Chapter 2 - The Ransom
Maya fell to her knees beside the blood on the floor.
She could not breathe as pure panic constricted her throat like a physical hand.
Her sister was too weak to even walk to the kitchen by herself.
Someone had kicked the fire escape window completely off its rusted hinges.
Maya frantically searched the room for any sign of a struggle.
She found a cheap burner phone sitting directly in the center of Sophie's pillow.
The phone immediately began to vibrate.
Maya snatched it up and pressed it to her ear with shaking hands.
She demanded to know where her sister was.
A dark and amused voice echoed through the speaker.
The man told her to calm down and listen very carefully if she wanted the girl to live.
Maya assumed it was Dominic Russo punishing her for her arrogance at the restaurant.
She screamed that she would give him the five thousand dollars back.
The man on the phone laughed heavily.
He said he did not care about a few thousand dollars from a miserable waitress.
He introduced himself as Dante Falcone.
Maya felt all the blood drain from her face.
The Falcone family was the most brutal Russian-allied syndicate in the city and Dominic Russo's absolute worst enemy.
Dante explained that his spies had seen Dominic Russo leave a massive tip for a pretty waitress.
They assumed Maya was Dominic's new weakness.
Dante told her to bring Dominic's personal financial ledger to the abandoned shipyard by midnight.
He said if she did not deliver the ledger, they would mail Sophie back to her in small boxes.
The call disconnected and left Maya in dead silence.
She had absolutely no idea where Dominic Russo lived.
She had no idea what a financial ledger even looked like.
She only had two hours to save her sister's life.
Maya grabbed her coat and ran back out into the freezing storm.
She knew she could not steal from a mafia boss.
She had to go to the shipyard and trade her own life for her sister's freedom.
She arrived at the docks shivering and completely soaked in rain.
Four armed men stepped out from behind a rusted shipping container.
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They dragged her violently into a massive warehouse lit by a single hanging bulb.
Dante Falcone was sitting in a chair holding a silver knife against Sophie's pale throat.
