CHAPTER 3 — “The Target on My Back”
CHAPTER 3 — “The Target on My Back”
The room seemed to shrink around us.
Outside, thunder rolled over the estate, but nobody looked toward the windows.
Everyone was staring at Dominic Russo.
His phone was still in his hand.
His daughters had instinctively gathered behind me.
I didn't understand.
Not completely.
How could three little girls speaking again be dangerous enough to terrify the most feared man in New York?
Dominic answered before I asked.
"They're not coming because my daughters can talk."
His voice was calm again.
"They're coming because someone inside this house told them."
The words landed like broken glass.
Someone...
Inside.
For the first time since I had arrived, Dominic looked around his own kitchen with suspicion instead of ownership.
"This information never left these walls."
No one spoke.
"It happened less than ten minutes ago."
His eyes settled on the closed kitchen door.
"So if another family already knows..."
He didn't finish.
He didn't have to.
There was a traitor.
Within sixty seconds, the mansion transformed.
Steel security shutters rolled over every ground-floor window.
Heavy iron gates locked automatically.
Armed guards flooded every hallway.
The warm house that had begun to feel almost like a home became a fortress again.
The triplets clung to my hands.
The youngest whispered, barely audible,
"Bad men?"
I knelt beside her.
"Everything's okay."
She searched my face.
Children always know when adults lie.
She didn't believe me.
Neither did I.
Dominic's head of security entered the kitchen moments later.
Viktor was enormous.
Gray suit.
Military posture.
Eyes that missed nothing.
"Boss."
Dominic nodded.
"Phones."
Without argument, every employee surrendered their cell phone.
Mine included.
Viktor placed them into sealed evidence bags.
One maid began crying.
A gardener looked offended.
The chef cursed under his breath.
Dominic ignored all of them.
"No one leaves the estate."
His voice carried through the entire house.
"No calls."
"No visitors."
"No deliveries."
"If you're innocent..."
His gaze swept across the frightened staff.
"...you have nothing to fear."
I noticed Rosa lower her eyes.
Not guilty.
Afraid.
There was a difference.
An hour later I found Dominic standing alone in the nursery.
The girls were asleep together for the first time since their mother's death.
Three tiny bodies curled beneath one blanket.
The music box rested on the nightstand.
Dominic didn't notice me.
He was watching them.
"They used to fight over who slept beside Isabella."
His voice was almost a whisper.
"Now they won't sleep unless they're touching each other."
He rubbed a hand across his face.
"I taught them the world isn't safe."
"No," I answered quietly.
"The man who murdered their mother taught them that."
He looked at me.
"There's a difference."
"You came home."
His expression hardened.
"Too late."
"I heard what you said."
The words escaped before I could stop them.
His eyes narrowed.
"In your study."
"The night I almost left."
I forced myself to continue.
"You ordered someone killed."
Silence.
The air became heavy.
"I thought you were exactly like the men who destroyed my family."
His face revealed nothing.
"My father owned a repair shop."
I swallowed.
"He refused to let a local gang use it to hide stolen cars."
"My mother died in the crossfire."
"My father three months later."
"I was seventeen."
Dominic listened without interrupting.
Finally he asked,
"So you stayed in my house after hearing me give that order."
"I stayed because of them."
I looked toward the sleeping girls.
"Not because of you."
For a long moment neither of us spoke.
Then Dominic surprised me.
"The man I ordered executed."
His voice was flat.
"He sold the route to my wife's convoy."
I stared at him.
"He didn't pull the trigger."
"He simply accepted money to tell them where Isabella would be."
My stomach turned.
"He had two daughters."
"I know."
The words came out sharper than I intended.
"So now they have no father."
Dominic's jaw tightened.
"And mine have no mother."
Neither of us had an answer.
That evening, every employee was questioned.
One by one.
Hours passed.
No evidence.
No confession.
No explanation.
By midnight, frustration hung over the mansion like smoke.
Then the youngest triplet tugged on my sleeve.
"I know."
Her tiny voice stopped everyone.
Dominic immediately knelt beside her.
"What do you know, sweetheart?"
She pointed toward the grand hallway.
"The shiny uncle."
The room froze.
"What shiny uncle?"
She frowned, searching for words she hadn't used in over a year.
"He..."
She pointed toward her own wrist.
"...watch."
"Big watch."
"Tick tick."
Rosa gasped.
Only one person in the mansion always wore an oversized silver watch.
The family lawyer.
Anthony Bellini.
The man who had visited that afternoon.
The man everyone trusted.
Dominic's expression changed instantly.
"When did you see him?"
The little girl answered carefully.
"He looked..."
She pointed upstairs.
"...through door."
"My door."
"He smile."
Then she whispered the sentence that made every guard in the room reach for a weapon.
"He say..."
She struggled with the words.
"...pretty birds sing again."
The room went completely silent.
Dominic stood so quickly his chair crashed backward.
"When?"
"Today."
"What else?"
The little girl squeezed her eyes shut.
"He phone."
She held an imaginary phone to her ear.
"He say..."
Her voice became tiny.
"...tell them package ready."
Every adult in the room understood.
The girls hadn't been the target.
They were the bait.
Viktor rushed inside seconds later.
"Boss."
Dominic turned.
"We found it."
"What?"
"A transmitter."
He placed something no larger than a coin onto the table.
Hidden beneath the kitchen cabinet.
Listening.
Recording.
Broadcasting.
Someone hadn't merely betrayed the family.
They had been spying on every conversation inside the house.
For months.
Dominic stared at the device.
Then slowly looked toward me.
"They didn't come because my daughters found their voices."
He picked up the transmitter.
"They came because whoever planted this just heard something..."
He glanced upstairs where the girls slept peacefully.
"...that was never supposed to happen."
Before anyone could speak, every light in the mansion suddenly went out.
Darkness swallowed the house.
A second later...
The emergency backup generators failed too.
From somewhere beyond the iron gates came the unmistakable sound of automatic gunfire.
Then Viktor's voice roared through the darkness.
"They've breached the perimeter!"
A terrified scream echoed from the second floor.
The children's floor.
Dominic was already running before the echo died.
May you like
And as I raced after him, one horrifying thought pounded through my mind.
Someone inside the mansion had just opened the gates from within.
