Chapter 1: The Hunt
Elena Martinez knew she was walking into danger. She could feel it in her bones as she pushed through the heavy glass doors of Bella Notte, Chicago's most expensive Italian restaurant. The kind of place where mob bosses took their wives for anniversary dinners and federal agents came to die.
But she wasn't just any federal agent. She was the FBI's best undercover operative, and after eighteen months of building her cover as a freelance journalist, she was finally close to bringing down the Castello crime family.
The hostess led her to a corner table where Tommy Benedetto was already waiting. He looked like he'd rather be anywhere else in the world. Sweat beaded on his forehead despite the restaurant's aggressive air conditioning, and his hands shook as he lit his third cigarette in ten minutes.
"Tommy." Elena slid into the chair across from him, pulling out her notebook and pen. "Thanks for meeting me."
"Yeah, well." He took a long drag from his cigarette. "You said it was important."
Important was an understatement. Tommy worked the docks for Castello's shipping company, and Elena had spent months cultivating him as a source. If her intelligence was correct, those ships weren't just carrying legitimate cargo. They were the key to the largest money laundering operation on the East Coast.
Two blocks away, Agent Marcus Torres sat in a surveillance van, listening to every word through the wire taped to Elena's ribs. This was their shot. After eighteen months of dead ends and false leads, Tommy Benedetto was going to hand them Vincent Castello on a silver platter.
Elena smiled and kept her voice light. "I'm working on a story about legitimate businesses being hurt by organized crime. You know, the little guys getting squeezed out by the mob."
Tommy's eyes darted toward the door. Then the windows. Then back to the door. Classic tells of a man who expected trouble.
"That's a dangerous story to write," he said.
"Only if you're writing about dangerous people." Elena leaned forward slightly. "But you're not involved with anyone like that, are you, Tommy?"
He stubbed out his cigarette with more force than necessary. "Lady, you don't know what you're asking."
"I'm asking about ships. Ships that come in at odd hours. Ships that unload cargo that never makes it onto any manifests." Elena watched his face carefully. "You've seen things, haven't you?"
Tommy went pale. "I don't know what you're talking about."
"Sure you do." Elena kept her voice gentle, understanding. It was a technique she'd learned in Quantico—make them feel safe, make them want to confess. "You're a good man, Tommy. You have a family. Kids. You don't want to be part of something that could hurt innocent people."
For a moment, she thought she had him. His shoulders sagged, and he looked like he wanted to tell her everything. But then something changed. His eyes narrowed, and Elena realized she'd made a mistake.
"How do you know about the manifests?" he asked quietly.
Elena's blood turned to ice. Manifests were inside information. A real journalist wouldn't know about shipping manifests unless someone in the organization had told her. And Tommy sure as hell hadn't mentioned them.
"I—"
"And how do you know about the old man being paranoid?" Tommy's voice was getting louder. Other diners were starting to look their way. "I never said nothing about Vincent being paranoid."
But she had said that. During their phone conversation last week, she'd mentioned Vincent's paranoia as if it was common knowledge. It wasn't. It was intelligence gathered from months of FBI surveillance.
Elena forced herself to stay calm. "Tommy, I think there's been a misunderstanding—"
"No." He stood up so fast his chair scraped across the floor. "No, I think I understand perfectly."
He was already walking away, heading toward the back of the restaurant. Elena watched him go, her heart hammering against her ribs. Through the large windows facing the alley, she could see him pull out his phone.
She pressed her hand to her chest, activating the emergency signal in her wire. "Code yellow," she whispered. "Possible compromise."
Tommy was pacing in the alley now, gesturing wildly as he spoke into his phone. And he wasn't alone. Two men in dark suits had appeared beside him. Even from a distance, Elena could tell they weren't there to chat.
She'd seen men like that before. Enforcers. The kind Vincent Castello sent when talking wasn't enough.
Elena left money on the table and walked casually toward the front entrance. Every instinct screamed at her to run but running would confirm whatever suspicions Tommy had. She needed to get to her car, get away clean, and figure out how to salvage the operation.
she stepped outside. Her silver Honda was parked across the street, exactly where she'd left it. Just fifty yards away. She could make it.
Behind her, she heard the restaurant's back door slam open.
Elena ran.
Her heels clicked against the sidewalk as she sprinted between parked cars. Shouts erupted behind her, men's voices, angry and getting closer. She reached her car and fumbled with her keys, fingers shaking with adrenaline. The Honda's locks clicked open with a sound that seemed too loud in the night air.
Elena threw herself into the driver's seat and hit the door locks. The engine turned over immediately—thank God for reliable Japanese engineering. She reached for the gear shift, already planning her escape route.
That's when she saw the eyes in her rearview mirror.
A man sat in her back seat, watching her with dark, intelligent eyes. He was handsome in a dangerous way—the kind of man who could kill you with his bare hands and make you thank him for it.
"Hello, Elena," he said in a voice like whiskey and smoke. "We need to talk."
Elena grabbed for the door handle, but he was faster. A cloth covered her nose and mouth before she could scream. The sharp smell of chloroform filled her lungs.
No, she thought as darkness closed in around her, not like this.
The last thing she saw before unconsciousness claimed her was those dark eyes—dangerous, yes, but not cruel. Almost... protective.
Then everything went black.