Chapter 3 - The Ghost of Elena Russo
Adrian did not flinch, but Julia saw the muscle in his jaw clench until the skin turned pale.
He motioned for the two guards to escort Cross down the hall toward the private study.
Julia gathered Ava into her arms, intending to carry the frightened girl back to her bed.
"Bring her with us," Adrian commanded quietly, glancing back at Julia.
"I want her to hear everything."
"I will not let another lie poison my daughter's mind."
They moved in grim silence down the wide staircase to the private library on the ground floor.
The study was a cavernous room lined with thousands of leather-bound volumes and heavy brass lamps.
The guards pushed Cross into a high-backed leather armchair opposite Adrian's massive mahogany desk.
Adrian set Ava gently onto the sofa near the fireplace, and Julia sat beside her, wrapping a wool throw over the girl's shoulders.
Adrian stood behind his desk, not bothering to sit down.
He unbuttoned his suit jacket, revealing the leather holster strapped beneath his shoulder.
"Start talking, Daniel," Adrian said, placing both palms flat against the green leather blotter.
"And remember that every word you speak is either buying you time or ending it."
Cross wiped a sheen of cold sweat from his forehead with the sleeve of his uniform.
"The red bowl wasn't a threat, Adrian," Cross began, leaning forward in the chair.
"It was an extraction protocol."
"A signal developed by the state witness protection division eight years ago."
Julia frowned, looking down at Ava, who was staring intently at the flickering embers in the hearth.
"Witness protection?" Adrian repeated, his voice laced with venomous skepticism.
"My wife was never in witness protection."
"She died in a single-car accident on Route 9 two years ago."
"I buried her in the family mausoleum."
Cross shook his head slowly, looking directly into Adrian's eyes.
"You buried an empty casket weighted with lead bars, Adrian."
"The coroner's report was falsified by the federal marshal's regional office."
"Elena Russo didn't die on Route 9."
"She lived for another ten months in a safehouse three hundred miles north of here."
The room seemed to lose all air.
Julia felt the blood roar in her ears as she looked at Adrian.
The powerful, untouchable crime lord looked as though he had just been shot through the chest.
His hands trembled slightly against the desk blotter before he forced them into fists.
"Why would my wife enter protective custody without telling me?" Adrian whispered, the agony in his voice breaking through his composure.
"Because she was hiding from the people who owned your city, Adrian," Cross replied.
"She was hiding from corrupt commanders inside my department."
"And she was hiding from you."
Adrian moved around the desk with predatory speed, seizing Cross by the lapels of his uniform jacket.
He hauled the officer out of the chair, slamming him against the oak bookshelves behind him.
Books shuddered on their shelves, dropping dust onto the floorboards.
"Do not dare suggest Elena feared me," Adrian snarled, his face inches from the officer's nose.
"I would have torn this city apart brick by brick to keep her safe."
"That was the problem!" Cross gasped, struggling for breath against Adrian's grip.
"You would have started a war that would have gotten Ava killed!"
"Elena knew that."
"She witnessed an execution behind the third precinct warehouse eight years ago."
"Two vice detectives executed an undercover federal agent who had uncovered an extortion ring."
"Elena was parked in an alley waiting for a charity gala pickup."
"She saw their faces."
"She had the badge numbers."
Julia felt an icy weight drop into the pit of her stomach as the details began to align.
"If she entered protection eight years ago," Julia asked, her voice cutting through the men's rage, "why was Ava with her?"
Cross looked toward Julia, his eyes narrowing with a strange, penetrating intensity.
"Because Ava was just an infant when the first threats arrived," Cross said.
"Elena took the baby and vanished into the safehouse network."
"They used household items as silent triggers."
"A green blanket meant all clear."
"A yellow ribbon meant stay indoors."
"A red bowl meant pack immediately, grab your shoes, and prepare for an emergency extraction."
Adrian released Cross, letting the officer drop back into the armchair with a heavy thump.
"If my wife survived," Adrian asked, his voice hollow and terrifying, "where is she now?"
Cross looked down at the Persian rug, unable to meet Adrian's gaze.
"She survived the first two years," Cross said quietly.
May you like
"Until someone leaked the coordinates of the northern safehouse."
"And the only reason I'm here tonight," Cross added, glancing toward Ava, "is because the men who hunted Elena just found out where Ava lives."
