“Dance As My Husband—There’s a Red Dot on Your Forehead,” She Whispered to the Mafia Boss…
“She landed at Teterboro this morning.”
“She landed at Teterboro this morning.”
His jaw tightened.
“She lied to me.”
“She was trying to keep you alive.”
“That doesn’t improve my mood.”
“No. Families rarely do.”
We headed toward the laundry wing.
Behind us, another radio clicked alive.
A male voice said six words.
“Russo is moving east. Close it.”
Gabriel heard it too.
He looked at me.
Nobody should have known our direction.
Unless they could see us.
I raised my eyes.
Security camera.
Small.
Black dome.
Watching us from the ceiling.
And the little red light was blinking.
PART 3 — A hidden camera reveals the traitor watching every move.
I dragged Gabriel beneath the camera.
He stared upward.
“That system belongs to the hotel.”
“Not that camera.”
“How do you know?”
“Wrong housing. Wrong mounting bracket.”
I stood on the housekeeping cart and ripped the device from the ceiling.
A tiny transmitter had been taped behind it.
Private feed.
Live.
Gabriel looked murderous.
“They’ve been watching us since we left the ballroom.”
“Probably before.”
I pulled the memory card.
“That could help.”
“You think the people trying to kill me politely recorded themselves?”
“Criminals love cameras when they think they control them.”
We reached the industrial laundry room.
Huge washers.
Steel tables.
Canvas carts filled with white sheets.
The smell of detergent almost covered the smoke drifting down from upstairs.
Almost.
I opened the laundry chute.
Then a man spoke behind us.
“I always said you were difficult to kill, Gabriel.”
Gabriel turned.
Lorenzo stood between two armed men.
Gray suit.
Perfect tie.
Calm face.
Like he had arrived for a board meeting.
Gabriel lowered his gun half an inch.
It was the first real mistake I had seen him make.
“Lorenzo?”
The old man actually looked disappointed.
“That stubborn expression. Your father wore the same one.”
Gabriel’s voice dropped.
“You raised me.”
“I advised you.”
“You ate Thanksgiving dinner in my mother’s kitchen.”
“And you ignored every lesson I gave you.”
There it was.
Not money alone.
Resentment.
The ugliest fuel in any family.
Lorenzo talked.
About European partners.
Shipping contracts Gabriel rejected.
Narcotics Gabriel refused to move.
Billions lost because Gabriel still clung to some ridiculous line he wouldn’t cross.
Then Lorenzo said the sentence that mattered.
“Nathaniel merely financed tonight.”
I slid my phone from my dress.
Hit record.
Kept smiling.
Lorenzo raised his weapon.
“I designed it.”
Above us, the hidden camera continued recording.
Good.
Because now I had him twice.
PART 4 — Lorenzo’s confession gives me the evidence Gabriel desperately needs.
Lorenzo fired.
I kicked the laundry cart.
It slammed sideways between us.
Gabriel went down.
For one horrible second, I thought he had been hit in the chest.
Then he rolled behind a washer and fired back.
I tackled Lorenzo.
We hit the tile.
He struck my mouth with the gun.
Copper filled my tongue.
Pain came later.
Anger came first.
I twisted his wrist until the gun fell.
Gabriel handled the other men.
Then grabbed Lorenzo by his tie and slammed him against a machine.
“Give me one reason.”
Lorenzo smiled through blood.
“Because Nathaniel has your sister.”
Gabriel stopped.
My stomach dropped.
“What did you say?”
Lorenzo laughed.
“You think Evelyn came home unnoticed?”
Gabriel looked at me.
I checked my dead earpiece.
Then my phone buzzed.
One delayed message finally slipped through the jammer.
From Jackson.
EVELYN MISSING. LAST SEEN TETERBORO.
Gabriel read my face.
His rage disappeared.
That scared me more.
“Where is she?”
Lorenzo said nothing.
I held up my phone.
“You just confessed to conspiracy, attempted murder, illegal weapons purchases, and kidnapping.”
His smile weakened.
Then I pointed toward the ceiling camera.
“And your people recorded the rest.”
That finally wiped the arrogance off his face.
Sirens wailed somewhere below.
NYPD.
Hotel security.
Maybe federal agents.
It didn’t matter.
