The Don Called Me Nobody Chapter 05

The Don Called Me Nobody Chapter 05 Ninety Seconds 

Camilla got to the phone first.

“Ferro.”

I could hear the voice from where I sat. Russian accent, bored, the voice of a man who has done this a hundred times

“Deadline is tonight. Midnight. The bridge. The brother brings the bag. Or we send her back in pieces.”

“You agreed to forty–eight-”

“I agree to nothing. You want to hear her?”

And then, from the speaker, a girl screaming.

Nineteen years old. Screaming for her brother.

Dominic’s whole body went rigid. His hand went to the table like he needed it to stay upright.

“Put him on,” the voice said. “Only the brother.”

Camilla covered the phone. “Dominic, if you talk to him you give him leverage-”

“He has my sister, Camilla, he has all the leverage on earth-”

And every cell in me that had been asleep for three years stood up.

Because I knew that voice.

“Give me the phone,” I said.

“Get her out of here,” Camilla snapped. “Sal-”

“You have about ninety seconds before he hangs up and hurts her again to make a point,” I said. “You want to spend

them on me?”

“Do it,” Dominic said.

Camilla spun. “She is not-”

“DO IT.”

Camilla handed me the phone like it burned.

I put it to my ear, and the room went quiet and enormous and slow, the way it always did, the way it hadn’t in three

years.

Don’t chase him. Let him come to you.

“Arkady,” I said. “It’s been a while.”

Silence on the line.

Then, very carefully: “Who is this.”

“You know who this is. You’ve been running my terms against me for four days and you’re doing it badly. You sent the same photo twice. You called early because your boss is nervous. And you’re hurting the girl on the phone, which means she’s still worth something to you, which means you’re not going to kill her tonight.”

“You are dead.”

“Not yet. Listen to me. You know how this ends if a girl dies before money moves. Every family from here to Miami stops paying Volkov anything, ever, because I wrote that rule and they all still follow it. Your boss knows it. That’s why

you called instead of shooting.”

Nothing. Breathing.

–

“Here’s what happens. Forty–eight hours, like you said the first time. Neutral ground I’ll send it. She walks first. And right now, you put her on, and I ask her one question, and if she can’t answer it, this conversation is over and so are

you.”

Five seconds.

Then rustling. A wet breath.

“Hello?” A girl’s voice, wrecked.

I looked at Dominic. “The name of the dog you had when you were nine.”

Dominic stared at me.

I nodded at the phone.

“Biscotti,” Gianna Vitale said, and started to cry.

“Good,” I said, softer. “Gianna. You’re okay. Eat whatever they give you. Sleep when you can. Your brother’s coming.

Not tonight. Soon.”

“Who is this?”

“The lady on the phone.”

Arkady came back on. “Forty–eight hours.”

“Forty–eight hours.”

The line went dead.

I set the phone down.

Then my hands started shaking so hard I had to put them in the pockets of my uniform.

Nobody moved. Twelve people. Staring.

Because there is no way to unsee what they had just seen.

That was not a cleaner who watched a lot of TV.

Camilla was against the wall, arms crossed, and she wasn’t angry anymore. She was something worse.

She was interested.

“Nina,” she said softly. “How did you know his name?”

Dominic stepped between us.

He didn’t touch me. He just stood close, and when he spoke it was so low nobody else could hear.

“I’ve been in a lot of rooms,” he said. “I have never seen a person do that.”

“It’s a phone call.”

“You made a Volkov negotiator back down in ninety seconds using my dead dog, and your voice never changed”

His jaw moved. “Nobody with that in them ends up scrubbing my floors, Miss Ruiz. So I’m going to ask once more, in

private, and then I’ll stop asking.”

“Mr. Vitale-”

“Who are you?”

My phone buzzed.

A house–wide message, staff channel.

FROM: C. FERRO – SECURITY

ALL HOUSEHOLD STAFF: FULL BACKGROUND SWEEP, 72 HOURS. FILES, PHONES, PRIOR NAMES

Any discrepancy will be treated as a threat to the family.

She’d sent it from her pocket.

She’d sent it while I was still holding the phone.