Chapter 8 - WHAT RICCI CHOSE
Upstairs, Lorenzo knew something was wrong the moment Ricci stopped walking.
They had reached the second-floor surgical corridor.
Marco was ahead.
Vincent behind.
Ricci stood beneath a dead EXIT sign.
“What?” Lorenzo asked.
Ricci looked at him.
“I’m sorry.”
Marco turned.
Three doors opened at once.
Men appeared.
Lorenzo understood.
“Again?”
Ricci’s face crumpled.
“They have Gabriella.”
“You just saw Sophia’s message.”
“No.”
“What message?”
Marco checked his phone.
Signal jammer.
Vincent swore.
Ricci continued.
“Matteo promised if I brought you here alive, he would release her.”
Lorenzo stared at the man who had once taught him to ride a bicycle.
The physician who had stitched his chin at fourteen.
The family friend who had stood beside him at his father’s funeral.
“You believed him?”
“I had nothing else.”
“You had me.”
Ricci looked away.
That hurt more than Lorenzo expected.
The surrounding men moved closer.
Marco and Vincent reached for weapons.
Lorenzo stopped them.
“No.”
Marco stared at him.
“Boss.”
“Too many.”
“We can still—”
“No.”
Lorenzo looked at Ricci.
“What does Matteo want?”
“To leave Chicago with control of the eastern shipping routes.”
“He’ll never get them.”
“He thinks you can sign temporary authority.”
“I won’t.”
Ricci closed his eyes.
“I know.”
Lorenzo understood the rest.
“Then he plans to kill me.”
“Yes.”
A voice came over the building intercom.
“Not immediately.”
Matteo.
Lorenzo looked toward the speaker.
“Coward.”
“Practical.”
Matteo laughed.
“You always confuse the two.”
Downstairs, Sophia heard the same intercom.
Matteo had left her, Teresa, and Gabriella locked inside the examination room while he went upstairs.
Gabriella paced.
“My father isn’t evil.”
Sophia looked at her.
“He drugged Lorenzo.”
“I know.”
“He betrayed him twice.”
“I know.”
Gabriella covered her face.
“He thought he was saving me.”
Sophia’s anger softened slightly.
“Fear makes people do terrible things.”
“So does love.”
“No.”
Gabriella looked at her.
“Love doesn’t make you hurt innocent people. Fear does. Control does. Desperation does. But don’t blame love.”
Teresa looked proudly at her daughter.
Sophia pretended not to notice.
She examined the door.
Old lock.
Solid.
No window.
Then Biscotti meowed from the hallway.
Sophia stared at the bottom gap.
“You impossible animal.”
The cat pawed at something.
A key slid beneath the door.
Everyone stared.
Gabriella whispered, “Did the cat just rescue us?”
Sophia picked up the key.
“I am never complaining about him on the furniture again.”
The lock opened.
They moved into the corridor.
Teresa headed toward the ambulance bay.
Gabriella followed.
Sophia started upstairs.
Her mother grabbed her.
“No.”
“Mama.”
“Emma needs you alive.”
“Lorenzo needs help.”
Teresa studied her daughter.
“You love him.”
Sophia stopped.
This was an absurd moment for that conversation.
“I work for him.”
“That wasn’t my question.”
Another gunshot echoed.
Sophia ran.
The second floor was chaos.
A guard lay groaning beside an overturned cart.
Smoke from a shattered light fixture filled the corridor.
Sophia stayed low.
She heard Matteo speaking inside the old operating theater.
“You built a kingdom and then became ashamed of it.”
Lorenzo answered.
“I became tired of burying people for money.”
“You became weak.”
“No. I became expensive.”
Matteo laughed.
Sophia crept toward the side entrance.
Inside, Lorenzo sat in a chair again.
Not bound this time.
Marco and Vincent were kneeling near the wall, watched by four men.
Ricci stood beside Matteo.
A pistol rested in Matteo’s hand.
“Sign.”
He placed documents in front of Lorenzo.
Lorenzo didn’t touch them.
“No.”
Matteo looked at Ricci.
“Convince him.”
Ricci said nothing.
“Enzo.”
Still nothing.
Then Gabriella appeared in the opposite doorway.
“Papa.”
Ricci turned.
His entire face changed.
“Gabriella?”
Matteo went white.
Sophia stepped into view behind her.
“Your hostage escaped.”
For one second, nobody moved.
Then everything happened.
Matteo raised the weapon.
Ricci grabbed his arm.
Marco launched himself at the nearest guard.
Vincent knocked another man into a surgical trolley.
Sophia pulled Gabriella behind the wall.
A deafening shot struck the ceiling.
Dust fell.
Lorenzo tackled Matteo.
The weapon slid across the floor.
Ricci kicked it away.
Within seconds, Marco had control.
Vincent locked the doors.
Matteo lay facedown on the tile with Lorenzo’s knee against his back.
Lorenzo could have killed him.
Everyone knew it.
Matteo knew it.
“Do it,” Matteo hissed.
Lorenzo stared at him.
“You’d like that.”
“You think police make you respectable?”
“No.”
Lorenzo stood.
“I think not becoming you makes me respectable.”
Sirens sounded outside.
Vincent looked surprised.
“Who called police?”
Teresa Rossi appeared in the doorway holding Sophia’s phone.
“I did.”
Everyone stared at her.
“What?”
She shrugged.
“I’m a maid’s mother, not an idiot.”
Sophia laughed.
Then Lorenzo swayed.
His face suddenly drained of color.
Ricci moved toward him.
Marco blocked him.
“Don’t.”
Ricci stopped.
His eyes filled with shame.
“I understand.”
Lorenzo collapsed.
Sophia reached him first.
“Lorenzo.”
His eyes opened.
“Emma?”
“Safe.”
“Your brother?”
Sophia’s phone rang.
Vincent answered.
It was the warehouse team.
Nico was alive.
Free.
Sophia bent over Lorenzo.
“Everyone is safe.”
He tried to smile.
“Then I can sleep.”
“No.”
“Sophia.”
“No sleeping.”
“You’re very controlling for staff.”
Tears filled her eyes.
“Fire me.”
May you like
His eyes closed.
And for the second time in twenty-four hours, Sophia watched Lorenzo Duca stop responding while Dr. Ricci stood only feet away.
