Chapter 4 - Twelve Billion Dollars for One Door
“You’re offering me everything?” Torres asked.
“Yes.”
“The company?”
“Yes.”
“The ports?”
“Yes.”
“The offshore reserves?”
“Yes.”
“The properties?”
“Yes.”
Torres watched Dominic carefully.
“And the ledger?”
“You’re holding it.”
Amelia clutched Dominic’s sleeve through another contraction.
Torres looked almost disappointed.
“I thought this would be more difficult.”
“It was.”
“What changed?”
Dominic looked down at Amelia.
“My priorities.”
She shook her head.
“Don’t.”
He ignored her.
Torres laughed softly.
“Do you know what I wanted all these years, Dominic?”
“Attention?”
“To watch you become your father.”
Dominic’s face darkened.
“My father is dead.”
“Exactly.”
Torres stepped closer.
“Antonio Castellano built an empire believing power could protect everyone he loved. Then his brother betrayed him. Your mother vanished. Your father died on a highway. You learned the lesson backward.”
Dominic’s jaw tightened.
“Don’t talk about my family.”
“You decided love caused weakness.”
Torres gestured toward Amelia.
“Now look at you.”
Dominic said nothing.
“You’re prepared to surrender twelve billion dollars because a florist is having your baby.”
“Correct.”
Amelia looked at him.
No hesitation.
No calculation.
The empire he had built since twenty-six had disappeared from his eyes as if it already belonged to someone else.
Torres tilted his head.
“That easy?”
“No.”
Dominic’s voice was quiet.
“Just simple.”
A contraction hit Amelia harder.
She cried out.
Dominic lowered her carefully to the floor.
“Breathe.”
“Do not tell me to breathe.”
“I’m pretty sure that’s what you’re supposed to do.”
“You watched one childbirth video in your life?”
“No.”
“Then stop talking.”
Dominic looked toward Torres.
“Phone.”
“No.”
“She needs medical guidance.”
Torres remained unmoved.
Dominic stood.
“Gabriel.”
“Sit down.”
“Give me a phone.”
“Or?”
Dominic’s expression turned glacial.
“You keep forgetting this building has to open eventually.”
Torres’s men shifted.
“You think threats still matter?”
“No.”
Dominic looked at each gunman.
“But they do.”
The nearest man looked away.
Interesting.
Fear remained.
Dominic had entered unarmed, yet fourteen years of reputation had not vanished with his pistol.
Torres noticed.
He hated it.
“Enough.”
He tossed a phone toward Dominic.
“Five minutes.”
Dominic caught it and dialed.
“Who?” Amelia asked.
“My physician.”
“You have a personal doctor?”
“I have several.”
“Of course you do.”
Dr. Samuel Levin answered on the second ring.
“Dominic?”
“I need obstetric instructions.”
Silence.
“What?”
“Thirty-five weeks. Water broke. Contractions approximately…”
He looked at Amelia.
“How far apart?”
“I don’t know!”
Another contraction began.
Dominic checked the vault clock.
“Now.”
He waited.
Amelia breathed through it.
Fifty-two seconds.
“When was the last one?”
“Maybe six minutes.”
Dominic relayed the information.
Levin’s voice changed instantly.
“Where is she?”
“A bank vault.”
Another silence.
“Dominic, I’m going to pretend I didn’t hear that. Does she have heavy bleeding?”
Dominic looked.
Amelia slapped his hand away.
“Don’t you dare check.”
He looked offended.
“The doctor asked.”
“I can answer!”
She raised her voice toward the phone.
“No heavy bleeding.”
Levin continued.
“Baby moving?”
Amelia placed her hand over her stomach.
“Yes.”
“Good. At thirty-five weeks, this may still take hours, especially if it’s her first baby.”
Dominic released a fraction of tension.
“May?”
“May.”
“I dislike that word.”
“I’m aware.”
Levin asked Amelia several questions.
Torres watched impatiently.
Then a gunman entered from the hallway.
“Gabriel.”
“What?”
“We have movement outside.”
Torres snatched the phone from Dominic and ended the call.
“No breach,” Dominic said.
“You don’t know that.”
“I know Agent Monroe.”
“You met her twenty minutes ago.”
“I know the type.”
Torres stared.
Dominic continued.
“She won’t breach while hostages are wired to explosives unless she has a clean solution.”
“And does she?”
“No.”
“How comforting.”
Dominic crouched beside Amelia again.
Her eyes searched his.
“You really meant it?”
“What?”
“The money.”
“Yes.”
“All of it?”
“Yes.”
“Dominic.”
“It’s money.”
“You spent your life building it.”
“I spent my life surviving.”
“Same thing to you.”
“Not anymore.”
Amelia swallowed.
“I didn’t tell you because I thought you would take him.”
Dominic went still.
There it was.
The wound underneath everything.
Amelia’s voice broke.
“You control everything. Your buildings. Your employees. Your security. Your enemies. I thought if you knew I was pregnant, you’d decide where I lived, what doctors I used, what school he attended. I thought you’d call it protection and build a cage around us.”
Dominic could not tell her she was wrong.
Because eight months ago, he would have.
“I probably would have.”
She looked startled by the admission.
“I’m sorry.”
Dominic Castellano had apologized perhaps six times in his adult life.
Most involved funerals.
Amelia’s eyes filled.
“I loved you.”
