Anna did not ask Dominic what they were going to do.
She told him.
“I’m going.”
“No.”
“He has my daughter.”
“And giving him her mother won’t help her.”
“He asked for me.”
“Which means he needs you.”
“I don’t care.”
“I do.”
Anna stared at him.
The words hung between them.
Dominic turned toward Rachel.
“Trace?”
“Burner. Signal bounced through three towers.”
Marco was already assembling teams.
Anna paced.
“Why does Victor want me?”
Claire was still on speakerphone.
“For the rabbit.”
“It’s gone.”
“Maybe Lily took it.”
“She did.”
“Then Victor already has it.”
Claire paused.
“Unless he can’t open it.”
Anna remembered Daniel.
Her husband had been an electrician by trade but loved puzzles.
He hid Christmas gifts behind riddles.
He proposed with a ring locked inside a wooden box that required Anna to solve a series of clues.
“The rabbit,” she whispered.
Dominic watched her.
“What about it?”
“Daniel had it custom made.”
“He told me it was because Lily kept chewing the ears of her old one.”
Anna nearly laughed through her terror.
“That sounds like him.”
“What could be inside?”
“I don’t know.”
Claire said, “Whatever it is, Victor thinks you can access it.”
Anna tried to remember.
Daniel had given Lily the rabbit on a rainy Tuesday.
Two days before his death.
He had placed it in their daughter’s crib.
Then he had kissed Anna.
And said something strange.
If anything ever happens, keep this little guy around.
Anna had laughed.
She thought he was talking about Lily.
Now she understood.
“The rabbit has a music box inside,” she said.
Dominic frowned.
“So?”
“Daniel replaced the winding key.”
“With what?”
Anna’s mouth went dry.
“My wedding ring.”
Everyone stared at her hand.
A simple gold band remained on her finger.
Daniel had insisted on ordering a duplicate ring after theirs were engraved.
One stayed in storage.
Or so Anna thought.
“He told me he lost the spare.”
Claire whispered, “He didn’t.”
The door to Dominic’s study opened.
Ethan ran in.
His face was wet with tears.
“Dad.”
Dominic turned.
Ethan had rarely interrupted adult meetings.
Not like this.
“She left because of me.”
“No.”
“I told Lily the lady said Anna wanted her.”
“Ethan.”
“I should have stopped her.”
Dominic crouched.
“You listen to me.”
The boy looked at him.
“The person who took Lily lied to you. That is their fault.”
“But—”
“No.”
Dominic gripped his shoulders.
“You are not responsible for what an adult chose to do.”
Anna’s throat tightened.
Because she suddenly realized Dominic was not only speaking to Ethan.
He was speaking to himself.
He had blamed himself for Sophia’s death for years.
Everyone in the household knew it.
The accident happened on a night Sophia had driven home alone after an argument with him.
She lost control on an icy road.
Dominic had never forgiven himself.
Anna knelt beside Ethan.
“Lily loves you.”
He started crying.
“I love her too.”
Anna hugged him.
“We’re bringing her home.”
Dominic looked at Anna over his son’s shoulder.
This time, he did not argue.
Victor contacted them twenty minutes later.
A warehouse on the Hudson.
Anna alone.
No police.
No security.
Dominic laughed when he heard the demand.
“He actually thinks I’m letting you walk into a warehouse alone.”
Anna looked at him.
“I am.”
“No.”
“Stop saying no.”
“Stop trying to get yourself killed.”
“My daughter is three years old!”
“And you’re her mother. She needs you alive.”
Anna stepped closer.
“If Ethan were there, could anyone stop you?”
Dominic said nothing.
“That’s what I thought.”
The plan was simple.
Anna would go inside.
Dominic would follow.
Rachel would coordinate a covert approach from across the riverfront.
Marco would enter from the roof.
Claire volunteered to help.
Anna did not trust her.
But Claire knew Victor’s habits.
“He always keeps two exits,” she explained. “Never one.”
Dominic looked at her.
“You knew him well.”
Claire looked ashamed.
“I thought I could get close enough to prove what he did to Daniel.”
“And instead?”
“I became useful to him.”
“What did you do?”
Claire swallowed.
“I gave him schedules.”
Anna stared at her.
“Whose schedules?”
“Dominic’s.”
“What else?”
“The estate deliveries.”
Anna’s face changed.
Claire quickly added, “Not Ethan’s medical information.”
“Then how did Victor know about his allergy?”
Claire looked at Dominic.
“I don’t know.”
Rachel did.
“School.”
Everyone turned.
“Ethan’s emergency medical plan would be on file.”
Dominic’s expression hardened.
Victor did not need someone inside the family.
He needed someone with access to the school network.
Rachel made calls.
Ten minutes later, they had a name.
A school administrative assistant had accepted a five-thousand-dollar payment from a shell company for what she thought was “market research.”
She had copied student emergency records.
Victor had built the assassination from fragments.
A schedule from Claire.
A security weakness from the contractor.
Medical information from the school.
Forged emails to Marco.
