Chapter 8
Luis screamed and ran for the door.
I grabbed him before he reached it.
“Let me go!”
“He wants you blind.”
“My wife is there!”
“And your daughter is somewhere else.”
Luis shoved me.
“You think like a criminal. I think like a husband.”
I hit Tony’s shoulder.
“Send men to the restaurant. Now.”
Tony barked orders.
I turned to the monitor.
Victor wanted chaos.
He wanted me split.
He wanted the father broken in two directions.
I refused to give him the pleasure.
“Trace the feed,” I told Harris, who stood beside a tech officer with a laptop.
“We’re trying.”
“Try faster.”
On screen, Elena cried silently.
Her mouth moved.
I stepped closer.
“What is she saying?”
The tech amplified the audio.
At first, static.
Then Elena’s tiny voice.
“Bruno.”
My dog lifted his head.
She said it again.
“Bruno.”
Then she looked toward something off camera.
“Good boy.”
Every man in the room froze.
Bruno was with me.
I looked at the feed harder.
There was another dog.
A smaller one.
Brown.
Thin.
Wearing a red collar.
It kept nudging Elena’s chair.
Tony whispered, “Street dog?”
“No.”
The collar had a silver tag.
I could just see the letters.
NICO.
My cousin’s name.
My dead cousin.
Victor was not just threatening us.
He was digging up every wound.
The tech shouted, “Got a location hit. Signal is bouncing, but primary source is under Pier 14.”
Pier 14.
Victor’s old smuggling route.
I turned to Luis.
“Now we know.”
He wiped his face.
“Then we go.”
Before we left, my phone rang.
My men at the restaurant.
I answered.
“Rosa’s safe,” one said. “But there was a package at the door.”
“What package?”
“A phone. It was playing a recording.”
“What recording?”
He paused.
“A woman. Saying Elena isn’t Rosa’s child.”
Luis heard.
His face folded.
“Victor is trying to make you doubt her,” I said.
Luis shook his head.
“I don’t care whose blood she has.”
He looked me dead in the eyes.
“She called me Daddy.”
We reached Pier 14 at 12:06.
Police surrounded the exits.
My men covered the water side.
Bruno pulled hard against his lead.
Then gunfire cracked from inside the pier house.
Someone screamed.
A child.
I dropped the leash.
May you like
“Find her.”
Bruno ran into the dark.
