Chapter 8 - THE SECOND KIDNAPPING
I nearly destroyed the hospital room.
Elena stopped me.
Not physically.
With one sentence.
“She needs you thinking.”
I looked at her.
Her face was white.
Her hands shook.
But her eyes remained clear.
My girl was gone again.
Because I had failed again.
No.
That thought would kill Sofia faster than Vincent.
Think.
“What happened?” I asked Vincent.
“You became predictable.”
“Where is Marco’s wife?”
“Alive.”
“The guards?”
“One dead.”
I closed my eyes.
“What do you want now?”
“No Red Hook.”
He sounded tired.
“No money.”
“What?”
“Just you.”
Elena gripped my arm.
Vincent continued.
“Midnight. Governors Island.”
I frowned.
“You can’t hold a private meeting there.”
“I can tonight.”
“How?”
“You’ll learn.”
“Proof Sofia’s alive.”
The phone shifted.
“Dommy?”
“I’m here.”
“I scared.”
“I know.”
“Where Mama?”
Elena leaned toward the phone.
“Baby, I’m here.”
“Mama!”
Elena began crying silently.
“I’m coming.”
Vincent took back the phone.
“Midnight.”
“Let her go first.”
“No.”
“What stops my men from storming the island?”
“Explosives.”
I went still.
“If I see Moretti boats, helicopters, police, Coast Guard…”
He paused.
“The girl disappears.”
The line died.
Marco arrived fifteen minutes later, rage covering grief.
His wife had been found unconscious.
One guard dead.
Sofia taken.
“I’m sorry.”
I looked at him.
“You have nothing to apologize for.”
“I moved her there.”
“I approved it.”
Elena whispered:
“Stop.”
We turned.
“Both of you.”
Tears ran down her face.
“Stop making guilt your hobby and find my daughter.”
We did.
Governors Island had limited access.
Seasonal facilities.
Old military buildings.
Vincent likely used maintenance tunnels or service docks.
Carlo found archived maps.
“There are underground utility corridors.”
“Can we enter unseen?”
“Maybe through an old seawall access.”
“Explosives?”
Marco shook his head.
“Could be bluff.”
“We don’t gamble with Sofia.”
“No.”
Elena sat at the table staring at the maps.
Then:
“He wants Dominic alone.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Revenge,” Marco said.
“No.”
She shook her head.
“If he only wanted Dominic dead, he could have killed him at Red Hook.”
True.
“What does he want Dominic to see?”
Silence.
I understood.
“He wants confession.”
Carlo frowned.
“What?”
“He wants me humiliated before death.”
Anthony’s father.
My first killing.
Vincent wanted me to acknowledge what the Morettis had done.
Maybe this was not only territory.
It was family vengeance.
“He’ll talk,” Elena said.
“Yes.”
“That gives us time.”
Marco looked at her.
“What are you suggesting?”
“Dominic goes.”
“No.”
“I do.”
I stared.
“No.”
She ignored me.
“He expects Dominic.”
“Yes.”
“So Dominic goes.”
“Then what?”
“I go too.”
“No.”
She looked at me.
“You can keep saying that.”
“I will.”
“Sofia is my daughter.”
“And my—”
I stopped.
Everyone heard the unfinished word.
My daughter.
Elena looked at me.
“Exactly.”
We planned.
At 11:48 p.m., I took a small boat toward Governors Island alone.
At least visibly.
Elena remained hidden below deck.
Marco’s men entered the seawall tunnel earlier using rebreathers.
Carlo coordinated from Brooklyn.
No radios once we reached range.
Too dangerous.
I stepped onto the island.
A man searched me.
No gun.
No phone.
He led me into an abandoned military building.
Vincent waited.
Sofia sat on a chair beside him.
She saw me.
“DOMMY!”
I moved.
Vincent lifted a detonator.
I stopped.
“Easy.”
Sofia cried.
I looked at her.
“I’m here.”
“You bring Miss Rose?”
My throat closed.
I had.
Inside my coat.
One guard had searched me and ignored the doll.
“Yes.”
Her face brightened despite tears.
Vincent shook his head.
“Incredible.”
“What?”
“The great Dominic Moretti carrying a doll.”
I stared at him.
“Give her to me.”
“You killed my uncle.”
“Your cousin’s father.”
“Family.”
“Yes.”
“You killed Matteo when you were nineteen.”
“He killed one of ours.”
“And that justified it?”
“No.”
Vincent froze.
I surprised him.
“You expected an argument.”
He said nothing.
“I was nineteen.”
I continued.
“My father put a gun in my hand and told me killing Matteo would make me a man.”
Vincent watched.
“I believed him.”
Sofia sniffled.
I looked at her.
“I was wrong.”
Vincent’s face tightened.
“That doesn’t bring him back.”
“No.”
“It doesn’t return my aunt’s husband.”
“No.”
“It doesn’t fix Anthony.”
“No.”
“Then why say it?”
“Because it’s true.”
Silence.
Vincent’s hand tightened around the detonator.
“You think regret saves you?”
“No.”
“Then what does?”
I looked at Sofia.
“Maybe nothing.”
The side door opened.
Elena stepped inside.
Vincent spun.
His guards reacted.
“What the hell?”
Elena raised empty hands.
“Mama!”
Sofia screamed.
Vincent looked furious.
“You were told alone.”
“I came alone.”
I said.
“Elena wasn’t invited.”
She glared at me.
“Not the time.”
Vincent almost laughed.
Then Sofia wriggled from the chair.
One guard grabbed her.
She screamed.
Elena lunged.
The detonator slipped.
I moved.
Everything happened at once.
Marco’s men burst through the utility doors.
Gunfire.
Vincent grabbed Sofia.
I tackled him.
He hit the floor.
The detonator skidded.
Elena dove for Sofia.
A guard aimed at her.
I shot him with Vincent’s dropped weapon.
Marco screamed:
“DEVICE!”
Carlo’s voice came through a recovered radio.
“THE EXPLOSIVES ARE ON A TIMER!”
Of course.
Vincent had never intended the detonator to matter.
He wanted us focused on it.
“HOW LONG?”
“FOUR MINUTES!”
Marco grabbed Vincent.
“MOVE!”
We ran.
Sofia clung to Elena.
I followed.
The tunnels shook.
Three minutes.
Two.
We reached the seawall.
Boats waited.
One minute.
I shoved Elena aboard.
“Dominic!”
“Go!”
“What?”
“Vincent.”
Marco had lost grip of him during the evacuation.
Vincent was running toward another dock.
I turned.
Elena grabbed me.
“No.”
“He’ll keep coming.”
“Then let the island take him!”
I looked toward Vincent.
Then at Sofia.
She was screaming.
“Dommy!”
Choice.
Old Dominic chased the enemy.
New Dominic chose the child.
I got into the boat.
Marco gunned the engine.
We cleared the dock.
The explosion came behind us.
Fire tore through the abandoned building.
Windows burst.
The island shook.
Sofia buried her face against me.
I held Elena with one arm.
Sofia with the other.
Vincent Colombo disappeared in fire and smoke.
We never found a body.
For once, I didn’t care.
May you like
I had my family.
That was enough.
