Chapter 7 - The Trap Is Set
Aleandro stared at the phone as Tommy's treacherous voice echoed in his ear.
Tommy had somehow hijacked the secure line to the High Commission.
"You are a dead man, Tommy," Aleandro said, his voice completely void of emotion.
"I am a rich man, Boss," Tommy laughed nervously.
"Vincenzo paid me enough to disappear forever, but he wanted me to deliver a message first."
"Vincenzo says Pier 40 was a lie."
Aleandro stopped walking toward his car.
"He knows you would never trade the girl, so he set an ambush for you at the pier," Tommy explained.
"Why are you telling me this?" Aleandro asked suspiciously.
"Because Vincenzo decided not to pay me the rest of my money," Tommy admitted bitterly.
"Marco is being held in the basement of the Caruso slaughterhouse in Queens."
The line went dead.
Aleandro knew Tommy could be lying, setting him up for a different trap.
But he had no choice; he could not abandon Marco to die.
Aleandro drove to Queens, pulling his sedan into the alley behind the sprawling, industrial slaughterhouse.
The smell of raw meat and chemicals hung heavy in the freezing night air.
He moved through the shadows, eliminating two perimeter guards with a silenced pistol before they even saw him.
He breached the side door and stepped into the massive, blood-stained processing room.
Dozens of animal carcasses hung from metal hooks attached to an automated ceiling track.
Aleandro moved silently between the swinging carcasses, his rifle raised.
He heard the faint sound of Marco coughing from a room below the main floor.
Aleandro kicked open the door to the basement stairwell and rushed down the concrete steps.
Marco was tied to a metal chair in the center of the room, looking battered and bloody.
"Boss, you shouldn't have come," Marco gasped, lifting his swollen face.
Aleandro rushed forward and began cutting the thick plastic zip ties binding Marco's hands.
"I don't leave my family behind," Aleandro said, pulling Marco to his feet.
Suddenly, the heavy metal door at the top of the stairs slammed shut.
The automated locking mechanism clicked loudly, echoing in the damp basement.
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"You are right about one thing, Romano," Don Vincenzo Caruso's voice boomed from a speaker on the wall.
"You don't leave your family behind, which is why I brought them here to you."
