Chapter 4 - The Warehouse
At two o'clock in the morning, the rain was coming down in sheets over the industrial district near the Chicago River.
Pamela sat in the back of Roman’s armored sedan, looking down at a clean set of dark clothes she had been given by the estate staff. She had showered, washed the smell of garlic and grease from her hair, and put on a warm grey sweater and black trousers.
They arrived at an unmarked brick warehouse near the docks.
Donovan opened the heavy metal door, leading Roman and Pamela into a vast, dimly lit room that smelled of damp concrete and rust.
In the center of the room, tied to a heavy wooden chair under a single bare lightbulb, sat Dr. Arthur Vance.
He was a man in his late fifties, wearing an expensive wool coat that was now dirty and torn. His face was swollen, his hair disheveled, and his hands were tied tightly behind his back with plastic zip-ties.
When the heavy steel door slammed shut, Vance jumped, looking up with wide, terrified eyes.
“Roman! Please!” Vance screamed, his voice echoing off the corrugated metal walls. “I didn't know! I swear to God I didn't know!”
Roman walked calmly across the floor, his hands tucked into his trousers pockets. He didn't look angry. He looked like an executioner performing a routine task.
“Dr. Vance,” Roman said smoothly. “Fourteen months ago, I paid you five million dollars.”
“Yes! And I saved those babies!” Vance sobbed. “I worked for six hours in that operating room!”
“You didn't save anyone,” Roman said, stopping three feet from the chair. He reached out and grabbed Pamela’s arm, pulling her out of the shadows into the light. “You took three children from this woman, told her they were dead, and handed them to me in a basket like a catered lunch.”
Vance’s eyes locked onto Pamela. His face went completely white.
“Miss... Miss Hayes...” Vance stammered, his lips trembling.
Pamela stepped forward, her hands clenched into tight fists at her sides. Looking at the man who had stolen fourteen months of her life, fourteen months of her children’s lives, made a cold, lethal heat bloom in her chest.
“Why?” Pamela asked, her voice dangerously steady. “Why did you do it?”
“I... I had debts!” Vance cried, wiping blood from his nose against his shoulder. “Gambling debts to the Moretti family! They were going to kill me! They told me if I provided three healthy babies for Roman Voss, my debt would be cleared!”
Roman froze. His posture shifted instantly, every muscle in his shoulders locking into steel.
“The Moretti family?” Roman asked, his voice dropping into a register that made even Donovan step back.
“Yes!” Vance wept. “Salvatore Moretti! He set up the pipeline! He told me which mothers to target—women with no family, no money, no husbands! He said you were desperate for heirs after Elena died! He wanted a hold over you!”
Pamela looked at Roman. “Who is Salvatore Moretti?”
“My rival,” Roman whispered, his grey eyes turning into liquid ice. “The man who controls the south side of the city.”
Roman looked down at Vance. “Salvatore planted fake heirs in my house. He knew that if the truth ever came out, it would destroy my family from the inside.”
“I’m sorry! I’m sorry!” Vance screamed, pulling against the zip-ties. “Please, Roman, let me leave! I’ll leave the country! You’ll never see me again!”
Roman didn't answer him. He turned to Donovan.
“Take Miss Hayes back to the car.”
Pamela looked at Roman. “What are you going to do to him?”
Roman looked at her, his face completely devoid of mercy. “He stole my children’s mother. He stole your children’s lives. He doesn't get to leave Chicago.”
“Roman—” Pamela started.
“Go to the car, Pamela,” Roman said softly, but with a finality that admitted no debate.
Donovan gently touched her elbow, guiding her back toward the heavy metal doors. As the doors swung shut behind her, Pamela heard the cold, distinct sound of a gun being cocked inside the warehouse.
She closed her eyes, leaning her head against the cold steel of the SUV, realizing that her old life was officially dead.
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She was no longer just a grieving mother.
She was caught in the middle of a war between the two most dangerous men in Chicago.
