Chapter 4 - The Silent Shift
|
"Are you certain, Mia?" Aleandro asked, his voice dropping into a register so dark and quiet it barely disturbed the dust motes floating in the sunlight.
Mia didn't look away from the window. She nodded, her small chest rising and falling rapidly. "He came to our room when it was dark. He put his hand over Mommy’s mouth. She tried to hit him, but he was too big. He carried her out the back door."
She looked up at Aleandro, her honey-colored eyes welling with tears that she fought bravely to hold back. "Mommy dropped her shoe. I hid under the bed so he wouldn't see me."
Aleandro closed his eyes for a fraction of a second. The image of the young, exhausted mother fighting for her life in the dark, desperately trying to protect her sleeping child, burned itself into his mind. He opened his eyes, and the man who looked out was no longer just a mafia boss. He was an executioner.
"You are a very brave girl," Aleandro said, crouching down to retrieve her stuffed rabbit. He handed it back to her. "You did exactly the right thing."
He walked to the heavy oak doors, opened them, and looked at the two armed guards stationed in the hall.
"Send Marco to my study immediately," Aleandro commanded. "And have Rosa bring a plate of sweets to my desk. Mia will be staying in here with me."
The guards blinked in shock but nodded instantly.
Within three minutes, Marco stepped into the study. Marco was Aleandro’s right hand, a man built like a concrete pillar with a mind as sharp as a scalpel. He saw the little girl sitting in the massive leather chair behind the boss's desk, happily eating a sugar cookie.
"Boss?" Marco asked, his eyes darting between Aleandro and the child.
"Silvio," Aleandro whispered, turning his back to the child and speaking in a voice only Marco could hear. "He took the maid. He took Elena."
Marco’s jaw tightened. He didn't ask how Aleandro knew. He didn't question the logic. Loyalty to Aleandro meant absolute trust.
"Do I kill him?" Marco asked softly.
"Not yet," Aleandro replied, his eyes dark with lethal calculation. "If Silvio took her, he did it for leverage, or because she saw something she shouldn't have. He wouldn't kill her on the property. He has her stashed somewhere. We need to find the location before he realizes the child saw his face."
May you like
"What are your orders?"
"Pull the GPS data from every vehicle Silvio has used in the last seventy-two hours," Aleandro commanded. "Monitor his phone. Watch his men. But do it like a ghost, Marco. If he suspects we know, Elena dies."
