Chapter 10 - LILY’S TRAP
The apartment was empty.
No Lily.
No guards.
Blood on the kitchen floor.
Emma nearly collapsed.
“Lily!”
Nothing.
She ran room to room.
Bedroom.
Bathroom.
Closet.
Empty.
Dante followed.
“Emma.”
“Don’t.”
“We’ll find her.”
“You said that before.”
“And we did.”
“And then you put guards here!”
“My best men.”
“Well, they’re not here!”
Dante’s face tightened.
He took the anger without defending himself.
Then Sal called from the hallway.
“Boss.”
They found one guard in the stairwell.
Alive.
Barely.
He had a deep cut near his temple.
Dante crouched.
“What happened?”
The guard struggled.
“Girl…”
Emma grabbed him.
“What about Lily?”
“She… left.”
Emma stared.
“What?”
“She left?”
The guard nodded.
“Before attack.”
Dante frowned.
“Explain.”
“She got message. Then signed something. We couldn’t understand.”
Emma almost screamed.
“You put guards with a deaf woman who don’t sign?”
Dante looked ashamed.
“Yes.”
“That is the dumbest thing you have done all week, and that is a competitive category.”
Sal looked away.
The guard continued.
“She wrote on phone. Said groceries. We told her no. She got mad.”
Emma closed her eyes.
“That sounds like Lily.”
“Then fire alarm went off. We moved to hall. Someone hit us.”
Dante stood.
“So Lily may have left before they arrived.”
Emma’s phone buzzed.
A video message.
From Lily.
Emma opened it.
Lily appeared on screen.
Safe.
Annoyed.
Signing fast.
Emma watched.
Then stared.
Dante waited.
“Well?”
Emma looked at him.
“She followed one of the men who kidnapped her.”
Dante blinked.
“She what?”
“She recognized his car.”
Sal whispered, “That girl is insane.”
Emma shot him a look.
“She is resourceful.”
“She followed a kidnapper alone.”
“Insanely resourceful.”
The video continued.
Lily showed a street sign.
Then a warehouse number.
Emma recognized neither.
Sal did.
“Brooklyn Navy Yard.”
Dante grabbed his coat.
Emma stopped him.
“Wait.”
Lily kept signing.
“She says Frankie DeLuca went inside with another man.”
“Who?”
“She filmed him.”
Lily turned the camera.
A grainy figure stepped from a car.
Old.
Broad shoulders.
Cane.
Dante went completely still.
Sal whispered, “Matteo.”
Uncle Matteo.
Alive.
Walking.
Giving orders.
Emma watched Dante’s face.
“That’s him?”
“Yes.”
Lily’s video continued.
“She says she heard—I mean, she saw them talking through the window.”
Dante looked confused.
“Lip-reading?”
“Yes.”
“What did they say?”
Emma watched Lily’s signs.
Then her stomach dropped.
“Matteo says the book will be delivered tonight.”
Dante stared.
“By who?”
Lily continued.
Emma’s face went cold.
“Someone inside your family.”
Sal muttered, “That narrows nothing.”
Then Lily signed a final sentence.
Emma paused the video.
Dante noticed.
“What?”
Emma looked at him.
“She says Matteo called the person ‘the widow.’”
Mrs. Moretti.
Every head turned toward Dante’s mother.
The older woman stood in the doorway behind them.
Her face was unreadable.
Dante looked at her.
“Ma?”
She signed.
Emma watched.
Then shook her head.
“No.”
Dante stepped closer.
“What did she say?”
Emma didn’t want to translate.
“Emma.”
“She says she has the book.”
Dante stared.
“What?”
Mrs. Moretti reached into her handbag.
She removed an old red leather notebook.
Nobody breathed.
Dante looked from the book to his mother.
“You said it was in the coffin.”
She signed calmly.
“I lied.”
Dante looked shattered.
“Why?”
Her eyes filled.
Then she signed.
“Because I needed to know which of my sons I could trust.”
Gabriel, pale from blood loss, stood behind Sal.
“And?”
Their mother looked at both sons.
May you like
Then signed one final answer.
“Neither of you.”
