Chương 9
Matteo had remained on the gravel until blood soaked through his trousers. Afterward, he spent twenty-three years ensuring no one put him in that position again.
Sofia could not know that.
She had still found the exact place to press.
“If he asks,” Matteo said, “I’ll do it.”
Rizzo stared at him.
Sofia did not look relieved. “He’ll know you plan something.”
“He already knows.”
At two, Marco’s lawyer arrived at the hotel with two uniformed police officers and a missing-person complaint.
Marco had reported that Sofia, emotionally unstable and under medical care, had been taken against her will by her husband.
Rizzo swore when security called.
Matteo’s first instinct was to send the officers away through the service elevator.
Sofia stopped him.
“If they leave without seeing me, he wins.”
“They’re not coming into the suite.”
“They need to hear me.”
“They may photograph you.”
“Good.”
The answer startled everyone.
Sofia removed Matteo’s cardigan.
The blue medical scrubs exposed the bruising at her wrists and collarbone. She folded the cardigan over the back of a chair.
“Let them see what he reported missing.”
Matteo watched her hands. They trembled, but she did not cover herself again.
The officers entered with a detective named Laura Keller, who wore plain clothes and the exhausted expression of someone pulled from another case by a politically connected lawyer. She kept her body camera visible and asked Matteo to remain across the room.
Marco’s attorney began speaking before anyone addressed him.
“My client is deeply concerned about his daughter’s mental health.”
Sofia’s face went blank.
Keller looked at the attorney. “You can wait outside.”
“I represent the family.”
“You represent her father. She’s twenty-six.”
The attorney opened his mouth.
Keller pointed toward the hall.
Rizzo smiled pleasantly and held the door.
When the lawyer had gone, Keller sat opposite Sofia. “Mrs. Moretti, do you know where you are?”
Sofia’s eyes flickered at the married name.
“Yes.”
“Are you here voluntarily?”
She looked at Matteo.
He forced himself not to move.
Keller followed her gaze. “You can ask him to leave.”
Sofia swallowed. “I want him to stay.”
Matteo felt the words in his chest.
Keller nodded. “Are you afraid of your husband?”
Sofia looked at her hands.
The silence stretched.
Matteo did not blame her. Less than twelve hours earlier, he had taken her silence as permission to continue. He had stopped only after fear became too obvious to ignore.
“Yes,” Sofia said.
Rizzo’s eyes closed briefly.
Keller’s voice remained neutral. “Has he hurt you?”
“No.”
“Did he cause those injuries?”
“No.”
“Who did?”
Sofia’s mouth opened.
Nothing came out.
The room filled with the hum of the air-conditioning.
Keller waited without rescuing her from the question.
“My father,” Sofia whispered.
The words changed the room.
Keller asked when, where, and whether Sofia wished to make a formal statement. Sofia answered some questions and refused others. She described being restrained but could not say who had held her. She told Keller about Nico and showed the video on the prepaid phone.
Matteo expected immediate action.
Instead, Keller became cautious.
“The video doesn’t establish location or when it was recorded,” she said. “Your brother is an adult. Has anyone reported him missing?”
“My father controls his phone and accounts.”
“Do you have a message from him saying he’s being held?”
“You watched it.”
“I watched a young man with injuries say not to let you return. I believe something is wrong. Belief and probable cause are different things.”
Sofia’s face tightened.
Matteo stepped forward. “He’s being held at Saint Michael’s.”
Keller looked at him. “How do you know?”
“A message on the phone.”
“Then give me the phone.”
Rizzo intervened. “We’ll provide a copy.”
“The original.”
“It contains information related to our own security.”
Keller stood. “This is where people become less helpful than they believe they are.”
Matteo’s temper sharpened. “By the time you get a warrant, Nico will be dead.”
“And if you storm a social club with armed men, more people may die, evidence will disappear, and every witness will suddenly remember nothing.”
Neither of them yielded.
Sofia spoke from the sofa.
“I’ll give you the phone.”
Matteo turned. “No.”
“It’s mine to give.”
“It was left for me.”
“The message is about my brother.”
Keller held out an evidence bag.
Sofia placed the phone inside.
Matteo felt the plan shift beneath him.
Keller sealed the bag and wrote across the label. “I’ll request an emergency review. I am not promising a raid. I’m not promising an arrest. I am promising that the report will exist outside this room.”
Sofia nodded.
When the detective left, Matteo closed the door harder than necessary.
“You gave away our only direct line to Marco.”
Sofia folded her hands to hide their shaking. “He can call another phone.”
“That device could have contained location data.”
“Your people copied it.”
“That is not the point.”
“What is?”
“You made a decision that affects the operation without consulting me.”
Her eyes lifted. “You went to Red Hook without consulting me.”
“I am responsible for security.”
“I am responsible for Nico.”
Matteo stopped near the bar.
Sofia’s voice remained quiet. “You said we needed both of us. You meant until I disagreed.”
Rizzo looked down at his laptop.
Matteo wanted to order everyone out, take back control, rebuild the plan around people who followed instructions. The impulse came from the same place as every command he had given since midnight.
Control was faster than trust.
It was also easier.
He pressed both hands onto the marble counter.
“You were right to make a record,” he said.
Sofia blinked.
“I still think giving up the phone was a mistake.”
“It may be.”
“You don’t sound worried.”
“I’m terrified.”
May you like
Her honesty stripped the argument of its comfortable edges.
She rubbed the paper medical bracelet with one thumb. “But if we do this your way, my father will say gangsters attacked him and kidnapped Nico. If there’s a police report first, he has to work harder.”
