Chapter 2 - The Woman in Cell SixNora Bennett spent the next four hours in a holding cell wondering whether saving a child had just destroyed her life.
She stopped so suddenly that the grocery bag in her arms slipped against her wet coat.
For a second, she thought the sound had come from the apartment building behind her.
Then lightning split the sky.
The cry came again.
Weak.
Thin.
Terrified.
From the alley.
Nora dropped her bag.
She ran.
Rain hammered the pavement as she reached the green industrial dumpster behind Bellamy Towers. The lid was half closed, weighed down by a broken wooden pallet.
“No,” she whispered.
Another cry.
Nora shoved the pallet aside.
The lid crashed open.
Her heart stopped.
A baby lay among black garbage bags.
She couldn't have been more than six months old.
She wore a cream-colored sleeper soaked through with rainwater. Her tiny hands were purple with cold. Mud streaked one cheek. A silver bracelet circled her wrist.
The baby’s eyes fluttered.
“Hey. Hey, sweetheart.”
Nora climbed halfway inside without thinking.
She grabbed the baby and pulled her against her chest.
The little body was freezing.
“Oh God.”
Nora stripped off her coat, wrapped the child inside it, then tucked the baby beneath her sweater against the warmth of her skin.
“Stay with me.”
The baby made a tiny choking sound.
Nora ran toward the street.
“Help!”
Headlights appeared at the mouth of the alley.
Three black SUVs.
They came so fast Nora stumbled backward.
The first vehicle stopped inches from her.
Doors opened.
Men in dark suits poured into the rain.
Nora instinctively tightened her grip around the child.
Then the rear door of the center SUV opened.
A man stepped out.
Tall.
Black-haired.
Broad-shouldered.
He wore no coat despite the freezing rain. His white shirt was open at the throat, his sleeves rolled to his forearms, and there was blood on one cuff.
But none of that frightened Nora as much as his face.
He looked like a man who had already decided someone would die tonight.
His eyes landed on the bundle in Nora’s arms.
Everything about him changed.
“Isabella.”
He crossed the alley.
Nora stepped back.
“Wait—”
He tore the coat away.
The baby's silver bracelet became visible.
The man went completely still.
Then he looked at Nora.
“What did you do?”
“What?”
He took the child from her.
Nora nearly fought him until she saw the way he held the baby.
Not like a stranger.
Like a father.
“My daughter.”
The words barely escaped him.
Nora stared.
“I found her in the dumpster.”
His eyes lifted.
Cold.
Deadly.
“You found her.”
“Yes.”
“In the dumpster.”
“She was freezing. We need an ambulance.”
One of the men behind him spoke.
“Mr. DeLuca, police are two minutes out.”
Nora looked from the men to the SUVs.
DeLuca.
She knew that name.
Everyone in Boston knew that name.
Matteo DeLuca.
Billionaire shipping executive.
Nightclub owner.
Real-estate king.
And, according to every whispered rumor in the city, the most powerful organized-crime figure on the East Coast.
The baby began coughing.
Nora moved toward her.
“You need to keep her warm.”
Matteo turned sharply.
“Don't touch her.”
“I saved her!”
His eyes narrowed.
“Or you put her there.”
Nora froze.
“What?”
A police cruiser screamed into the alley.
Then another.
Matteo handed the baby to one of his men.
“Get Isabella to Mass General.”
Nora stepped forward.
“I should go. I know how long she was exposed. I can tell the doctors—”
Matteo turned.
His hand struck her face.
The slap knocked Nora sideways.
Her shoulder hit the dumpster.
For a moment she could hear nothing but rain.
Matteo stood over her, rage burning behind his eyes.
“You murdered her nanny.”
Nora touched her cheek.
“I don't know what you're talking about.”
“My daughter disappeared from her bedroom two hours ago. Her nanny was found dead downstairs.”
“I've never been inside your house!”
Police officers rushed toward them.
Matteo pointed at Nora.
“Arrest her.”
Nora's mouth fell open.
One officer grabbed her wrist.
“No!”
“Ma'am, turn around.”
“I saved that baby!”
The second cuff snapped around her wrist.
Nora looked at Matteo.
His daughter was being carried toward the SUV.
“You're making a mistake!”
Matteo's expression did not change.
Then Nora saw something lying near the dumpster.
A photograph.
Rainwater had plastered it against the pavement.
She lunged.
An officer pulled her back.
“Wait!”
Matteo looked down.
The photograph showed Isabella asleep in her nursery.
Time-stamped two hours earlier.
Standing beside the crib was a woman.
Not Nora.
A woman wearing a dark hooded coat.
But reflected in the nursery mirror behind her was the face of someone else.
Someone Matteo recognized.
His anger disappeared.
His skin went pale.
May you like
Because the man reflected in that mirror was his younger brother.
And he was holding a syringe.
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