Chapter 60 Find Bee

Chapter 60 Find Bee
I emerged from the shower, steam trailing off my skin, and found Bianca’s note propped against the tablet on the vanity. Her handwriting was elegant, looping,a stark contrast to the rigid, violent geometry of my world.
I dressed with the efficiency of a soldier, the fabric of my suit sliding over concealed scars. By the time I reached my study, the morning’s tranquility had already begun to curdle. I made calls, my voice low and clipped, tightening the net around the unknown threat that had killed Luca. The leads were solid, pointing like a jagged arrow toward the Vitale's.
Then, my phone rang. Marco.
" Alessandro," his voice cracked, a dissonant sound that sent a spike of adrenaline straight to my spine. "We have a situation."
Every muscle in my body locked. I stopped pacing, turning to face the window where the city sprawled below, indifferent and grey. "What situation?"
"Miss Morena. She’s… she’s gone. She left through the kitchen while I was monitoring the front. By the time we realized—"
I didn't let him finish. I didn't scream. I didn't curse. I simply ended the call, my thumb hovering over the screen as a roaring white noise filled my ears, drowning out the hum of the city. I opened the tracking app. My hands were steady, but inside, my heart was hammering against my ribs like a trapped bird. The diamond bracelet I’d given Bianca—the one she never took off—was more than jewelry. It was a lifeline.
The map loaded, the digital grid rendering slowly. A single, blinking red dot pulsed on the screen.
It wasn't moving.
It was located in the Iron District, a graveyard of derelict factories and rusted shipping containers on the jagged outskirts of the city.
My hand lashed out, sweeping the heavy marble lamp off the side table. It exploded against the wall, shards of ceramic raining down like shrapnel.
They had taken her. They had taken her and my son.
I grabbed my phone, my vision tunneling. I dialed Danilo. "Mobilize everyone. Full tactical. I’m sending you coordinates. Danilo?" My voice dropped to a lethal whisper, stripping away the veneer of the civilized man. "Bring the heavy weapons. No one who touched her leaves that warehouse alive."
As I strapped on my shoulder holster, the leather creaking against my shirt, my phone buzzed again. An unknown number. A video file.
With trembling fingers, I opened it. The footage was grainy, shot in low light.
Bianca.
She was unconscious, her head lolling forward, tied to a steel chair in a dim, concrete room. A masked figure stood behind her, a serrated combat knife glinting in his gloved hand. He brought the blade close to her stomach, hovering just above the swell of life growing there.
Text overlaid the screen, bold and mocking:
You took everything from us, DeSanti. Now we take everything from you. You have 6 hours. Come alone to the coordinates, or we start cutting pieces off your pretty hit ok friend. Starting with the parts that are growing your bastard son.
The video ended. The screen went black, reflecting my own face—twisted, unfamiliar, terrifying.
The ghosts that usually haunted the edges of my consciousness were no longer laughing. They were screaming for blood. I would give them an ocean of it.
The image of the knife near her belly played on a loop in my mind as I loaded magazines with methodical, terrifying precision. Click. Click. Click. Each bullet was a vow. Each snap of metal was a countdown to an execution.
Six hours. They had given me six hours to contemplate my sins.
I would need less than two.
The study door burst open. Danilo stood there, chest heaving, face ashen. "Alessandro, the men are ready. Twenty of our best. We have the armory opened, vehicles staged"
"No." My voice was ice, devoid of humanity. "I’m going alone."
"Are you insane?" Danilo stepped forward, grabbing my arm, breaking protocol in his desperation. "That is exactly what they want. It’s a kill box, Alessandro. A trap. They’ll slaughter you before you make it through the door."
I turned to face him. Whatever he saw in my eyes—the void where his boss used to be—made him recoil and release my arm.
"They want the Capo? They’ll get him. But not the one they’re expecting." I adjusted my cuffs, checking the blade concealed in my sleeve. "You and the men will be my shadow. Staged at a one-kilometer perimeter. Silence is absolute. When I give the signal, you come in like the wrath of God."
"And if you don't give a signal?" Danilo asked softly.
"Then you come in anyway and burn it all down to the ground." I grabbed a second clip, shoving it into my pocket. "You leave no one alive. No witnesses. No mercy. If it breathes, you end it."
Danilo nodded slowly, the gravity of the order settling on him. "What about Marco?"
My jaw clenched so hard I thought a tooth might crack. "Marco was supposed to be her shield. Either he is incompetent, or he is compromised. Lock him in the cellar until I return. If I find out he sold us out..." I let the sentence hang in the air, heavy with the promise of torture.
My phone buzzed again. The unknown number. Just coordinates and a digital clock counting down.
5:47:23... 5:47:22...
I forwarded the data to Danilo, then grabbed my keys. The weight of the gun under my arm was a comforting anchor in the chaos. "Move now. Radio silence until I’m inside. They’ll be watching for a convoy. They won't be ready for a ghost."
As I headed for the door, stepping over the shattered remains of the lamp, Danilo called out, his voice thick with emotion. "Alessandro. Bring her home."
I didn't look back. I didn't answer. There was nothing to say.
I would bring Bianca home, or I would die on that concrete floor beside her. There was no third option. I walked out into the hallway, the beast inside me finally off its leash, hungry for the kill.