Chapter 5 - THE SECOND BOTTLE
Damien did not shout.
That frightened me more than if he had.
He picked up Leo.
Held him against his chest.
Then said:
“Find my son.”
Every guard in the mansion moved.
Doors locked.
Garage searched.
Security feeds reviewed.
Staff separated.
Vehicles stopped before reaching the street.
Nico had disappeared from a room protected by cameras, alarms, and men who carried guns for a living.
Whoever took him knew the system.
Mateo discovered how within eleven minutes.
“The west nursery camera looped four minutes of old footage.”
Damien stared.
“Internal access?”
“Yes.”
“Who has it?”
“You. Me. Security control. Sal.”
My stomach tightened.
“And Rourke?”
Mateo hesitated.
“Temporary medical access.”
Damien’s face changed.
“You gave a doctor security access?”
“You authorized it when the monitor integration was installed.”
Damien closed his eyes.
“Find his credentials.”
They had been used seventeen minutes earlier.
From inside the mansion.
Rourke was here.
Or someone using his access was.
We searched floor by floor.
I stayed with Damien despite Mateo repeatedly suggesting I wait in a secure room.
“No.”
“That wasn’t a request.”
“Then I’m ignoring an order.”
Mateo looked offended.
Damien said, “She stays.”
Mateo muttered something in Italian.
I decided not to translate.
On the second floor, we found a discarded white coat in a laundry closet.
Rourke’s hospital identification card was inside.
No Rourke.
In the servants’ corridor, a guard found an empty infant carrier.
My heart stopped.
Damien touched it.
“Nico.”
I looked at the floor.
One tiny drop of milk.
Then another.
A trail.
Not enough for adults moving quickly to notice.
But I had spent years training myself to observe small behavioral patterns.
A bottle lay under a radiator.
I reached toward it.
Stopped.
“Gloves.”
Mateo gave me a look.
I raised my eyebrows.
He handed me gloves.
The bottle smelled normal.
No powder.
But the nipple was wet.
“He fed him.”
Damien’s face tightened.
“Who?”
“Whoever took Nico.”
“Why?”
“To keep him quiet.”
We followed the corridor.
The milk trail ended at a service elevator.
Down.
Basement.
Damien looked at Mateo.
“Block every exit below.”
The elevator opened.
Empty hall.
Storage rooms.
Wine cellar.
Boiler access.
Then I heard it.
Not crying.
A pattern.
Tap.
Tap.
Pause.
Tap.
I stopped.
“What?” Damien asked.
“Listen.”
Tap.
Tap.
Pause.
Tap.
From behind a maintenance door.
Damien ripped it open.
Rosa was inside.
Bound to a chair.
Her eyes widened.
She had been in the nursery when Nico vanished—or so we thought.
The woman screaming upstairs had not been Rosa.
It had been someone wearing her uniform from behind.
Mateo cut her free.
“Who?”
Rosa gasped.
“A woman.”
“What woman?”
“I don’t know.”
“She hit me in the linen room.”
“When?”
“Twenty minutes before.”
Damien went pale.
That meant the kidnapping started before anyone realized.
“What did she look like?”
“Dark hair. Staff uniform.”
I thought about Bellavita.
The employees.
Guests.
People around the twins.
Then I remembered someone.
A woman standing near the dessert station.
Not restaurant staff.
I had noticed because her shoes were wrong.
Expensive leather soles instead of nonslip shoes.
She had carried a tray without looking at it once.
“She was at Bellavita.”
Everyone looked at me.
“Who?” Mateo asked.
“I don’t know her name.”
I described her.
Rosa’s face changed.
“Valentina.”
Damien went still.
“Who?”
“Mr. Salvatore’s assistant.”
Of course.
Damien looked at Mateo.
“Photo.”
Mateo showed me an employee directory.
Valentina Russo.
Thirty-one.
Dark hair.
Elegant.
The same woman.
“That’s her.”
Damien turned away.
His brother’s assistant had been near the twins the night of the poisoning.
Now she had entered his house disguised as staff.
“Where would she take Nico?”
Mateo asked.
Damien already knew.
“Sal’s lake house.”
No one questioned him.
Three SUVs left Chicago.
Police were notified through Detective Alvarez.
Damien did not care whether involving law enforcement damaged family business anymore.
His son was missing.
That was the only rule.
The lake house sat near Lake Geneva.
Dark.
No vehicles outside.
Mateo’s team surrounded it.
Police remained several minutes behind.
Damien wanted to go first.
I caught his sleeve.
“No.”
He turned.
“That’s my son.”
“And if they expect you to charge inside?”
“I don’t care.”
“I do.”
The words came out too quickly.
His eyes held mine.
