Chapter 4 - Warehouse Twelve
Rain began falling over Queens at eleven thirty.
Warehouse Twelve stood near the river, surrounded by abandoned freight yards and rusting fences. It had once stored imported marble for one of our construction companies. My father had used it for meetings that required privacy.
Salvatore knew every hidden entrance.
So did I.
Hayes parked three blocks away in an unmarked van. Agent Daniel Reed sat beside her wearing body armor beneath a gray jacket.
Reed was in his forties, quiet, and watchful. He did not speak like a man trying to prove authority.
“I have a tactical team waiting across the river,” he said. “They move when we confirm Rosa’s location.”
“No visible police,” I said. “Salvatore will kill her.”
“We will follow your lead until civilian life is at immediate risk.”
“That is the first reasonable thing a federal agent has ever said to me.”
Hayes gave me a cold look.
Anthony sat behind us, loading a pistol.
I took it from him.
“You are staying here.”
“She is my mother.”
“That is why you cannot think clearly.”
“And you can?”
“No. But I have more practice pretending.”
Bruno sat between us wearing a tracking harness. Marco had attached a small camera beneath the buckle. Reed would see whatever Bruno saw.
I slipped the real memory card into a steel case.
The evidence had been copied before we left the hospital. Three encrypted backups were already in separate locations.
Salvatore did not know that.
I walked toward the warehouse alone, with Bruno beside me.
The main doors opened before I reached them.
Inside, overhead lights illuminated an empty section of concrete floor.
Rosa sat in a chair beneath one of them.
Her hands were tied, but she appeared uninjured.
Salvatore stood behind her.
At sixty-eight, he still carried himself like the man who once controlled half the unions in New York. His gray hair was combed perfectly. The silver lion ring gleamed on his right hand.
Six armed men surrounded him.
“You brought the dog,” he said.
“He has better judgment than most of my relatives.”
Salvatore smiled. “Still angry.”
“You buried a child alive.”
“She was never meant to wake.”
Rosa flinched.
I kept walking until Bruno growled.
A thin line crossed the floor.
Tripwire.
I stopped.
Salvatore’s smile widened.
“Good dog.”
“Release Rosa.”
“The card first.”
I held up the steel case.
“You killed Vincent.”
“He became weak.”
“He helped you.”
“He began copying records. He planned to trade me for immunity.”
“And Elena saw him?”
“She saw more than she understood.”
“You used a medical clinic to fake her death.”
“Harbor Light was useful. Wealthy people paid enormous sums to hide inconvenient relatives, alter records, and make witnesses disappear.”
My stomach turned.
“How many children?”
Salvatore’s expression remained calm.
“Do not become dramatic.”
Bruno’s growl deepened.
I wanted to kill him.
But Rosa sat between us, and the warehouse was likely wired with explosives.
“You betrayed Carlo,” I said.
For the first time, something changed in Salvatore’s eyes.
“Carlo was reckless.”
“He was your nephew.”
“He was negotiating with the DeLuca family without permission. His death prevented a war.”
“You sold his route.”
“I protected the organization.”
“You protected yourself.”
Salvatore gestured toward Rosa.
“She always filled your head with softness. Your father understood sacrifice.”
“My father trusted you.”
“Your father was dying. Someone had to lead.”
“And when he chose me?”
Salvatore’s face hardened.
“He chose sentiment over experience.”
There it was.
Not business.
Not survival.
Jealousy.
Everything had begun because my father gave leadership to me instead of his older brother.
“Your men, your money, the clinic, the police,” I said. “All of it to take my position?”
“To correct a mistake.”
Rosa looked at me.
Her left hand moved slightly.
Three fingers.
Then two.
Then one.
A countdown.
She had seen something behind Salvatore.
I threw the steel case to the right.
Every gun followed it.
Rosa dropped sideways with the chair.
The warehouse exploded into motion.
Bruno leaped over the tripwire and struck the nearest gunman. I drew the pistol hidden at my back and shot out the overhead lights.
Darkness swallowed us.
Reed’s tactical team breached the west wall.
Gunfire cracked through the building.
I crawled toward Rosa.
A bullet struck the concrete near my hand.
Salvatore’s men retreated toward the loading area.
I cut Rosa’s restraints.
“Can you walk?”
“Yes.”
“Stay low.”
Bruno barked from the darkness.
Through flashes of gunfire, I saw him chasing Salvatore up a metal staircase.
“Bruno!”
He ignored me.
I handed Rosa to Hayes, who had entered with the tactical team, then followed.
At the top of the stairs, Salvatore disappeared into an office.
I reached the door.
Locked.
Inside, machinery clicked.
Reed shouted from below.
“Bomb!”
Red lights began flashing across the warehouse.
A recorded countdown echoed from the speakers.
Sixty seconds.
I shot the lock and entered.
The office was empty.
A trapdoor stood open behind the desk.
Bruno had already gone through it.
I followed into a narrow tunnel leading toward the river.
Fifty seconds.
The tunnel opened onto an underground dock. Salvatore stood beside a speedboat, holding a gun at Bruno.
“Call him off.”
“Put down the weapon.”
“He killed two of my men.”
“They were trying to kill us.”
“He is an animal.”
“He has shown more loyalty than you ever did.”
Salvatore fired.
Bruno moved.
The bullet struck his shoulder.
He fell with a cry.
I fired once.
My bullet hit Salvatore’s hand, knocking away the gun.
I rushed toward Bruno.
Blood darkened his fur, but his eyes remained open.
Behind us, Salvatore climbed into the boat.
“Dominic!” Reed shouted from the tunnel. “Twenty seconds!”
I could chase my uncle or carry Bruno.
Years ago, I might have chosen revenge.
I lifted my dog.
Salvatore started the boat and disappeared onto the black river.
Reed helped me carry Bruno through a side exit as the warehouse erupted behind us.
The blast threw us into the mud.
Flames rose hundreds of feet into the rain.
Rosa crawled toward me.
“Bruno?”
“He’s breathing.”
A veterinary trauma unit was waiting because Hayes had planned for every possibility. They loaded Bruno into a vehicle while medics examined Rosa.
Anthony embraced his mother.
For one brief moment, I thought we had won something.
Then Reed approached holding a radio.
“Salvatore’s boat was found two miles downriver.”
“Was he inside?”
“No.”
“What did you find?”
“Blood and a phone.”
He handed me a photograph displayed on the screen.
It showed Salvatore’s abandoned boat.
On the seat lay the steel case I had thrown.
He had escaped with it.
The card inside was fake, but he would discover that soon.
Hayes walked toward us.
“There is another problem.”
She showed me a message sent to every major news outlet in New York.
A video depicted me entering the warehouse with a gun. The edited footage made it appear that I had kidnapped Rosa and ordered the explosion.
The headline already spreading online read:
MAFIA BOSS ATTEMPTS TO MURDER ELDERLY RELATIVE AND FEDERAL AGENTS.
May you like
Salvatore had not merely escaped.
He had made the entire city hunt me.
