Chapter 12 - THE WOMAN NOBODY NOTICED
Elena wore the same navy uniform she had worn that night.
The split in her knuckle had begun to heal. A faint brown stain remained on one cuff despite two washes.
She looked in the hotel restroom mirror and refused to pull the sleeve down.
Bell checked in through the small earpiece.
“We're in position.”
Elena walked into the lounge.
Vittorio sat beneath a painting worth more than her entire building. A leather briefcase rested at his feet.
“No bag?” he asked.
“Didn't want you thinking I brought a weapon.”
He smiled.
“I don't think of you that way.”
Of course he didn't.
She placed the pendant on the table, keeping two fingers on the chain.
He looked at it with a hunger he hadn't shown when asking about Lucia.
“The money,” Elena said.
He opened the briefcase. Inside was cash.
More money than she had ever seen outside a movie.
For one shameful second, she imagined a door with a good lock. A refrigerator full of food. A whole winter without choosing between heat and rent.
Then she remembered blue lips.
“Why was it so important?” she asked.
“Family property.”
“Your niece was wearing it in a dumpster.”
“My great-niece.”
The correction came instantly.
Elena wanted to throw the briefcase through the window.
Instead, she let her hand shake.
“Did the driver leave her there?”
“Take your money.”
“What if he comes after me?”
“He won't.”
“How do you know?”
Vittorio leaned forward.
“Because men like him don't act without instructions.”
Bell's voice remained calm in Elena's ear.
“Keep him talking.”
Elena slid the pendant an inch toward him.
“And men like you give them?”
His smile disappeared.
“What have you heard?”
“Enough to know that bag won't protect me.”
Vittorio picked up the lion and turned it over.
“The child wasn't supposed to leave that alley,” he said quietly. “You made a simple arrangement very expensive.”
Elena felt the words all the way down to her feet.
A chair moved behind the lounge door.
Vittorio heard it.
His eyes narrowed.
Then his phone lit up on the table with an incoming call labeled HOSPITAL.
He answered before Elena could move.
“Is the transfer ready?”
For the first time since entering the room, Elena forgot the people listening.
“What transfer?”
May you like
Vittorio looked at her and smiled again.
“Did you think I came here without insurance?”
