Chapter 3 - A Traitor at the PierRain blew sideways through the broken warehouse windows as Adrian stared at the cousin he had once considered a brother.
For half a second, nobody moved.
Then Aurelia exploded into chaos.
Guests screamed and dropped beneath tables. Chairs overturned. Adrian’s security team surrounded him in seconds while Marco shouted orders toward the doors.
“North exit! Lock the kitchen! Nobody leaves!”
Lily was pressed against a marble column behind Adrian.
His body blocked her completely.
“Are you hit?”
She stared at him.
“What?”
“Are you hit?”
“No.”
“Stay behind me.”
“I need to leave.”
“You’re not going anywhere.”
“My baby is alone.”
Those four words cut through everything.
Adrian turned.
“Alone?”
Lily instantly regretted saying it.
“I mean—”
“You left an infant alone?”
“No.”
“Then where?”
Another crash sounded near the entrance.
Marco appeared.
“Shot went into the ceiling. Shooter disappeared during the blackout.”
“A warning,” Adrian said.
“That’s what it looks like.”
Lily’s phone buzzed again.
She refused to look.
Adrian did.
“Read it.”
“No.”
“Lily.”
Hearing her name from him frightened her more than his raised voice would have.
She looked.
Five minutes wasted. Tick-tock.
Her fingers trembled.
Adrian’s patience ended.
“We’re leaving.”
The restaurant manager hurried forward.
“Mr. Moretti, police are coming.”
“Good.”
“You should probably stay for—”
Adrian looked at him.
The man stopped.
Marco guided them through a service corridor and into an underground garage.
Three black SUVs were already running.
Lily stopped beside the first.
“I’m not getting inside.”
Adrian opened the rear door.
“You collapsed from hunger thirty minutes before someone threatened your child and fired into a restaurant.”
“That doesn’t mean I trust you.”
“Smart.”
His answer caught her off guard.
“You shouldn’t trust me.”
“Then why would I get inside your car?”
“Because whoever sent that message already knows where you work.”
Adrian leaned closer.
“And because if they know where you work, they probably know where your baby is.”
Lily’s face drained.
She got inside.
The convoy pulled into Manhattan traffic.
Adrian sat across from her.
“Address.”
She stared through the window.
“Lily.”
“East Harlem.”
“Where?”
She finally gave him the intersection.
Marco, sitting up front, turned slightly.
“There’s no residential building on that corner.”
Lily remained silent.
“Where is your baby?” Adrian asked again.
“At the laundromat.”
Marco looked back.
Adrian’s face became unreadable.
“Explain.”
Lily wrapped her arms around herself.
“My friend Carmen works nights at the laundromat. There’s a storage room in back. She watches Noah during my shifts.”
“Noah.”
Lily nodded.
“He’s ten months old.”
Adrian looked at the baby bottle resting beside him.
Ten months.
The exact age Sofia had been when their mother first left Adrian alone with her for an afternoon and he had panicked because she wouldn’t stop crying.
That memory had no business returning tonight.
But it did.
“Where is Noah’s father?”
“Gone.”
“Dead?”
“I wish.”
Adrian’s eyes sharpened.
“Name.”
“No.”
“You want my help?”
“I didn’t ask for it.”
“You’re in my car.”
“Because someone shot at us.”
“Precisely.”
Her jaw tightened.
Adrian had met diplomats who negotiated with less stubbornness.
“Who is threatening you?”
Lily’s voice became quieter.
“A man named Victor Crane.”
Marco immediately looked into the mirror.
Adrian’s expression changed.
Lily noticed.
“You know him.”
“Yes.”
Everyone in Adrian’s world knew Victor Crane.
He operated loan-sharking fronts, illegal gambling rooms, and enough blackmail operations to keep half the city nervous.
More importantly, six months earlier Victor had attempted to move into Moretti-controlled territory.
Adrian had removed him.
Or believed he had.
“Why does Crane want money from you?”
“He doesn’t.”
“Your message says otherwise.”
“The money isn’t mine.”
“Whose?”
Lily looked toward the flash drive in Adrian’s hand.
“My brother’s.”
Adrian waited.
She swallowed.
“My older brother, Ethan, worked accounting for one of Crane’s companies. He discovered money being moved through fake charities. Millions.”
“And copied records.”
She nodded.
“Onto this?”
“Yes.”
“Where’s Ethan?”
Her eyes lowered.
“Dead.”
The SUV became silent.
“He supposedly drove drunk and went over a bridge six weeks ago. Except Ethan didn’t drink.”
“You think Crane killed him.”
“I know he did.”
“And Crane thinks you have the evidence.”
“I didn’t even know about the drive until three days ago.”
“How?”
“Ethan mailed Noah a stuffed rabbit for his first birthday.”
“The rabbit.”
“Yes.”
“I found the drive stitched inside.”
Adrian looked at it.
“And Crane found out.”
“I tried opening the files at a library.”
“Public computer?”
“I didn’t know what else to do.”
Marco muttered something unpleasant under his breath.
