Chapter 4 - THE WRONG SISTER TO KIDNAP
Emma lunged toward the door.
Dante caught her.
“Let go of me!”
“The car is moving.”
“I don’t care!”
“You jump out, you break your neck. How does that help Lily?”
Emma turned on him.
“You said you’d get her!”
“We are.”
“They already have her!”
Mrs. Moretti grabbed Emma’s hand.
Emma looked at her.
The woman signed.
“Your sister is deaf?”
Emma nodded.
“Yes.”
Mrs. Moretti’s eyes hardened.
“Then they may underestimate her.”
Emma stared.
She was right.
People always underestimated Lily.
Teachers.
Doctors.
Boyfriends.
Strangers.
Men who thought deaf meant helpless.
They were usually wrong.
Lily had once broken a guy’s nose on a subway platform after he grabbed her backpack.
Emma turned to Dante.
“She keeps location sharing on.”
“Where?”
“Phone app.”
Sal took Emma’s phone.
“Password?”
“2914.”
Dante looked at her.
“You just gave him your password.”
“Find my sister and don’t get sentimental.”
Sal worked fast.
“There.”
Everyone looked.
A moving dot.
Queens.
Dante leaned forward.
“Vehicle?”
“Looks like it.”
“Send the location.”
“To who?”
“Everybody.”
Emma frowned.
“Everybody who?”
Dante looked at her.
“You don’t want to know.”
“Pretty sure I already know too much.”
The SUV changed direction.
Dante made three calls in under thirty seconds.
No names.
No explanations.
Just locations and orders.
Emma watched him.
This was the man people feared.
Not because he was dramatic.
Because he was efficient.
He never repeated himself.
Never hesitated.
When he finished, Emma said, “If Lily gets hurt…”
Dante looked at her.
“You can blame me.”
“I already do.”
He nodded once.
Fair enough.
Sal watched the location.
“They stopped.”
“Where?”
“Old warehouse near Newtown Creek.”
Dante’s jaw tightened.
“I know it.”
Emma hated that sentence.
Twenty minutes later, two vehicles stopped three blocks from the warehouse.
Dante turned to Emma.
“You stay here.”
“No.”
“That wasn’t a request.”
“Then you don’t know me.”
Dante stared.
“I’m not bringing a waitress into a gunfight.”
“I’m not a waitress right now. I’m Lily’s sister.”
“You’re staying.”
Mrs. Moretti tapped Dante’s shoulder.
He looked at her.
She signed.
Emma translated automatically.
“She says you’re wasting time.”
Dante frowned.
His mother continued.
“And she says women in this car have survived you for this long, so maybe stop giving stupid orders.”
Sal coughed to hide a laugh.
Dante glared at him.
Then at Emma.
“Fine. You stay behind me.”
“Fine.”
“If I say run, run.”
“I’ll consider it.”
“Emma.”
“Move.”
They approached from the rear.
The warehouse was dark except for one second-floor window.
Dante’s men spread out.
Emma counted nine.
She wondered how many had appeared because of a single phone call.
Then she decided she didn’t want the answer.
At a side entrance, Dante stopped.
Two fingers up.
Sal nodded.
The door opened.
Fast.
Silent.
They moved in.
Emma followed.
Her heart beat so hard she could feel it in her throat.
Inside, she smelled oil, dust, and cold metal.
Then she saw Lily.
Tied to a chair.
Tape over her mouth.
One man beside her.
Another near the stairs.
Emma’s body moved before her brain did.
“LILY!”
The guard turned.
Dante swore.
Everything exploded.
Lily kicked the man beside her in the knee.
He screamed.
Dante fired toward the stairs.
Sal tackled another man.
Emma ran.
The guard reached for Lily.
Lily threw her head backward into his face.
Blood sprayed from his nose.
Emma grabbed the chair and shoved it sideways.
The man reached for her.
Then Mrs. Moretti hit him with a metal pipe.
Everyone froze.
Even Dante.
His mother stood there holding the pipe.
She looked at Emma.
Then signed.
“I told you I could run.”
Emma almost cried.
She ripped the tape from Lily’s mouth.
Lily immediately started signing.
“You took forever.”
Emma laughed and sobbed at the same time.
“I missed you too.”
Dante crouched.
“Is she hurt?”
Emma interpreted.
Lily looked at him.
Then signed.
“That’s Dante Moretti?”
Emma nodded.
Lily stared at him.
Then signed something else.
Emma tried not to smile.
Dante narrowed his eyes.
“What did she say?”
“She said she expected you to be taller.”
Sal burst out laughing.
Dante ignored him.
Then a shot cracked from above.
Everyone ducked.
A bullet struck the floor beside Lily’s chair.
Dante fired back.
A figure disappeared behind the railing.
“Move!”
They rushed toward the exit.
Then Lily grabbed Emma’s sleeve.
She signed urgently.
“What?”
Lily pointed toward the office upstairs.
“They were talking about a book.”
Emma’s pulse jumped.
“What did they say?”
Lily’s hands moved.
Emma went cold.
She turned toward Dante.
“They said the red book isn’t at your mother’s house.”
Dante stared.
“Then where is it?”
Lily signed one final sentence.
Emma looked at Mrs. Moretti.
The older woman’s face had gone white.
May you like
Emma translated.
“They said Mrs. Moretti hid it inside your father’s coffin.”
