Chapter 5 - THE MAN VICTOR CALLED UNCLE
Sadi moved before Victor did.
“What did you mean?”
Carlo ignored her.
Victor stepped into his line of sight.
“You heard her.”
Carlo sighed.
“Ruth was not some helpless maid caught in the wrong room.”
Sadi’s pulse hammered.
“She cleaned houses.”
“She carried messages for your father.”
“No.”
“She moved money.”
“You’re lying.”
Carlo finally looked at her.
“Your mother was loyal to Arturo. That does not make her innocent.”
Sadi wanted to slap him.
Instead she remembered Sam.
She remembered the threat.
The hour.
“Did you kill her?”
Victor’s gaze shifted sharply toward Carlo.
Carlo’s expression hardened.
“No.”
“Did you kill my father?” Victor asked.
Carlo looked almost offended.
“If you believed I did, I wouldn’t be standing here.”
“That can change.”
Carlo’s eyes narrowed.
“There he is.”
Victor said nothing.
“My brother spent years teaching you that restraint was weakness,” Carlo continued. “Then one bad night changed his mind. Suddenly he wanted to dismantle everything.”
“Because you were stealing money from children with cancer.”
Sadi saw Carlo’s confidence flicker.
Victor had not mentioned the contents of the tape.
Carlo realized his mistake half a second too late.
Victor did not miss it.
“You knew exactly what was recorded.”
Carlo looked toward the fire.
“I was there.”
“You said you weren’t.”
“I said a tape doesn’t make Ruth innocent.”
Victor walked closer.
“What happened after the gunshot?”
Carlo’s jaw tightened.
“Ask your dead housekeeper.”
Sadi lunged.
Victor caught her around the waist before she reached Carlo.
“Let go of me!”
“Sadi.”
“He knows!”
“I know.”
Carlo watched them.
Something almost like pity crossed his face.
“Ruth made the same mistake.”
Sadi stopped struggling.
“What mistake?”
“Believing Arturo could protect everyone.”
Victor released her slowly.
Carlo picked up his coat.
“This conversation is over.”
“No,” Victor said.
Carlo turned.
Victor’s men were already standing in the doorway.
Carlo looked at them.
Then at Victor.
“You would hold family prisoner?”
“You taught me family doesn’t excuse betrayal.”
A phone buzzed.
Not Sadi’s.
Victor’s.
He answered immediately.
Luca was speaking so loudly Sadi heard him from several feet away.
“Boss, we have a problem.”
Victor’s eyes stayed on Carlo.
“What?”
“The hospital transport was diverted.”
Sadi’s blood stopped moving.
“What transport?”
Luca hesitated.
“Sam’s.”
Sadi grabbed Victor’s arm.
“No.”
Victor put the call on speaker.
“What happened?”
“The hospital decided to move him to a protected unit across campus. Someone changed the vehicle assignment in the system. Our two men followed the wrong ambulance.”
Sadi could barely hear.
“Where is my brother?”
“We’re pulling traffic cameras.”
“Where is he?”
“We don’t know yet.”
Her legs weakened.
Victor caught her.
Carlo swore quietly.
Sadi turned toward him.
“You.”
His face changed.
“I didn’t do this.”
“You expect me to believe you?”
Carlo looked at Victor.
“If I wanted that boy dead, you would not be receiving a warning.”
Sadi crossed the room and slapped him.
The sound cracked through the room.
Nobody moved.
Carlo touched his cheek.
Victor’s men waited for an order.
Victor gave none.
Sadi’s voice trembled.
“He is sixteen.”
Carlo stared at her.
Then something strange happened.
He looked genuinely disturbed.
“I did not order this.”
Victor watched him carefully.
Sadi saw it too.
Carlo might be a murderer.
He might be lying about half his life.
But for that moment, he appeared to believe what he was saying.
Luca’s voice came through the phone.
“We found the vehicle.”
“Where?”
“Abandoned two miles from the hospital.”
Sadi closed her eyes.
“And Sam?”
“Not inside.”
Victor’s expression became murderous.
“Cameras.”
“Checking now.”
A minute felt like an hour.
Carlo sat down without being asked.
Victor stood beside Sadi.
His hand rested lightly against the center of her back.
Not holding.
Just there.
Luca returned.
“We have video.”
Victor crossed to the office monitor.
Security footage appeared.
A hospital exit.
An ambulance bay.
Sam was visible.
Thin from treatment.
A knit cap covering his head.
Mask over his face.
He walked slowly beside a man.
Mick O’Shea.
Sadi’s breath caught.
“There.”
Mick opened the passenger door of a dark SUV.
Sam hesitated.
Mick said something.
Sam looked at him.
Then Sam climbed into the vehicle voluntarily.
Victor replayed it.
Once.
Twice.
There was no gun.
No struggle.
No forced movement.
Carlo stood behind them now.
Victor looked at Sadi.
“He went willingly.”
“No.”
“He knew Mick.”
“No, he didn’t.”
Sadi moved closer to the screen.
Mick said something before Sam entered the car.
The camera had no audio.
But she saw his lips.
Four words.
She replayed the clip.
Again.
Again.
Then understood.
Sadi went cold.
“What did he say?” Victor asked.
She looked at him.
“He said, ‘Your sister sent me.’”
Victor’s jaw tightened.
But Sadi was staring at something else.
Sam was carrying a small plastic bag.
Inside was his phone charger.
His medication.
And a photograph.
Sadi recognized it.
The photograph that normally sat beside Sam’s hospital bed.
Ruth Hayes holding both her children.
Mick had known exactly which picture Sam trusted.
Sadi turned toward Carlo.
“How did Mick know my mother?”
Carlo said nothing.
Victor picked up his phone.
“Find O’Shea.”
Carlo laughed without humor.
“That won’t be difficult.”
Victor stared at him.
“You know where he is.”
Carlo adjusted his sleeve.
“I know where he goes when he is frightened.”
“And where is that?”
Carlo looked at Sadi.
“Ruth used to meet him at an old boxing gym on Mercer Street.”
Sadi felt as though the floor had moved beneath her.
“My mother knew Mick?”
May you like
Carlo’s next words were quiet.
“Mick O’Shea was the last person who saw Ruth Hayes alive.”
