Chapter 6 - The Night the Safe House Burned
The first explosion threw me across the kitchen.
Windows shattered inward.
Alarms screamed.
Elias landed on top of me, shielding my body.
“Move!”
Smoke filled the hallway.
Marco appeared through it.
“Back exit compromised!”
Another explosion shook the house.
Sophie screamed from upstairs.
I tried to stand.
Elias grabbed me.
“Where are you going?”
“My sister!”
“I’ll get her.”
“No!”
We ran together.
Flames were already climbing the stairwell.
Isabella appeared carrying the evidence case.
Elias stared at her.
“Leave that!”
“No.”
“Mother!”
“This is why they’re here.”
She shoved it at Marco.
“Take it!”
We reached Sophie.
A beam collapsed behind us.
The front door was impossible.
Marco led us through the basement and into a tunnel connecting to an old storm cellar.
Someone had prepared this house for war.
Outside, gunfire erupted.
Cars burned.
Men moved through the trees.
These were not Derek’s street-level friends.
They were professionals.
Police Commissioner Mercer had sent people trained to kill.
We escaped in two armored SUVs.
One driver died before we reached the highway.
Elias didn’t speak.
His face was streaked with soot.
Blood covered his collar.
I touched his neck.
“You’re hurt.”
“Not mine.”
That answer frightened me.
We drove to a Russo property in upstate New York.
It was less mansion than fortress.
By dawn, everyone was exhausted.
Isabella sat alone beside the fireplace.
Elias refused to speak to her.
I understood.
He loved her.
He hated her.
He had spent twenty-one years mourning someone who had chosen to remain dead.
Both feelings could exist.
So could mine.
I was grateful she had preserved my father’s evidence.
I was furious she had put Derek near me.
There was no clean emotion left anywhere.
At breakfast, Marco entered.
“We have a bigger problem.”
He placed a tablet on the table.
News reports showed security footage from the Onyx Room.
Me begging.
Elias confronting Derek.
Headlines appeared:
MAFIA KINGPIN ABDUCTS ABUSED WAITRESS.
RUSSO CONNECTION TO MISSING BOYFRIEND.
POLICE SEEK ELIAS RUSSO FOR QUESTIONING.
Commissioner Mercer had moved first.
He was turning Elias into the criminal story.
Derek appeared on television that afternoon.
Alive.
Bandaged.
And lying.
“My girlfriend was manipulated by Elias Russo,” he told reporters. “She’s vulnerable. She needs help.”
I nearly threw a glass through the television.
Then he said something worse.
“I’m afraid Russo will kill her.”
By evening, my face was everywhere.
People debated whether I had Stockholm syndrome.
Whether Elias had kidnapped me.
Whether Derek was a loving boyfriend.
Whether the bruises had been fake.
The world had taken the worst thing that happened to me and turned it into entertainment.
I locked myself in the bathroom.
Elias found me there twenty minutes later.
He sat outside the door.
He didn’t ask me to open it.
“I can make the coverage disappear,” he said.
“How?”
“Money.”
I laughed through tears.
“Of course.”
“I can buy silence.”
“That doesn’t make the lies untrue.”
“No.”
I opened the door.
He stood.
“I want to speak.”
“To reporters?”
“Yes.”
“No.”
My anger flared.
He raised both hands.
“I’m not deciding for you.”
“Sounds like it.”
“I’m saying Mercer controls the police. The people outside that gate may not be journalists.”
I hated that he was right.
“So what do we do?”
Elias looked toward the hallway.
“We use the evidence.”
Isabella had spent decades building a case.
The problem was finding someone trustworthy enough to receive it.
They chose Assistant U.S. Attorney Rachel Monroe.
My father had once attempted to contact Rachel’s father, an FBI agent.
The elder Monroe died before they met.
Rachel agreed to come secretly.
She listened to the tapes.
Read the ledger.
Then looked at us.
“This can destroy careers.”
Elias leaned back.
“Good.”
“It can also start a war.”
“That already happened.”
Rachel turned toward me.
“If you testify about Derek, we can connect him to the surveillance operation.”
My mouth went dry.
“In court?”
“Eventually.”
“What if he comes after Sophie?”
“We protect her.”
I had heard those words before.
Everyone could protect me until they couldn’t.
Elias seemed to understand.
“You don’t have to do this.”
I looked at him.
For once, the mafia boss was the person telling me I didn’t owe anyone courage.
My father’s letter echoed in my mind.
You do not owe anyone courage.
Maybe courage only mattered when it was chosen freely.
“I’ll testify.”
Rachel nodded.
Two days later, Mercer was placed under sealed federal investigation.
Three detectives disappeared.
Judge Cole attempted to leave the country.
Salvatore resurfaced.
He brought something no one expected.
Vincent Russo’s original trafficking account book.
And a confession.
Not to murder.
To covering up the truth.
He admitted helping fake Isabella’s death.
Bribing officials.
Destroying evidence.
Threatening witnesses.
He was willing to testify.
“Why?” Elias asked.
Salvatore looked older than before.
“Because I am tired.”
“That’s not redemption.”
“I know.”
“Then don’t ask for it.”
“I’m not.”
For the first time, I understood something about the Russo men.
They carried love like a weapon.
Heavy.
Dangerous.
Often pointed in the wrong direction.
That night, Elias and I stood on the balcony.
Snow had begun falling.
“You should leave New York when this ends,” he said.
I laughed softly.
“You really enjoy trying to get rid of me.”
“I enjoy imagining you somewhere safe.”
“Safe isn’t a place.”
He looked at me.
I continued.
“I thought my apartment was safe once.”
Snow settled in his dark hair.
“What is it, then?”
“A choice.”
His eyes stayed on mine.
I moved closer.
“So stop trying to choose it for me.”
“I’m working on that.”
“You’re terrible at it.”
“Yes.”
I smiled.
He touched my face slowly.
Giving me time to step away.
I didn’t.
Our first kiss was soft.
Almost careful.
Nothing like the life around us.
For five seconds, I forgot about guns and ledgers and dead fathers.
Then Marco opened the balcony door.
“Boss.”
Elias stepped back.
“What?”
Marco’s face was grim.
“Derek took Sophie.”
Again.
Except this time, he had left a message.
May you like
COME ALONE, KHLOE.
OR YOUR SISTER DIES BEFORE MIDNIGHT.
