Chapter 6 - The Daughter at the Locked Floor
Sofia Russo arrived at 3:19 a.m.
She was twenty-seven, an attorney, and the only person who could make Vincent look nervous.
Security tried to stop her at the elevator.
She walked past them.
“Where is my father?”
Vincent led her into the observation wing.
Cara stood beside Dominic’s bed, checking his blood pressure.
Sofia looked at the bruising along her father’s chest.
Then she looked at Cara.
“You declared him dead?”
“No.”
“Hale did.”
“And you?”
“I disagreed.”
Vincent explained what happened.
Sofia’s expression softened only slightly.
“My father trusts doctors too easily.”
Cara almost laughed at the absurdity.
Dominic Russo trusted almost no one.
Sofia opened a leather case.
Inside were documents for the 5:00 a.m. meeting.
If Dominic signed them, Lorenzo would lose authority permanently.
If he died first, Lorenzo could take control and destroy every copy.
“Can he sign?” Sofia asked.
“Not safely,” Cara said.
“This is not a medical question.”
“It becomes one when you ask a patient with unstable circulation to make legal decisions.”
Sofia stepped closer.
“My father may lose everything before sunrise.”
“He almost lost his life before three.”
Dominic opened his eyes.
“Sofia.”
She moved immediately to the bed.
“You scared me.”
“Good,” he whispered. “Means you still care.”
She tried to smile.
He asked for the documents.
Cara refused to raise the bed until another physician evaluated his mental capacity.
Sofia bristled.
Dominic squeezed his daughter’s hand.
“She’s right.”
Cara checked his pupils and orientation.
Dominic answered his name, location, and the date.
When she asked why he was in the hospital, he said, “Because my cousin has no patience.”
Sofia looked at Vincent.
Then she revealed the part of the agreement no one else knew.
Dominic had not only planned to remove Lorenzo.
He planned to give federal investigators the records of every criminal account the organization still controlled.
The old empire would end before daylight.
Lorenzo would face prison.
That was why Dominic’s death could not wait until after the meeting.
It had to happen before the evidence changed hands.
A soft alarm sounded from the hallway.
May you like
Someone had opened the observation wing’s maintenance entrance.
👉 Lorenzo’s people had found Dominic’s new location, and the only door behind Cara had just unlocked.
