Chapter 20 - THE UNSEEN TRIGGER|
It was 9:30 p.m.
Enzo and I sat at a private corner table at Il Giardino—an exclusive rooftop restaurant in Manhattan overlooking the illuminated Brooklyn Bridge.
The air was crisp and warm, violin music drifted softly through the outdoor garden, and a bottle of rare Italian wine sat cooling in a silver ice bucket between us.
Tomaso stood discreetly near the entrance of the terrace, watching the elevator, while Enzo laughed softly as I told him a story about my grandmother's cooking.
"She used to put a pinch of red pepper in the biscotti," I laughed, taking a sip of wine. "She swore it kept the demons away."
"Smart woman," Enzo grinned, reaching across the white tablecloth to hold my hand. "We could use a little red pepper in our life."
My phone—resting beside my plate—vibrated silently against the tablecloth.
I picked it up casually, expecting a routine logistics update from the office.
It was an anonymous text message from an unlisted international number.
I opened the image attached to the text.
My smile instantly vanished. My blood ran dead cold, and the glass of wine in my hand trembled so violently a red drop spilled onto the white cloth.
The image was a high-resolution, real-time photograph of Enzo and me sitting at this exact rooftop table... captured from an elevated sniper position on the skyscraper across the street.
Zoomed in directly on Enzo's chest was a bright, steady red laser tracking dot.
Beneath the photograph was a single line of text:
“You killed the manager, Amelia. But you haven't met the Boss. Your father isn't dead. He's in my cell. Pull the drive from the web in six minutes, or Enzo's head explodes on live television.”
Suddenly, a tiny, microscopic red laser dot flickered onto the center of Enzo's crisp white shirt.
Enzo noticed my face going pale. "Amelia? What's wrong?"
I stared at the red dot on his chest, my thumb hovering over my phone, my mind racing through terrifying choices in complete panic.
The six-minute timer on my phone screen began counting down.
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05:59...
05:58...
