Chapter 3 - THE BABY BETWEEN GUNSJosephine had delivered children in crowded apartments, stalled elevators, ambulances, clinics with failing generators, and once in the back seat of a taxi outside Fenway Park.
She had never delivered one while three armed men pointed weapons at each other.
There was a first time for everything.
“Elena,” she said, forcing her voice into the same calm rhythm she used with frightened mothers every day. “Are you seeing spots?”
Elena nodded.
“Headache?”
“Yes.”
“Upper abdominal pain?”
“My right side.”
Josephine felt cold.
Severe pre-eclampsia.
Possibly progressing toward eclampsia.
The woman needed magnesium sulfate, antihypertensive medication, continuous fetal monitoring and, almost certainly, urgent delivery in an operating room.
Instead she was tied to a chair in an abandoned warehouse.
Josephine looked at Matteo.
“Untie her.”
He smiled.
“No.”
“If you want leverage over Roman, a dead sister and dead baby are terrible leverage.”
Matteo’s smile disappeared.
“You think I don’t know what I’m doing?”
“I think anybody who kidnaps a pregnant woman during a hypertensive crisis qualifies as medically stupid.”
Dominic coughed behind Roman.
It might have been a laugh.
Matteo’s gun shifted toward Josephine.
Roman moved instantly.
“Point that at her again and this conversation ends.”
The warehouse became silent.
Matteo looked at Roman.
Something ugly passed between the cousins.
“You always did have a weakness for strays.”
Roman’s expression did not change.
Josephine heard it anyway.
A history.
A wound.
Something personal.
Elena groaned and folded forward as far as the restraints allowed.
Josephine moved toward her.
Matteo lifted the gun.
“Stop.”
“She’s contracting.”
“I said stop.”
Josephine looked directly at him.
“And I’m telling you she may seize.”
“Josephine,” Roman said quietly.
She did not take her eyes off Matteo.
“Roman, if she has a seizure while restrained, she can aspirate, injure herself, lose oxygen, and so can the baby.”
Roman’s weapon remained aimed at Matteo.
“Untie my sister.”
Matteo’s lips curled.
“You don’t give orders anymore.”
Roman went still.
Matteo enjoyed it.
“That’s what tonight is about, cousin. You’ve gotten soft.”
Elena breathed through another contraction.
Josephine watched her abdomen.
Strong.
Close.
Too close.
“What do you want?” Roman asked.
Matteo’s eyes brightened.
“There he is.”
“Say it.”
“The waterfront contracts.”
“No.”
“Roman,” Elena whispered.
Matteo glanced down.
“Quiet.”
Josephine moved before she thought.
She stepped between the gun and Elena.
Roman cursed.
Matteo stared at her.
“You have a very poor survival instinct.”
“No,” Josephine said. “I have an excellent one. That’s why I know scared men with guns are more dangerous when people pretend they’re smart.”
Dominic looked at the ceiling.
Roman’s face suggested he wanted to carry Josephine out himself.
Matteo pressed his tongue against his cheek.
“You know who I am?”
“Yes.”
“Do you?”
“You’re the man Roman’s pregnant sister warned him about.”
That landed.
Matteo’s eyes flashed.
Roman looked at Josephine.
She continued.
“She wrote your name on the pharmacy receipt.”
Matteo glanced at Elena.
Only once.
But Josephine saw it.
So did Roman.
The betrayal had not begun tonight.
Elena had known.
Matteo exhaled slowly.
“She should have minded her business.”
Roman’s voice dropped.
“She is my business.”
Matteo laughed.
“That is exactly the problem.”
He took a step forward.
“You pretend family matters now. Where was family when your father put a bullet in mine? Where was family when you took the chair before his body was cold?”
Josephine did not understand the details.
But she understood grief weaponized into resentment.
Roman’s expression remained carved from stone.
“Your father sold names to the Valenti crew.”
“He was trying to survive.”
“He got seven people killed.”
“He was still my father!”
Matteo’s shout echoed through the empty warehouse.
Elena flinched.
Josephine saw her hands begin to tremble.
Not cold.
Neurologic irritability.
“Elena, look at me.”
The woman’s eyes struggled to focus.
Josephine lowered herself to her level.
“We’re going to breathe together.”
“I can’t.”
“You can.”
“My baby…”
“I know.”
Josephine looked at Roman.
“Get an ambulance here.”
Matteo swung the gun.
“No!”
Roman’s phone was already in his hand.
Matteo pressed his weapon against Elena’s skull.
“Put it down.”
Roman froze.
Josephine watched Elena’s face.
Something was wrong.
Her eyes rolled upward.
