Chapter 7 - THE ABDUCTION
It was a Tuesday. A bright, crisp autumn afternoon. Dominic had agreed, against his better judgment, to let Marco take Isabella to a private, highly secure park in upstate New York. She had been begging to see the fall leaves, to feel like a normal child for just one day.
Marco had ten men with him. The perimeter was locked down. Snipers were in the trees. It should have been impenetrable.
Dominic was in a board meeting in the city, signing papers for a legitimate real estate acquisition, when his phone rang. The specific ringtone he had assigned to Marco.
"Speak," Dominic said, stepping out of the boardroom.
There was breathing on the other end, heavy and wet. "Boss..." Marco's voice was a choked rasp. "Boss, I'm sorry... they had RPGs... they blew the escort cars..."
The floor seemed to drop out from under Dominic. "Marco. Where is she?"
"They took her," Marco coughed, the sound of sirens blaring in the background. "Romano's men. A helicopter. Boss... I tried..." The line went dead.
Dominic didn't scream. He didn't drop the phone. A cold, absolute darkness swallowed him whole. Every ounce of humanity he had painstakingly built over the last few months vanished in a millisecond. He was no longer a father. He was the Devil of New York.
He walked back into the boardroom. The executives looked at his face and instantly fell silent, the blood draining from their cheeks.
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"The deal is on hold," Dominic said, his voice sounding like grinding stones. He walked out of the glass tower, dialed his second-in-command, and gave a single order.
"Call everyone. Empty the armories. We are going to burn the Romano family to the ground."