He looked at her.
Past tense.
It hurt more than the gun to his face had.
“I know.”
“No. You didn’t.”
“I did.”
“You told me none of it was real.”
“I lied.”
“Why?”
“Because Torres had your photograph.”
Amelia froze.
Dominic continued.
“Three days before I sent you away, my people intercepted a file. Your address. Your sister. Your schedule. They knew what time you opened the shop.”
Her lips parted.
“I thought if you hated me, you’d leave faster.”
“You could have told me.”
“Yes.”
“You should have trusted me.”
“Yes.”
“You broke my heart because you were scared.”
“Yes.”
She looked furious.
Dominic accepted it.
Then Amelia whispered, “Idiot.”
“Yes.”
A tiny laugh escaped her.
Then another contraction hit.
This one brought her forward with a cry.
Dominic caught her.
Torres checked the time.
“Four minutes.”
Dominic looked at him sharply.
“What?”
“Between contractions.”
Amelia glared at Torres.
“Thank you, Dr. Kidnapper.”
One of the hostages actually laughed.
Torres’s expression darkened.
For a fraction of a second, tension in the room changed.
People became people again.
That mattered.
Dominic knew fear controlled crowds only while isolation remained.
Human connection weakened captivity.
So he deliberately smiled.
“See? He’s useful.”
Torres raised the gun.
“Stop.”
Dominic’s smile vanished.
The gunman from the corridor returned.
“Gabriel, federal negotiator again.”
“Ignore it.”
“They say they have your sister.”
Torres froze.
Dominic saw it.
His sister.
Torres turned.
“What?”
“Federal agents raided the safe house in Queens.”
For the first time, real fear entered Gabriel Torres’s face.
Dominic filed the information away.
Everyone had a price.
Even the man claiming to expose Dominic’s.
The phone rang.
Torres answered.
“What?”
Monroe’s voice was faint but audible.
“Gabriel Torres, we have Isabella Torres in custody.”
Gabriel’s face transformed.
“You touch her—”
“You want to talk about threats to family?”
Monroe asked.
Dominic almost admired her timing.
Torres looked at him.
“You did this.”
“No.”
“Liar.”
“I entered without a phone.”
“You planned it.”
“I didn’t know your sister was in Queens.”
True.
Torres didn’t believe him.
He grabbed Amelia.
Dominic moved instantly.
The gun pressed against Amelia’s neck.
“Back!”
Dominic stopped.
Amelia’s eyes closed.
Torres’s breathing became erratic.
That was dangerous.
Controlled men could be predicted.
Panicked men could not.
“Gabriel,” Dominic said quietly.
“Shut up.”
“Your sister is alive.”
“Shut up!”
“You can leave this building alive.”
“How?”
“Trade.”
Torres stared.
“Amelia for Isabella.”
Monroe’s voice came through the phone.
“No.”
Dominic looked toward it.
“Agent.”
“This isn’t your negotiation.”
“It is now.”
“You cannot promise federal custody exchanges.”
“No.”
Dominic’s gaze remained on Torres.
“But I can promise something better.”
“What?”
Dominic smiled.
“You.”
Monroe went silent.
Torres frowned.
Dominic continued.
“You want the empire. You want the ledger. You want revenge. You want me humiliated.”
He spread his hands.
“Take me.”
Amelia whispered, “No.”
Dominic did not look at her.
“Release every hostage. Let Amelia leave. I stay.”
Torres studied him.
Dominic’s voice remained even.
“You can walk me into those tunnels yourself.”
“You think I’m stupid.”
“I think you’ve waited half your life to see me powerless.”
Torres’s eyes glittered.
“You would do that?”
“Yes.”
Amelia struggled against his grip.
“No!”
Dominic finally looked at her.
Something in his expression silenced her.
Not command.
Goodbye.
Her face crumpled.
“Dominic.”
He held her gaze.
“If we don’t get another chance…”
“No.”
“Amelia.”
“No.”
“I loved you from the bunker.”
Tears spilled down her cheeks.
Torres looked between them.
Dominic continued as though no one else existed.
“I was too afraid of losing you to be brave enough to keep you.”
“Stop talking like you’re dying.”
“I’m not planning to.”
“Then don’t say goodbye.”
A smile touched his battered mouth.
“There she is.”
Torres suddenly shoved Amelia toward Dominic.
“Fine.”
Dominic caught her.
Torres pointed at the outer corridor.
“Hostages out. Castellano stays.”
Hope exploded through the room.
Then one of Torres’s gunmen said, “Gabriel, no.”
Everyone turned.
The man beside the security desk had removed his mask.
Dominic stared.
Recognition came immediately.
Peter Knox.
The former detective.
The man assigned to protect Amelia.
The man who had supposedly disappeared four months ago.
Amelia turned pale.
“You.”
Peter raised his gun.
Torres frowned.
“This wasn’t the deal.”
Peter smiled.
“No, Gabriel.”
He aimed directly at Dominic.
“You were never the one making the deal.”
And Dominic finally understood.
Gabriel Torres had not infiltrated his empire.
Someone inside Dominic’s empire had hired Gabriel Torres.
Someone far closer.
Someone who wanted Dominic, Amelia, the unborn baby, and the ledger inside the same room.
Peter’s finger tightened on the trigger.
May you like
“Boss sends his regards.”
The shot exploded.
