Chapter 24
24
BENNY
I f there’s one thing I learned as my father’s son, it’s how to put my feelings aside and deal with the crisis of the moment. I haven’t had the luxury of reacting to what happens to me in a long time. This is no different. I feel it for a split second, the impact in my chest worse than a gunshot.
I have a son.
Daisy had my baby.
Kept him from me.
Joy and sorrow and fury snarl and fight to be first. I shut them all in a vault and look at the problem at hand. The problem at hand is that my son has been taken.
Five years old. Dark hair. Dinosaur shirt. Facts line up like soldiers. I put aside my anger, my heartbreak. I have the resources to find him.
I’m going to get him back and then we’ll have this out once he is safe at home. I’m ready to unleash the power of the Falconari organization to track and retrieve a missing child.
When she tells me I can hate her later, after we find our son, it nearly breaks me. I have to take in a deep breath and shove those emotions back down deep. I might need to go to dark places to save that boy’s life and I cannot allow fear, sorrow, or pain to cloud my judgment.
We walk out of the police station, and I brief Gino.
“The Calabrian Gardens building,” I say.
He drives and Daisy holds my hand and looks at me, scared, hopeful. I force myself to form words.
“The Gardens is a new development, been in the works a couple years. Apartments, townhouses, a pool, a gym, all the fancy shit. Grigo’s mom just moved in there last month.”
“Grigo?”
“He’s making a run for the territory.”
“Another family?”
“ My family,” I bite out.
“Shit,” she says, “mutiny.”
“Betrayal,” I say, “a killing offense.”
“You think he has Liam,” she says.
“I’m about to find out.”
The gated housing development is shiny and new, stucco and terracotta tiles, iron gates, a guardhouse. Grigo put his mom here so he could keep her safe. Except he didn’t think I knew.
I ring the doorbell at the second townhouse, pool view. An older woman answers the door.
“Benny! Oh, I’m so sorry to hear about your dad. Come in. Let me get you something to eat.”
Grigo’s mom has always been a sweet lady, too bad she’s got a snake for a son. She ushers us in and starts taking things out of her refrigerator—soup and pasta to reheat, a pink bakery box tied with twine. She bustles around, making espresso and setting out the tin of amaretti cookies.
“Thank you,” Daisy says. “I don’t know how to ask you this—my little boy, Liam, is missing—” she shows his picture.
“What a handsome young man!’ she says, gushing over the picture. “I had no idea you were a daddy now,” she says to me. “Those beautiful eyes, no way anybody can’t tell he’s a Falconari.”
“That’s the problem,” I say. “He was kidnapped from school today, and like you said, he’s obviously a Falconari. We think Grigo took him.
“My Gregory? Look at how good he takes care of me, puts me in this fancy place with a driver and everything. He’s such a good son. He would never hurt a child or anyone else. He’s just expanding his business.”
“No, ma’am. He’s after my business. Your Gregory had my dad shot this morning. He’s trying to stage a takeover, and I’m going to need your help making him see sense.”
“What do you mean?” she stops heating soup on the stove and comes to us at the table again. I can tell she doesn’t want to believe this.
“Your son has always been family to me, like a cousin. Good head on his shoulders and kept the outcome for the company in mind. Until he went off the rails and got big ideas a few months ago. He decided he could do a better job at running the organization than my dad or myself. He’s been fighting for more territory and I set up a meeting to work out a compromise. While we were sitting down to lunch, he had my father gunned down in the street and bragged about it. You think he wouldn’t try to leverage the life of my child?” I say as calmly as I can.
“Can you help us?” Daisy asks. “I know how much you love your son, the same way I love mine.”
“I don’t know what you expect me to do—” she says, clearly upset.
“I want you to Facetime Grigo. Now.”
Flustered, she gets her phone off the charger and sits down, taps the screen. When the call connects, I take the phone.
“Hi Grigo. I’m here with your mom,” I say. “I want to see my son.”
“What the fuck?”
“Gregory! Language!” The woman admonishes him. “Do you have the kid?”
“No, Ma, I don’t have a kid. Benny, you need to leave her alone.”
“Let me see my son,” I say again, losing patience.
“I’m telling you I don’t have your kid,” he says again.
“This is your last chance to put my son on this call before I give you a visual incentive to do so,” I say coolly.
The color drains from his face and all the bluster goes out of him. “Jesus. Fuck. Gimme a second,” he mutters.
The next thing I see after some blurry movement is the boy from the picture on Daisy’s phone.
“Liam?” I say.
“Y-yes sir,” he says, his chin trembling as he tries not to cry.
“I know you don’t know me. I’m a friend of your mom’s and I’m going to get you back to her real quick. Are you okay?”
“He won’t let me go home!” the little boy wails and starts to cry. I hear Grigo curse at him and clear my throat.
“Don’t touch him,” I warn. “You have fifteen minutes to bring him to this apartment and hand him over unharmed. Don’t be late because as soon as this timer goes off—” I turn on his mom’s oven timer, “the repercussions start. I’ll be sure your mom keeps in touch as needed.”
I’m about to end the call when I see Daisy in my peripheral vision. The kid sees her too, and his face transforms, lights up.
“Mommy!” he cries and the call cuts off.
I catch her by the waist as she crumples. Her whole body shakes like she’s having a seizure. All I can do is hold her up, shift her onto the couch. Mrs. Cappelli brings her a mug of tea.
“Have some tea. Don’t worry, dear. This is just business,” she says. “My Gregory is a good boy.”
“Just business?” Daisy says, teeth chattering.
For a second, I think she’s going to punch this old woman. I keep my hand on her shoulder. She just has to keep it together for another few minutes and Liam will be back safe and sound.