“They probably flagged remote access.”
“I’m a waitress,” Lily snapped. “Not a spy.”
Adrian almost laughed.
She had a point.
The SUV turned onto a narrower street.
Then Lily sat forward.
“No.”
Adrian followed her gaze.
Smoke.
The laundromat was three storefronts away.
Its front windows were shattered.
Firelight flickered behind the glass.
Lily ripped open the door before the SUV fully stopped.
“Noah!”
Adrian grabbed her coat.
“Wait.”
She fought him.
“My baby is in there!”
“Marco!”
His men were already moving.
Lily tore free.
Adrian swore and followed.
Carmen stumbled from the building coughing violently.
Lily caught her.
“Where’s Noah?”
Carmen’s face crumpled.
“I’m sorry.”
Lily stopped breathing.
“What?”
“They came.”
“Where is he?”
“I tried to stop them.”
“WHERE IS MY SON?”
“They took him.”
Lily made a sound Adrian would remember for the rest of his life.
Not a scream.
Something worse.
The sound of a mother realizing the world had stolen the one thing she could not survive losing.
Her knees buckled.
Adrian caught her.
Carmen grabbed Lily’s sleeve.
“There were two men. They said midnight. Pier seventeen.”
Lily looked at Adrian.
“I have to go.”
“You’re not going alone.”
“They want the drive.”
“And after you hand it over?”
“I get Noah.”
“No. After you hand them the only evidence connecting Crane to millions in stolen money, they kill you and the child.”
She slapped him.
Every armed man around them froze.
Lily seemed shocked at herself.
Adrian slowly turned his face back toward her.
“You think I care?” she cried. “That is my baby.”
Adrian touched his cheek.
Then he nodded.
“Good.”
She stared at him.
“Good?”
“You’re angry.”
“What?”
“Keep it.”
He stepped closer.
“You’ll need it.”
His men looked confused.
Adrian looked toward the burning laundromat.
For fifteen years, men had used fear to control him.
Fear of betrayal.
Fear of weakness.
Fear of becoming the man who failed to save his sister all those years ago.
Tonight, someone had made a different mistake.
They had shown him a terrified mother.
They had put a bottle in his hand.
And then they had taken her baby.
Adrian handed the flash drive to Marco.
“Copy everything.”
Lily grabbed his sleeve.
“There isn’t time.”
Adrian checked his watch.
11:13 p.m.
Forty-seven minutes.
He looked at her.
“Then we won’t waste any.”
At 11:48, Pier Seventeen was almost completely dark.
Rain swept across the East River.
Lily sat inside an SUV wearing a hidden microphone beneath her shirt.
Adrian crouched outside.
“You stay close to me.”
“They asked for me alone.”
“They’ll see you alone.”
“And where will you be?”
“Close enough.”
“What if something goes wrong?”
Adrian looked toward the warehouse.
“Then they learn why people are afraid of me.”
Lily hated how reassuring that sounded.
She stepped from the vehicle.
Adrian caught her wrist gently.
Not over the bruises.
“Lily.”
She looked back.
“I will get him out.”
“You can’t promise that.”
“No.”
His eyes held hers.
“But I’m promising anyway.”
She walked toward the warehouse.
The door opened before she knocked.
Victor Crane stood inside.
Gray suit.
Silver hair.
Smile without warmth.
And in his arms was Noah.
Lily forgot fear.
Forgot Adrian.
Forgot everything.
“Noah.”
Her baby began crying.
“Mama!”
The sound shattered her.
Victor smiled.
“Bring me my property, Ms. Carter.”
Lily held up the flash drive.
“Give me my son.”
“First the drive.”
“First Noah.”
His smile disappeared.
“I don’t negotiate with waitresses.”
A voice came from the darkness behind Lily.
“That’s unfortunate.”
Adrian stepped beneath the warehouse light.
Victor’s face changed instantly.
“Moretti.”
Adrian’s expression was terrifyingly calm.
“Put the child down.”
“You’ve involved yourself in something that doesn’t concern you.”
Adrian glanced at Noah.
The little boy was crying so hard his face had turned red.
Then Adrian looked at Victor.
“You brought a ten-month-old baby into a business dispute.”
His voice became colder.
“That concerns me.”
Victor pulled a gun.
Lily screamed.
Adrian didn’t move.
Victor pressed the weapon against Noah’s tiny side.
“Give me the drive.”
Adrian’s eyes became black.
Lily whispered, “Please.”
Then a second voice came from behind them.
“You should listen to her, Adrian.”
Marco turned.
Everyone froze.
A gun was pressed against the back of his head.
Holding it was Daniel Moretti.
Adrian’s cousin.
His closest childhood friend.
The man he trusted more than almost anyone alive.
Daniel smiled.
“Because Victor isn’t the one you should be worried about.”
And suddenly Adrian understood.
The leak.
The restaurant.
The fire.
The kidnapping.
May you like
Victor had never been working alone.
The betrayal had been standing beside Adrian the entire time.
Related Stories
