Page 74 of His Captive
“I will, but you need to listen to me!” Sarah says hurriedly. “Stop crying and listen, Lea. Is Massimo with you right now? Put him on, too!”
“Massimo’s gone,” I whisper, unable to stop my tears. “It’s too late.”
“Too late as in…” Sarah’s face pales and Cadence flashes a nervous glance.
“He already left,” I clarify. “It hasn’t happened yet.”
“Then listen.” Sarah leans forward. “Cadence was able to hack the security cameras and pull some footage from the night Layla Morandi was killed.”
“Didn’t the cops do that?” I ask, then some concern slips through my grief. “You didn’t tell her what I told you, right?”
“I did,” Sarah says flatly.
“Sarah!” I cry, shaking my head. “That was supposed to stay in the vault!”
“You don’t know me, but you can trust me,” Cadence says. “The cops pulled the footage, of course, but it was wiped. That’s what they thought, at least.”
“Remember that audio you sent me?” Sarah asks, then she motions to Cadence who taps her phone.
The recording I made begins playing, except the weird humming sound is gone. I can hear Massimo’s voice perfectly as he talks about the hit.
“Cadence was able to isolate the frequency and that allowed her to decode it, then strip it from the recording,” Sarah explains. “But that wasn’t all it allowed her to do.”
“Right,” Cadence says. “Something similar was used to mask all the security cameras they passed on the way to Massimo Morandi’s residence. They weren’t wiped. The footage was just hidden behind a layer of static. Since I already knew which frequency to isolate, the rest was easy.”
“I still don’t understand.” I wipe my eyes and sniffle. If Sarah has already told Cadence everything, I didn’t have to choose my words as carefully as I originally thought. “The Bratva killed Massimo’s wife.”
“Yes, but they weren’t alone,” Cadence says, then she turns her laptop toward the phone. “Watch this.”
I watch the screen and listen to them explain what I’m looking at.
Sarah’s right.
This changes everything.
But it may already be too late.
CHAPTER 32
Massimo
Every step feels heavier than the one before it as I march to my execution.
I’m not afraid of death. I never have been. Death is one of those things you learn to accept when you’re born into my family. There are more funerals than weddings.
Leaving Lea behind is what truly hurts. Knowing she’s sobbing her eyes out—over me. I’ve been a miserable wretch for way too long to deserve sympathy or tears. But the connection we have is genuine. It was too soon for those three words, but they came from my heart. A heart that is finally free of the malice and poison that left me a shell of the man I used to be.
“Massimo!” a familiar voice calls out; I turn to see Theo approaching me. “Glad I could catch you before you left. Your father called me. He’s been trying to reach you.”
I pull out my phone and glance at it. I have several missed calls from my old man, along with a few other calls I’ve ignored.
“I’ll call him when I get to the ferry,” I mutter, pushing my phone back into my pocket.
“Alright, he said it’s important,” Theo replies. “Something about Leo.”
“He didn’t say what is going on?” I ask.
“No,” Theo answers. “He just asked me to find you and tell you to call him. Anyway, I delivered the message. Have a safe trip home. I hope we can get together again soon.”
