Chapter 15 - Belladonna Was Waiting
Enzo looked at Gabriel for several seconds before answering.
"Cash."
Sadi laughed in disbelief.
"You handed Victor cash twenty minutes before he shot Gabriel?"
"I did not know he was going to shoot Gabriel."
Gabriel's voice was colder than Sadi had ever heard it.
"Why were you meeting my dead brother?"
"Because he contacted me three weeks ago."
"You knew he was alive for three weeks."
"I suspected he was alive."
Sadi pointed at him.
"Do not use that word again."
Enzo ignored her.
"He offered information about Matteo's trust amendments."
Gabriel pushed himself up on his right elbow.
Mara forced him back down.
"Stay flat."
He never looked away from Enzo.
"And you believed him."
"No."
"Then why meet him?"
"To put a tracker in the envelope."
Enzo reached into his coat and removed a small receiver.
A blinking point appeared on the screen.
Sadi stared at it.
"You tracked Victor."
"Until ten minutes after the shooting."
"Then?"
"Signal vanished."
Gabriel's eyes narrowed.
"Where?"
Enzo showed him the map.
The last location was Belladonna.
Sadi thought of Lucia trapped there now.
"He wanted you to know he was there."
Enzo nodded.
"Probably."
Gabriel looked at the ceiling.
"Or he wanted Matteo to think Enzo was working with him."
Sadi looked at Enzo.
"Was there actually money in the envelope?"
"Twenty thousand."
"Anything else?"
"A forged location for the covenant."
"Where?"
"A storage vault in Queens."
Sadi folded her arms.
"So you met Victor secretly, paid him, lied to him, and told nobody."
"Correct."
"You really need a new strategy for building trust."
"Agreed."
Gabriel closed his eyes.
"Leave."
Enzo stared at him.
"Gabriel."
"I said leave."
"You need security."
"I need to know the man standing beside me is not selling pieces of my life to my brother."
Enzo's jaw tightened.
"I was trying to protect you."
Gabriel opened his eyes.
"So was my father."
That ended the argument.
Enzo stepped back.
Sadi looked at him.
She was still furious.
She was also not ready to believe a man who had just crawled through gunfire with them had planned Gabriel's shooting.
"Lucia is still at Belladonna."
Enzo looked at her.
"I know."
"And her brother."
"Yes."
Gabriel spoke from the table.
"You are not going."
Sadi turned.
"You are not in charge of me."
"Matteo has a murder warrant with your name on it."
"Which Lucia can help destroy."
"If she survives."
"Exactly."
Gabriel stared at her.
Sadi stared back.
Mara kept working as though arguing patients and fugitives were normal.
"She is right."
Gabriel looked at her.
"Do not encourage her."
"I am encouraging evidence."
Sadi pointed toward Enzo.
"He knows the restaurant."
Gabriel's eyes hardened.
"He is leaving."
"Then I go alone."
"No."
"Again, not your employee."
Gabriel tried to sit up.
Mara shoved him back.
"If any of you move him before the third step, I will personally sedate all three of you."
Enzo almost smiled.
"I believe her."
Mara checked the ultrasound.
Color flow had improved.
"Twenty minutes."
Sadi looked at her.
"Then?"
"Then he can be moved carefully."
Gabriel frowned.
"I am coming."
Sadi and Mara spoke at the same time.
"No."
Gabriel looked insulted.
Sadi almost enjoyed it.
Twenty-three minutes later, they were in the stolen ambulance again.
Gabriel lay on the stretcher with his arm stabilized.
Mara rode beside him.
Enzo drove despite Gabriel's order to leave.
Nobody discussed that contradiction.
Sadi sat in the front passenger seat.
Belladonna came into view at 5:17 a.m.
Police tape still covered the front entrance.
The alley behind the kitchen was empty.
Enzo stopped two blocks away.
"We go through the laundry entrance."
Sadi shook her head.
"Camera over the door."
"Disabled?"
"Probably monitored."
"Alternative?"
"Old service lift from the parking garage."
Enzo looked at her.
"You know where it opens?"
"Wine storage."
"Of course it does."
They left Mara and Gabriel in the ambulance with one trusted guard who had met them on the way.
Gabriel caught Sadi's sleeve before she climbed out.
"If Victor is there, do not engage him."
"I will ask him politely to wait."
"Sadi."
She looked at him.
For a moment, the sarcasm disappeared.
"I know."
His grip loosened.
Enzo and Sadi entered the parking garage through a broken pedestrian gate.
The old service lift still worked on emergency power.
It opened behind stacked wine crates.
Sadi led them through the dark storage room.
Voices came from the kitchen.
The manager was arguing with someone.
"She called somebody."
A second man answered.
"Then move them."
