The Mafia Boss’s Dog Refused to Leave the Little Girl’s Coffin—Then They Heard Something Inside

The man in scrubs saw Bruno and froze.

He turned before anyone called his name.

That mistake exposed him.

Tony moved first, blocking the elevator. Detective Brooks reached for her weapon. The man dropped the syringe and ran toward the stairwell.

Bruno chased him.

The stairwell door slammed. I followed with Brooks close behind. We found the man two flights down, pinned against the railing by one hundred and twenty pounds of furious dog. Bruno had not bitten him. He did not need to.

The man was crying.

"I was paid," he said. "I never touched the girl. I was supposed to reach her IV."

"Paid by whom?" Brooks demanded.

He looked at me instead of her. "A man named Ricci."

Marco.

Brooks cuffed him and recovered a hospital badge bearing the name of a nurse who had called in sick that morning. The syringe contained enough potassium to stop Elena's heart.

A second death, disguised as a medical collapse.

When we returned upstairs, Marco was gone.

Two of my men lay unconscious in the service corridor. Neither had been shot. Someone had used a stun device and taken their keys.

Tony slammed his fist into the wall. "He had help inside."

Detective Brooks looked at my people. "Or he still has help inside your organization."

I hated her for saying it because she was right.

Elena woke near dawn. Rosa sat on one side of the bed. Tomas sat on the other. Bruno rested his head beside her good hand, watching every breath.

I stayed near the door.

Elena's voice was thin. "Mr. Luca?"

I had known her since she was four, but she had never called me by my first name.

"I'm here."

"The bad men used your trucks."

The words landed harder than any accusation from Brooks.

"What did you see?"

She swallowed. "Boxes. A girl inside one van. She was crying. Marco said I saw nothing. Then the tall man with the silver ring said children who talk get lost."

"What tall man?"

Elena drew a crooked crown on the blanket with her fingertip.

Victor Harlan's symbol.

Then she whispered, "Marco was scared of him. But he was more scared of the other man."

"Who?"

Elena looked toward the glass wall behind me.