Chapter 9 - THE ULTIMATUMThe sharp ring of the landline cut through the quiet study like a knife.
Gabriel stared at the phone on his desk.
He didn't move to answer it immediately.
He let it ring twice.
Then three times.
Finally, he picked up the receiver and pressed speaker.
“You’re a difficult man to kill, Gabriel,” Isabella’s voice came through the speaker.
Her tone wasn't panicked.
It was eerily calm.
Cold.
Calculated.
“It’s over, Isabella,” Gabriel said, his voice dangerously low.
“Viktor is running, and I have the bank records.”
A soft, chilling laugh echoed from the other end.
“Do you really think Viktor was the mastermind, Gabriel?”
Gabriel frowned.
“What are you talking about?”
“Viktor is old. His mind is slipping,” Isabella said smoothly.
“I am the one who orchestrated your little family from day one.”
“You murdered my wife,” Gabriel snarled, slamming his fist against the desk.
“She was weak,” Isabella replied without a hint of remorse.
“She wanted to leave you. She wanted to take Sophie and run. I simply... accelerated her departure.”
I stood frozen beside the desk, my hands clenched into fists.
“And where are you now, Isabella?” Gabriel demanded.
“Doesn't matter,” she said.
“What matters is that you have a choice to make, Gabriel.”
“I’m listening.”
“Drop the investigation. Sign over fifty percent of the DeLuca shipping ports to my overseas account. And let me walk away untouched.”
“And if I don't?”
Isabella’s voice dropped to a whisper.
“Then you’ll never see your precious daughter again.”
Gabriel went completely rigid.
“What did you do?”
“Check Sophie’s room, Gabriel.”
The line went dead with a sharp click.
Gabriel didn't even wait for the elevator.
He sprinted up the grand staircase three steps at a time.
I ran right behind him, my heart hammering against my ribs.
We burst through the doors of Sophie’s bedroom.
The room was empty.
The bed was neatly made.
On the pink duvet sat the purple-butterfly hearing aids.
And a small note written in hurried handwriting.
Gabriel grabbed the note.
His hands were shaking.
“Too slow, Daddy.”
I scanned the room frantically.
“Look at the window!” I shouted.
The glass was unlocked.
A rope ladder hung down the side of the balcony into the dark garden below.
Gabriel rushed to the balcony and looked down into the courtyard.
Nothing.
Just the cold autumn rain falling on the empty stone pavers.
“Daniel!” Gabriel roared into his radio.
“Code Red! Sophie is gone!”
Static crackled through the radio.
“Boss, the estate gates were just breached. A black van broke through the north perimeter!”
Gabriel smashed his fist against the stone railing.
For the first time since I met him, the terrifying mafia boss completely lost his composure.
He looked broken.
“She took my daughter,” Gabriel whispered, his voice cracking.
“She took everything.”
I walked over to the bed and picked up Sophie’s purple hearing aids.
I held them tightly in my hand.
“She didn't just take her, Gabriel,” I said, looking up at him.
“She left a trail.”
Gabriel turned to me sharply.
“What are you talking about?”
I pointed at the bedside table.
Sophie’s purple toy music box was open.
Inside, beneath the spinning ballerina, was a small GPS tracking tag that Gabriel had insisted Sophie wear on her bracelet.
Gabriel’s eyes widened.
He pulled out his tablet from his coat pocket.
He tapped the screen frantically.
A glowing blue dot flickered to life on the map.
Moving fast.
Heading toward the abandoned shipyard on the southern docks.
“I found them,” Gabriel said, his voice cold and deadly once more.
May you like
“Let’s go hunting.”
[CLIFFHANGER: AS GABRIEL AND HANNAH ARRIVE AT THE SOUTHERN DOCKS, THEY FIND ISABELLA WAITING ALONE ON THE EDGE OF THE PIER WITH A GUN PRESSED TO SOPHIE’S HEAD.]
Related Stories
