Chapter 3 - THE WIDOW'S WEB
The top floor of Austin General Hospital became a fortress by midnight. I had ten of my best men covering the stairwells, the elevators, and the service shafts. I sat in the leather chair in the corner of the twins' room, watching them sleep. The rhythmic beeping of the heart monitor was the only sound keeping me sane.
At 2:00 AM, my burner phone vibrated. It was Dante.
“Boss, we have a problem.”
I stood up, walking out into the hallway to keep my voice down. “Tell me she’s in a cell.”
“She’s in an interrogation room at the 12th Precinct,” Dante said, frustration bleeding through his usually calm demeanor. “But she’s spinning a web, Thomas. She’s claiming she locked them in the basement tonight because Leo had a violent psychotic break. She’s telling the detectives that Leo broke his own leg jumping off the stairs weeks ago, and that he’s been threatening to hurt Maya. She’s playing the terrified, overwhelmed stepmother of a mentally disturbed child.”
My blood ran cold. “And the police are buying it?”
“The lead detective is a guy named Rollins. He’s a straight shooter, but Rebecca is good. She showed them medical records. Apparently, she’s been taking Leo to a private psychiatrist for two months, building a paper trail documenting his 'violent outbursts' and 'self-harm.' She set this up, Boss. She built an alibi before we even knew there was a crime.”
I leaned against the cool plaster of the hospital wall. Rebecca wasn’t just a sadistic abuser. She was calculating. She had anticipated that someone might eventually notice the bruises, so she preemptively painted Leo as the aggressor. A six-year-old boy.
“There’s something else,” Dante added, his voice dropping lower. “She’s lawyered up. But she didn't call a public defender. She called Marcus Vance.”
I stopped breathing for a fraction of a second. Marcus Vance wasn't just a high-priced defense attorney. He was the consigliere for the Reyes Cartel, the ruthless Mexican syndicate that controlled the drug trade south of the river. Ethan’s widow was tied to my biggest rival.
“Why does a suburban widow have a cartel lawyer on speed dial?” I asked, my mind assembling the terrifying pieces of the puzzle.
“I don’t know. But Vance is at the precinct right now, flashing a writ of habeas corpus. If Rollins doesn't charge her by sunrise, Vance is walking her out the front door. And if she walks out, she legally retains custody of those kids.”
“If she comes within fifty miles of these children, I will cut her head off in the middle of Congress Avenue,” I snarled. “Dante, get the cars ready. I’m going to the precinct.”
“Thomas, you can't walk into a police station and threaten a suspect. Not with Vance there. It’ll start a war.”
“The war already started,” I replied, hanging up.
May you like
I looked back through the glass of the hospital room. Maya shifted in her sleep, reaching out to grab Leo’s shirt. I had spent my entire life building an empire of fear to ensure that the Moretti name demanded respect. Ethan had walked away from it to find peace. Now, the darkness he tried to escape had found his children anyway.
I pulled on my trench coat, checking the weight of the Glock 19 in my shoulder holster. I didn't care about the police, and I didn't care about the Reyes Cartel. I was going to tear Rebecca’s lies apart, piece by bloody piece.