I forced myself to continue.
“So does Leo.”
That stopped him.
“You have two sons.”
His jaw tightened.
“Don’t let them turn one into bait for the other.”
He looked at the house.
Then nodded.
Mateo entered first.
Two guards followed.
Thirty seconds.
A minute.
Then the radio cracked.
“Clear downstairs.”
Another voice.
“Movement upstairs.”
A crash.
Someone shouted.
Damien ran before anyone could stop him.
This time I followed.
Second-floor bedroom.
Valentina stood by the window holding Nico.
A gun pressed against the baby’s blanket.
My blood froze.
Rourke stood behind her.
Alive.
Terrified.
“Don’t come closer!” Valentina screamed.
Damien stopped.
His face emptied.
“Nico.”
The baby whimpered.
Alive.
Thank God.
Rourke looked at me.
“You.”
“Yes.”
His eyes were bloodshot.
“This is because of you.”
I almost laughed.
“You poisoned babies because of me?”
“I didn’t poison anyone.”
Valentina shouted, “Shut up.”
Damien looked between them.
“Where is Sal?”
Neither answered.
“Where is my brother?”
Rourke cracked first.
“He’s not coming.”
Valentina spun toward him.
“Simon.”
“He left us.”
“Shut up!”
“He said he would meet us!”
“He will!”
“No.”
Rourke looked at Damien.
“Sal is gone.”
Damien’s face hardened.
“Gone where?”
“I don’t know.”
Valentina’s hand shook.
Nico began crying.
I watched him.
His breaths sped.
His tiny hands clenched.
Sensory overload again.
Too much shouting.
Too much light.
Too much fear.
“Valentina.”
She looked at me.
“Don’t.”
“I’m not coming closer.”
“Good.”
“But Nico is getting distressed.”
“I don’t care.”
“Yes, you do.”
She flinched.
I lowered my voice.
“Because if he stops breathing in your arms, your leverage disappears.”
Damien’s eyes flicked toward me.
Valentina looked down.
That was enough.
I tapped my finger softly against the wooden doorframe.
One-two-three.
One-two-three.
Nico’s eyes shifted.
Toward me.
I continued.
“Look at me, sweetheart.”
Valentina’s breathing became ragged.
“Stop that.”
I ignored her.
Tap.
Tap.
Tap.
Nico’s crying softened.
His body turned slightly toward the sound.
Valentina adjusted him unconsciously.
Gun moved away from his body.
Damien saw it.
Mateo saw it.
I kept tapping.
One-two-three.
One-two-three.
Then Rourke moved.
He grabbed Valentina’s wrist.
The gun fired into the ceiling.
Damien crossed the room in two strides.
He took Nico.
Mateo took Valentina down.
Guards restrained Rourke.
Nico screamed.
Damien held him.
“Hey. Hey.”
His hands shook.
I moved closer.
“Against your chest.”
He obeyed.
“Breathe slowly.”
He did.
Nico settled.
Damien closed his eyes against his son’s hair.
For several seconds, everyone forgot the gun.
The kidnapping.
Everything.
Then Rourke laughed.
A broken sound.
“You think you won?”
Damien turned.
“Tell me where Sal is.”
“I don’t know.”
Mateo shoved him against the wall.
Rourke gasped.
“I’m telling you!”
“Why did you poison the twins?” I asked.
His eyes found mine.
“I didn’t.”
“You manipulated Mason’s medication.”
His face changed.
I stepped closer.
“You did, didn’t you?”
He looked at Damien.
Then at me.
“I adjusted dosages.”
“You nearly killed him.”
“He was part of a trial.”
“He was a child.”
“It was controlled.”
I felt sick.
“And the twins?”
“Sal wanted symptoms.”
Damien went still.
“What?”
“Nothing fatal.”
Rourke began talking faster.
“He wanted fatigue. Episodes. Medical uncertainty.”
“Why?”
“To make you step back.”
There it was.
“He said you were impossible to remove while everyone believed you were invincible.”
Damien looked down at Nico.
Rourke continued.
“But sick babies change men.”
My stomach turned.
“He said eventually you’d choose them over Chicago.”
Damien’s voice became deadly quiet.
“He was right.”
Rourke looked confused.
Damien raised his eyes.
“I will choose them.”
Then Rourke smiled.
“You don’t understand.”
“What?”
“Sal didn’t just want your position.”
His smile disappeared.
“He wanted to make sure you never learned what happened to Sofia.”
Damien stopped breathing.
The room changed.
“What did you say?”
Rourke looked at Nico.
Then back at Damien.
“Your wife didn’t die from a random blood clot.”
Damien’s face went white.
May you like
“Sal had been planning this since before your sons were born.”
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