Chapter 15
Dante fled to a dilapidated boathouse on the edge of the East River, his final, desperate safe house.
He was freezing, bleeding from a scratch on his face, and completely alone.
The paranoia was eating him alive; every shadow looked like the phantom sniper.
He knew he couldn't leave the city without money, and all his accounts had been frozen by Elara's earlier sabotage.
In a fit of desperate brilliance, Dante decided to make one final, suicidal play.
He managed to contact a corrupt NYPD detective who owed him a massive gambling debt.
Dante ordered the detective to kidnap someone close to Julian to use as a hostage.
He couldn't get to Julian, and he certainly couldn't get to the ghost.
But Elias Vargas had a habit of visiting his elderly mother in Queens every Sunday morning.
The next day, Elias was grabbed off the street in broad daylight, hit with a stun gun, and tossed into an unmarked van.
When Julian received the ransom call, the temperature in his office dropped ten degrees.
Dante demanded five million in untraceable diamonds and safe passage out of the country on a private jet.
If Julian refused, Dante promised to send Elias back to the estate in small wooden boxes.
Julian hung up the phone and looked across the desk at Elara.
May you like
"He took Elias," Julian said, his voice a lethal whisper.
Elara didn't blink. "Then we take his life."
