Chapter 6 - THE RANSOM OF A DAUGHTER
I stared at the empty bed, the air leaving my lungs in a violent rush.
“Lucy,” I choked out, a wave of profound panic hitting me. “She’s gone.”
Dante walked to the bed, his face an unreadable mask of absolute terror. He picked up the diamond ring.
“Celine didn't leave the property when I ordered her to,” Dante said, his voice dangerously low. “She hid. She waited until we were in the garage.”
My phone buzzed in my apron pocket.
It was a text message from an unknown number.
Pier 44. Come alone, Dante. Or the little girl learns how to swim.
Dante read the text over my shoulder. The mob boss facade completely shattered, leaving only a desperate, terrified father.
“I’m coming with you,” I said, turning to him.
“No, Mara. This is syndicate business now. If she sees you, she might panic and hurt Lucy.”
“She knows I love that little girl!” I fired back, grabbing his arm. “She knows I’m the only mother figure Lucy has left. I am not staying here while that monster has my child!”
The words my child slipped out before I could stop them. Dante looked at me, his dark eyes softening for a fraction of a second. He nodded.
We drove in silence, Dante’s SUV tearing through the rain-slicked city streets, blowing red lights until we reached the industrial docks.
Pier 44 was desolate, illuminated only by a few flickering halogen streetlamps. The smell of salt and rotting wood filled the air.
At the end of the pier, standing dangerously close to the deep, black water, was Celine.
She was holding Lucy by the collar of her pajamas.
Lucy was sobbing, clutching her little purple bag to her chest.
“Stop right there!” Celine shrieked over the sound of the crashing waves, pulling Lucy closer to the edge.
Dante slammed the brakes and we jumped out of the SUV.
“Let her go, Celine,” Dante commanded, keeping his hands visible. “You want money? You want safe passage? You have it. Just let my daughter go.”
Celine laughed hysterically, her perfect hair matted to her face by the rain. “You humiliated me, Dante! You threw me out for a nanny! I gave you everything! I helped Matteo eliminate Elena so we could rule this city together, and you tossed me aside!”
“You are a murderer,” I yelled, stepping forward.
“Shut up, Mara!” Celine screamed. She pulled an object from her pocket and dangled it over the water.
It was a heavy, leather-bound book.
“The syndicate ledger,” Celine smiled maliciously. “Elena had it. Matteo took it from the wreck, and I took it from him tonight. It has every bribe, every account, every drop of blood your family has spilled for forty years. I give this to the FBI, and you spend the rest of your life in federal prison.”
“Take it,” Dante said without hesitation. “Take it and walk away. But leave Lucy.”
Celine looked down at the terrified five-year-old.
Her smile vanished, replaced by cold, calculated malice.
“Elena tried to leave with her, and she died,” Celine whispered. “If I can’t be the mother of this family, no one can.”
She didn't drop the ledger.
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She shoved Lucy.
The little girl screamed, her tiny body tipping backward off the edge of the pier, plunging down toward the freezing, violent black water.