“Oh, no.”
Elena’s body stiffened.
Then the seizure began.
Roman shouted her name.
Josephine lunged.
“Cut the restraints!”
Dominic moved.
Matteo fired.
The bullet struck a steel beam.
Chaos exploded.
Roman slammed Matteo into a crate.
Dominic kicked the gun away.
Josephine reached Elena as her body convulsed violently.
“Don’t hold her down!”
A man rushed forward with a knife and cut the ties.
Josephine lowered Elena carefully to the floor, protecting her head.
“Call EMS now!”
Roman was on top of Matteo, one hand around his throat.
“Roman!”
He did not respond.
His fist drew back.
“Roman!”
Josephine’s voice tore through him.
He looked over.
Elena’s seizure had stopped.
But she was not responding.
And then blood spread beneath her.
Too much.
Josephine’s stomach dropped.
Placental abruption.
Maybe.
“Elena needs you alive and useful, not beating him to death!”
Roman released Matteo.
Barely.
Dominic restrained the cousin.
Roman dropped beside his sister.
“What do I do?”
The most powerful man in the building sounded like a frightened boy.
Josephine pointed.
“Keep her airway clear. Turn her on her left side. Don’t put anything in her mouth.”
Roman obeyed.
Sirens wailed in the distance.
Matteo laughed weakly from the floor.
“You think this changes anything?”
Roman looked at him.
There was murder in his eyes.
Josephine saw it.
So did Matteo.
Then Roman looked back at Elena.
And he chose not to move.
The ambulance arrived seven minutes later.
It felt like seventy.
Paramedics rushed Elena toward the loading door.
Josephine climbed beside the stretcher.
Roman followed.
A medic blocked him.
“One family member.”
“I’m her brother.”
Josephine looked at him.
“Go.”
Roman hesitated.
“You?”
“I’m coming.”
“You’re not family.”
The words came from the medic.
Roman and Josephine looked at each other.
Something strange passed between them.
Not romance.
Not yet.
Something more dangerous.
Trust.
“She saved Elena’s life,” Roman said.
The medic waved Josephine inside.
Roman climbed in after them.
At Massachusetts General, doors swallowed Elena into an emergency obstetric operating suite.
Roman was left standing in a fluorescent hallway with blood on both hands.
Josephine watched him stare at them.
“You didn’t cause this,” she said.
He laughed quietly.
“You have no idea what I caused.”
“Matteo kidnapped her.”
“Because of me.”
“Because of choices he made.”
Roman looked at her.
“You really believe everyone is responsible for themselves?”
“Yes.”
“Convenient.”
“Necessary.”
He sat.
For the first time since she met him, his shoulders dropped.
“My father taught me that family was something you protected by making people afraid to touch it.”
Josephine sat two chairs away.
“And how is that working?”
Roman almost smiled.
Almost.
A surgeon stepped through the doors.
Roman stood immediately.
“Mr. DeLuca?”
“Yes.”
“Your sister developed severe pre-eclampsia complicated by placental abruption. We performed an emergency C-section.”
Roman went pale.
“The baby?”
“A boy. Premature, but breathing. He’s in the NICU.”
Roman closed his eyes.
“And Elena?”
The surgeon paused.
That pause nearly destroyed him.
“She lost a significant amount of blood, but she is stable.”
Roman exhaled.
Josephine realized she had been holding her breath too.
The surgeon continued speaking.
Roman heard only fragments.
Stable.
Observation.
Magnesium.
NICU.
Thirty-four weeks.
Good chance.
Alive.
Alive.
Alive.
When the doctor left, Roman stood motionless.
Josephine touched his sleeve.
He looked down at her hand.
Then up.
“Thank you.”
It was the first thing he had ever said to her without armor.
She nodded.
“Go see your nephew.”
Roman took two steps.
Then Dominic appeared at the end of the hall.
His face told Roman everything before he spoke.
“Boss.”
Roman stopped.
“Matteo got away.”
The softness vanished.
“How?”
“Two of our own men cut him loose during transport.”
Roman’s stare hardened.
Dominic stepped closer.
“It’s worse.”
“How?”
Dominic looked at Josephine.
Then back at Roman.
“Matteo wasn’t acting alone.”
Roman’s voice became very quiet.
“Who?”
Dominic handed him a phone.
On the screen was a photograph taken less than five minutes earlier.
Josephine recognized the location instantly.
Harbor Women’s Clinic.
Her clinic.
A red laser dot rested on the front door.
Beneath the photograph was one sentence.
May you like
YOU SAVED HIS SISTER.
NOW LET’S SEE IF HE CAN SAVE YOU.
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