Sadi recognized neither voice except the manager's.
She pointed toward a side corridor.
Enzo nodded.
They moved silently.
A guard appeared near the pantry door.
Enzo caught him from behind and lowered him without firing.
Sadi took the man's radio.
A voice crackled through it.
"Freezer team, status."
Sadi looked at Enzo.
Freezer team.
They went faster.
At the cold-storage corridor, two men stood outside the walk-in freezer.
One held a pistol.
The other held a phone.
Sadi recognized the man with the phone.
He had been in the dining room when Gabriel was shot.
One of the men who had rushed toward Gabriel afterward.
"That is him."
Enzo looked at her.
"Who?"
"He was near Gabriel on the floor."
The man turned.
Sadi saw a medical needle clipped inside his jacket pocket.
"He injected him."
Enzo stepped from cover.
"Hands."
Both men reached for weapons.
The corridor exploded with movement.
Enzo fired once.
The first man fell against the wall.
Sadi kicked the second man's wrist before he could aim.
His phone shattered on the tile.
He grabbed her shoulder.
She turned beneath his arm and drove him face-first into the freezer door.
Enzo struck him from behind.
The man dropped.
Sadi opened the freezer.
Lucia and a teenage boy were sitting on the floor wrapped in tablecloths.
Lucia burst into tears when she saw her.
"Sadi."
Sadi knelt and pulled her into a quick embrace.
"Can you walk?"
"Yes."
"Mateo?"
The boy nodded.
"I am okay."
Enzo unlocked the rear emergency door.
"Move."
Lucia stopped Sadi.
"Wait."
"What?"
"The camera."
"What camera?"
Lucia pointed toward the ceiling.
"The manager shut down the digital system after the shooting, but the freezer corridor has an old analog backup because the insurance company required it."
Enzo looked up.
A tiny dome camera sat near the ventilation duct.
Sadi's pulse jumped.
"Where is the recorder?"
"Manager's office."
Enzo looked toward the kitchen.
"Get them out."
Sadi shook her head.
"That camera may show who moved the body."
"It may also get you killed."
"So will a murder conviction."
Enzo swore.
"Three minutes."
They sent Lucia and Mateo through the emergency exit toward the ambulance.
Sadi and Enzo ran to the manager's office.
The door was locked.
Enzo kicked it open.
The manager was inside deleting files from a desktop computer.
He froze.
Sadi closed the door behind them.
"Where is the analog recorder?"
The manager stared at her.
"You are supposed to be in custody."
"Bad night for everyone's plans."
Enzo grabbed him by the collar.
"Recorder."
The manager pointed at a cabinet.
Sadi found an old digital video unit inside.
A removable drive was still spinning.
She ejected it.
The manager lunged.
Enzo slammed him against the desk.
"Why do you care about that drive?"
The manager said nothing.
Sadi connected it to the office monitor.
The footage opened.
9:21 p.m.
A man in Sadi's apron entered the freezer corridor.
Not a woman.
The fake waiter was already unconscious over his shoulder.
The man's face turned toward the camera.
It was the same medical operative Sadi had just fought.
Lucia's statement collapsed in one image.
Sadi advanced the recording.
9:26 p.m.
The manager entered and placed Sadi's bloody apron over the fake waiter's uniform.
Sadi looked at him.
"You framed me."
He swallowed.
"They had my family."
"Everybody has a family tonight."
The words came out harsher than she intended.
Enzo looked at the timeline.
"Go earlier."
Sadi rewound to 8:57 p.m.
The corridor showed Victor entering through the kitchen.
At 8:59, Enzo appeared.
Sadi looked at him.
The two men spoke for four minutes.
Enzo handed Victor the envelope.
Victor handed Enzo something small in return.
Sadi paused the frame.
"What did he give you?"
Enzo reached beneath his shirt.
He removed a tiny black memory card hanging inside a protective case.
"This."
Gabriel's voice sounded from the doorway.
"And what is on it?"
Everyone turned.
Gabriel stood there with Mara behind him, furious.
Enzo's face tightened.
"The trust amendments Victor stole from Matteo."
Gabriel held out his hand.
"Give it to me."
Enzo did.
Before Gabriel could look at it, a shot cracked through the office window.
Enzo jerked backward.
Blood spread across his side.
Sadi screamed his name.
A second bullet struck the monitor.
The screen shattered.
Mara dragged Gabriel behind the wall.
Sadi pulled Enzo down.
He pressed one hand to his ribs.
"Drive."
Sadi held up the analog drive.
"I have it."
Enzo looked at her.
"Do not lose it."
Outside, tires screamed in the alley.
Gabriel looked through the broken window.
May you like
A black sedan disappeared around the corner.
On the passenger side, Victor Falcone looked back at them.
