Chapter 2
The men in the SUV did not know the entire plan.
That was useful.
One was a former Ravelli driver named Gideon Knox.
I remembered him.
Dismissed four years earlier for using force when intimidation would have been enough.
Caleb apparently appreciated that quality.
The other man was a caretaker from Hawthorne Lodge.
That name took the anger inside me somewhere colder.
Hawthorne had been closed for eleven years.
An old Ravelli country property.
No active crews.
No regular staff.
The place my grandfather once used when a family member needed to be kept “out of sight.”
I looked at Caleb.
“You reopened Hawthorne.”
He shrugged.
“It was never closed.”
Interesting.
“To me it was.”
No answer.
I turned toward Gideon.
“What were your instructions?”
He looked at Caleb before answering.
“Wait for the bell signal.”
“What signal?”
“One long transmission meant Mr. Ravelli was in council.”
I stared.
“Two meant the child had been moved to the south hall.”
Nina.
Reduced to signal patterns.
“And then?”
“We collect her.”
Beatrice snapped:
“Escort.”
I turned.
“Say that again.”
“She wasn’t being kidnapped.”
My voice dropped.
“Would I know where she was?”
Silence.
“Would Nina know I approved?”
Beatrice looked away.
There.
Gideon continued.
They would drive Nina to Hawthorne.
No injury.
No threats if she cooperated.
A bedroom had already been prepared.
Toys.
Clothes.
A nanny.
Someone had worked hard to make kidnapping look comfortable.
“How long?”
Gideon swallowed.
“Seventy-two hours.”
I looked at Caleb.
Three days.
Long enough to terrify a father.
Short enough for cowards to call temporary.
“What happens during those seventy-two hours?”
Caleb finally answered.
“You listen.”
There it was.
“To whom?”
“The family.”
I laughed once.
Not because anything was funny.
“What did the family want?”
He looked toward the capos still seated around the dining table.
Some were as confused as I was.
Others?
Not enough.
I saw two men avoid my eyes.
Interesting.
Caleb continued.
“You’ve been dismantling every structure that keeps this organization stable.”
“Which structure requires my daughter in Hawthorne?”
“The one that makes you remember you are not bigger than the family.”
There.
Not ransom.
Discipline.
May you like
They were planning to punish the boss by temporarily taking his child.
And apparently Caleb believed several senior men would thank him for it.
