with federal security.
Only seven people knew the location.
Dominic.
Elena.
Dr. Kaplan.
Marco.
Two federal agents.
And Evelyn Marsh.
The senior housekeeper had stayed beside Leo since he was born.
Dominic trusted her as much as anyone alive.
That was why the betrayal hurt so badly.
The convoy left at 6:40 a.m.
At 7:12, Marco’s SUV received an emergency alert.
One of the estate guards had collapsed.
Possible poisoning.
Evelyn called crying.
“Mr. Moretti, something is wrong at the house.”
Dominic almost turned the convoy around.
Elena stopped him.
“It could be a distraction.”
Marco looked at the traffic feed.
“She’s right.”
Dominic called the estate directly.
No answer.
Then another call came.
Evelyn again.
“I found something in Mia’s room.”
Elena stiffened.
“What?”
“A man.”
The line broke.
Elena panicked.
“Mia is at the estate.”
Mia had developed a fever overnight.
Evelyn volunteered to keep her home with the pediatric nurse.
Elena reached for the door handle.
“We’re going back.”
Dominic ordered the driver to turn.
That was the mistake Carbone had planned.
The convoy split.
Dominic and Elena returned toward the estate.
Marco continued toward the medical center with Leo.
Twelve minutes later, Marco’s vehicle was struck by a delivery truck.
Not hard enough to kill.
Hard enough to stop them.
Two fake police vehicles arrived within seconds.
Professional men wearing uniforms pulled weapons.
Marco killed one.
Wounded another.
But a smoke device filled the SUV.
When visibility returned, Leo was gone.
Dominic received the call while still twenty miles from home.
For several seconds he did not understand the words.
“Say that again.”
Marco sounded destroyed.
“They took Leo.”
Elena covered her mouth.
Dominic became absolutely still.
“Are you injured?”
“Nothing serious.”
“Where did they go?”
“Black van. Westbound.”
Dominic ended the call.
Then he looked at Elena.
“Mia.”
They reached the estate.
Mia was safe.
So was Evelyn.
No man had been found in Mia’s room.
No guard had been poisoned.
The emergency had been fabricated.
Dominic stared at Evelyn.
“You called me.”
She looked confused.
“No, sir.”
He held up his phone.
Her number appeared twice.
Marco’s technical team confirmed someone had spoofed it.
Carbone had known exactly how to divide them.
Leo was gone.
Dominic walked into his study.
Closed the door.
Then punched the wall hard enough to break two knuckles.
Elena followed.
“Stop.”
He hit it again.
She grabbed his wrist.
“Dominic.”
“I left him.”
“You were protecting Mia.”
“I left my son.”
“You were manipulated.”
“I should have known.”
“You cannot know every trap.”
“I’m supposed to.”
“Why?”
“Because if I don’t, people die.”
Elena stared at him.
“This is why Sofia called your life a fortress.”
He froze.
“You think if you control everything, nothing can hurt you.”
Her voice shook.
“But Leo doesn’t need an all-powerful father right now.”
Dominic looked at her.
“He needs the one who keeps thinking.”
That reached him.
He stepped back.
Breathed.
Then Marco entered.
“We have something.”
Security footage from the ambush.
Leo had dropped his gray rabbit beside the SUV.
Inside the rabbit, Marco found something unexpected.
A small GPS tag.
Dominic stared.
“I didn’t put that there.”
Elena did.
Not intentionally.
Mia had.
Two weeks earlier, she lost her red hat in the estate garden.
Dominic’s technology staff gave Elena several tiny Bluetooth location tags for Mia’s belongings.
One disappeared.
Mia had apparently placed it inside Leo’s rabbit because “bunnies get lost too.”
The tag had separated from Leo when the rabbit fell.
Useless.
At first.
Then Elena remembered something.
“Mia gave him another one.”
“What?”
“A yellow star sticker.”
Dominic stared.
“It was a tracking tag?”
“No. One of those child locator buttons you gave me for emergencies.”
Dominic’s pulse jumped.
The device had a panic function.
If pressed three times, it transmitted location.
They checked.
No signal.
Then one arrived.
Three pulses.
Location.
Red Hook waterfront.
An abandoned customs warehouse.
Dominic reached for his coat.
Federal agents wanted tactical command.
He allowed it.
Barely.
At the warehouse, Carbone waited.
Leo sat tied to a chair.
No injury.
No rabbit.
His hearing device had been removed.
Carbone stood behind him.
“Dominic.”
“You wanted me.”
“Yes.”
“Then let him go.”
Carbone smiled.
“You know what I find interesting?”
Dominic said nothing.
“You built your reputation on fear. Yet one quiet child turned you into something almost ordinary.”
Dominic’s eyes stayed on Leo.
“I was always his father.”
“You were an empire first.”
“No.”
For the first time, Dominic understood the truth.
“I only thought I had to be.”
Carbone pressed a pistol to Leo’s shoulder.
“Atlantic Meridian belongs to me.”
“It’s frozen.”
“You can release it.”
“No.”
“Then your son—”
Leo suddenly looked toward a metal staircase.
Carbone did not notice.
Dominic did.
Leo could not hear much without the device.
But he could see.
And someone was moving behind Carbone.
Mia.
No.
Not Mia herself.
A phone screen.
Marco, hidden on the mezzanine, held up a live video call.
Mia’s face filled the screen.
She signed clumsily.
DOWN.
Leo dropped sideways.
Gunfire erupted.
Federal agents stormed from both entrances.
Carbone fired.
Dominic moved.
The bullet hit his shoulder.
He barely felt it.
He reached Leo.
Covered him.
Marco tackled Carbone.
Another agent kicked the weapon away.
Then it was over.
Dominic lay on the floor with Leo beneath him.
Blood spread through his shirt.
Leo touched it.
His face changed.
Dominic shook his head.
“I’m okay.”
Leo could not hear.
Dominic signed.
I’M OKAY.
Leo stared.
Then touched Dominic’s face.
His hands moved.
YOU CAME.
Dominic almost broke.
ALWAYS.
Leo threw his arms around him.
Later, in the ambulance, Elena arrived with Mia.
She saw the blood.
Her face went white.
“Dominic.”
“It missed anything important.”
“You were shot.”
“Technically.”
“That is not a reassuring word.”
Mia climbed into the ambulance despite three adults telling her not to.
She went directly to Leo.
“You forgot your bunny.”
She handed him the rabbit.
Leo hugged it.
Then Mia looked at Dominic’s bandage.
“You got shot?”
“Yes.”
“Did it hurt?”
“Yes.”
She considered him.
“That was dumb.”
Elena covered her face.
Dominic laughed.
Leo heard part of it through the replacement hearing device Kaplan fitted temporarily.
He turned toward his father.
Then smiled.
Carbone was alive.
In custody.
Lillian was cooperating.
Samantha was cooperating.
For the first time, Dominic no longer wanted anyone dead.
He wanted every one of them alive long enough to answer for what they had done.
May you like
Because Leo had spent two years in silence.
Now the truth deserved to be heard.
