Chapter 6 – THE WRONG ALLY
The door swung open.
My brother, Sam, stood in the doorway, wearing his blue nursing scrubs. He froze, staring at a bleeding man in a tuxedo holding a gun to his chest, and an old woman in a nightgown sitting in his kitchen.
“Sam! Stop!” I screamed, jumping between them. “Dominic, put the gun down! It’s my brother!”
Dominic lowered the weapon slowly, though his eyes remained guarded.
Sam looked at me, pale and terrified. “Emily… what the hell is going on? There are two black SUVs parked at the end of the block.”
Dominic stiffened. “Did they follow you?”
“Nobody followed me!” Sam stammered, dropping his duffel bag. “I just got off a twelve-hour shift. But there are guys in suits asking the bodega owner down the street if he’s seen a woman in a blue coat.”
Mrs. Russo clutched her coat tighter. “They tracked the GPS on the Mercedes.”
“I ripped the tracker out before we left the garage,” Dominic said, pacing the small room like a caged tiger. “They couldn’t have tracked the car.”
“They didn’t track the car,” a voice said from the bedroom.
We all turned.
Little Leo was standing in the doorway, holding up a shiny silver watch.
“The bad lady put this in my pocket when she was yelling at me,” the boy said innocently.
Dominic took the watch. It was a custom Rolex. On the back, a tiny, blinking red light pulsed.
“An AirTag rigged to the battery casing,” Dominic said, disgust lacing his words. “She planted it on him at the orphanage.”
He threw the watch on the floor and smashed it with the heel of his shoe.
“It doesn’t matter,” Sam said, panicked. “They know you’re in this neighborhood. It’s only a matter of time before they start kicking in doors.”
Dominic looked at me, then at his mother and the boy. The fierce protector returned to his eyes.
“I’m not running anymore,” Dominic said. He pulled out the black satellite phone his mother had given him.
“Who are you calling?” I asked.
“The only people who hate Paulie more than I do.” He dialed a number. “The Chicago Commission.”
Mrs. Russo gasped. “Dominic, no. If you invite the Commission in, there’s no going back. They’ll demand blood.”
“They’re going to get it,” he said grimly.
He put the phone to his ear. “It’s Russo. I need a sit-down. Tonight.”
A pause.
“Tell them Paulie broke the sacred rule. He went after family. A child.”
Dominic hung up. He turned to my brother. “Sam, I need you to take my mother and my nephew to the basement of this building and lock yourselves in the maintenance room. Do not come out until Emily tells you to.”
“What about you?” I asked, panic rising in my chest.
“I’m going downstairs to end this.”
“You can’t go alone against two SUVs full of armed men!” I argued.
Dominic stepped close to me. He took off his ruined suit jacket and draped it over my shoulders. It smelled like gunpowder and expensive cologne.
“I won’t be alone for long,” he said.
He opened the apartment door.
And standing in the hallway, with a suppressed pistol pointed directly at Dominic’s face, was Marcus.
He hadn’t died in the hallway.
“You’re right,” Marcus said, wiping blood from his forehead. “You won’t be alone.”
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