No single person knew enough to understand the whole plot.
Except Victor.
At sunset, Anna entered the warehouse.
Alone.
At least, that was how it looked.
Her footsteps echoed across concrete.
“Lily?”
No answer.
She walked farther.
“Lily!”
A small voice came from behind stacked crates.
“Mommy!”
Anna ran.
Victor stepped from the shadows.
“Stop.”
He held a gun.
Anna froze.
Lily sat in a chair behind him.
She was not tied.
She was holding her stuffed rabbit.
“Mommy!”
“I’m here, baby.”
Victor smiled.
“You came.”
“You knew I would.”
“I did.”
He looked nothing like a monster.
That disturbed Anna most.
He wore an expensive navy coat.
His gray hair was neatly combed.
He looked like the man who had once brought Ethan a bicycle for Christmas.
“Give me Lily.”
“Open the rabbit.”
“No.”
Victor lifted the gun.
Anna’s voice shook.
“You won’t shoot me.”
“Don’t test me.”
“You need me.”
“Only until you open it.”
Anna looked at Lily.
The child was crying silently.
“Give it to Mommy.”
Lily stood.
Victor let her approach.
Anna took the rabbit.
Her fingers shook.
She found the small metal plate beneath its fabric collar.
A circular indentation was hidden there.
Exactly the size of a wedding band.
Anna removed her ring.
She pressed it into the mechanism.
Click.
The music-box compartment opened.
Inside was a tiny flash drive.
Victor’s eyes widened.
“There you are.”
Anna closed her fist around it.
“What’s on this?”
“Insurance.”
“For Daniel?”
“For anyone smart enough to threaten me.”
“You killed him.”
Victor smiled.
“He threatened everything.”
Anna felt tears burning her eyes.
“He had a wife.”
“Yes.”
“A daughter.”
“Yes.”
“And you killed him anyway?”
Victor’s face hardened.
“Daniel should have minded his own business.”
Anna almost lunged at him.
She stopped only because Lily was watching.
“Then Ethan?”
Victor sighed.
“That became necessary.”
“A child was necessary?”
“Dominic has no idea what his empire costs other people.”
“So you punish his son?”
“I punish him.”
Anna suddenly understood.
Victor was not acting out of desperation anymore.
He wanted Dominic to suffer.
Killing Ethan would destroy the man without triggering the chaos of killing Dominic directly.
“You’re sick.”
Victor raised the gun.
“Give me the drive.”
Anna looked toward a high warehouse window.
No movement.
Where was Dominic?
Victor noticed.
“You’re waiting for him.”
Anna said nothing.
“He always was predictable around people he loves.”
Victor smiled.
“First Sophia.”
Dominic’s voice came from the shadows.
“Don’t say her name.”
Victor spun.
Dominic stood twenty feet away.
Unarmed.
Anna’s heart stopped.
Victor pointed the gun at him.
“You came.”
Dominic’s gaze went to Lily.
“Of course I came.”
“You should have stayed home.”
“You should have stayed away from my children.”
Children.
Plural.
Anna heard it.
So did Victor.
He laughed.
“Your children?”
Dominic looked at Anna.
Then Lily.
“Both of them.”
Victor’s amusement faded.
“This is touching.”
Dominic stepped closer.
“You wanted me. I’m here.”
“I wanted the drive.”
Anna lifted her fist.
“I have it.”
Victor swung the gun toward her.
That was the mistake.
Dominic moved.
Everything happened at once.
A warehouse window shattered.
Marco descended from the upper platform.
Rachel’s team entered through a side door.
Victor fired.
The shot struck metal.
Dominic slammed into him.
The gun skidded across the floor.
Anna ran to Lily.
She covered her daughter’s body with her own.
“Mommy!”
“I’ve got you!”
Behind them, Dominic and Victor fought.
It lasted only seconds.
Marco dragged Victor to the ground.
Rachel kicked the gun away.
“Clear!”
Anna looked up.
Dominic stood several feet away.
Blood appeared on his sleeve.
“Dominic!”
She ran to him.
“I’m fine.”
“You’re bleeding.”
“Glass.”
It was only a shallow cut.
Anna touched his face without thinking.
He covered her hand.
Lily ran toward them.
Dominic crouched.
She threw her arms around his neck.
He closed his eyes.
For several seconds, one of New York’s most feared men simply held a three-year-old girl and trembled.
Victor laughed from the floor.
“You think this ends with me?”
Dominic looked at him.
Victor’s smile was ugly.
“You still don’t know who gave me access to Sophia’s car.”
Dominic went completely still.
Anna whispered, “What?”
Victor looked delighted.
“The accident wasn’t an accident.”
Dominic lunged.
Marco restrained him.
“Boss!”
Victor kept laughing.
“I didn’t kill Sophia.”
Dominic’s face drained of color.
“Who did?”
Victor smiled.
“The same person who helped me get close to Ethan.”
And suddenly the case they believed they had solved became something much darker.
Because Victor was not the mastermind.
He was only one piece.