Chapter 12 - The Empty Pink Coat
Emma’s pink coat lay in the safe-house driveway.
One sleeve was torn.
Maria sat in an ambulance with blood on her temple, fighting the paramedics who wanted her on a stretcher.
“He took my baby.”
Alessandro knelt in front of her. “Who?”
“Carlo. He had a gun.”
“Was Enzo there?”
“No.”
Maria grabbed Alessandro’s jacket. “Bring her back. I don’t care about your family. I don’t care about your name. Bring her back.”
“I will.”
The promise terrified him now.
Detective Grant ordered him not to respond to Enzo’s message. He responded anyway.
WHERE?
A location arrived: the abandoned Romano textile mill outside Cranston, closed since Alessandro was a child.
Grant saw the message. “You are not going alone.”
“He said—”
“I don’t care what a kidnapper said.”
Alessandro surprised himself by nodding.
Old Alessandro would have treated help like weakness. Emma had already taught him the cost of that kind of pride.
They built a plan.
Marco drove Alessandro to the mill while police units approached from the river road. Alessandro wore no wire because Enzo knew exactly what police equipment looked like, but Grant placed a tracker inside the heel of his shoe.
The mill was dark except for one hanging bulb.
Alessandro stepped inside.
“Emma?”
A small voice answered from somewhere above. “Mr. Romano?”
He looked up.
She stood on a metal walkway, hands tied, Rosie tucked under one arm.
Carlo held her shoulder.
Enzo stood below them.
“Stop there,” Enzo said.
Alessandro did.
“What do you want?”
Enzo looked almost offended. “What I wanted from the beginning. For you to stop destroying what this family built.”
“By refusing an unsafe contractor?”
“By acting like reputation doesn’t matter.”
“A child is tied to a railing because of our reputation.”
Enzo’s face twitched.
Carlo shouted from above, “Tell him to sign it!”
Enzo lifted a folder.
Alessandro almost laughed.
“Still paperwork?”
“No.” Enzo’s voice was cold. “A confession.”
He opened the folder.
“You’re going to say Isabella acted alone. Victor was unstable. Emma misunderstood what she saw.”
Emma screamed, “I did not!”
Carlo jerked her backward.
Alessandro took one step forward.
May you like
Enzo raised a gun.
“Sign,” he said, “or the next thing her mother gets back is that doll.”
