Chapter 4 - The Threat at the Gate
The morning news was filled with footage of Pier 42.
Chloe sat at her small kitchen table in Queens, watching the television screen while drinking her morning coffee. Reporters stood outside the rainy perimeter of the harbor, speaking excitedly about federal raids, organized crime indictments, and the rising tension between the Costello family and their rivals, the Donati syndicate.
A picture of Gabriel appeared on the screen—a dark, brooding mugshot taken six years earlier. The reporter described him as a dangerous, elusive figure currently under federal investigation for racketeering and extortion.
Chloe looked at the television, feeling an uncomfortable knot twist in her stomach. The man on the screen looked like a monster. But the man she knew spent his evenings sitting in a warm study, practicing hand gestures so he could ask his deaf mother if her tea was hot enough.
At seven-twenty-five AM, her doorbell rang.
Chloe walked to the front door, expecting Thomas. But when she opened the door, it wasn't Thomas standing in the dim hallway.
It was a tall, thin man in an expensive grey trench coat. He had sharp, rat-like features, cold grey eyes, and a thin mustache. Two large men in heavy leather jackets stood behind him on the landing.
"Chloe Mercer?" the man asked, his voice smooth and oily.
Chloe immediately tried to slam the door shut, but the man shoved his heavy leather boot into the frame, jamming it open.
"Easy, sweetheart," the man smirked, pushing the door wide and stepping into her small apartment without an invitation. "We just want to have a little chat."
"Get out of my apartment," Chloe said, her voice shaking as she backed away toward the kitchen counter, her hand secretly reaching for a wooden rolling pin resting on the rack. "I'll call the police."
"The police are currently very busy at Pier 42," the man chuckled, stepping deeper into the room. He looked around her humble apartment with obvious disdain. "My name is Silas Donati. My father runs the family that currently controls the news headlines."
Chloe’s blood ran cold. Donati. Gabriel’s arch-rivals.
"I have nothing to say to you," Chloe said, gripping the wooden rolling pin behind her back.
"Oh, I think you do," Silas said, leaning against her dining table. "You see, my people have been watching the Costello estate for three weeks. We noticed a new black sedan making daily trips from Long Island to this lovely little Queens apartment. We wondered who Gabriel Costello was spending his mornings with."
Silas took a step closer, his eyes scanning her face with chilling curiosity.
"We thought you were his mistress," Silas continued. "But my sources inside Il Canto tell me a much more interesting story. You're the deaf old woman's voice. You're the girl who sits with Gabriel every night."
"I'm an employee," Chloe spat, her knuckles white around the rolling pin. "I translate for his mother. That's all."
"Which makes you very valuable," Silas smiled, reaching into his trench coat pocket. He pulled out a small, encrypted digital recorder and laid it on the table. "You sit in Gabriel’s study every night, Chloe. You hear things. You see documents. You know where he stores his private ledgers."
"I don't look at his documents!"
"You will," Silas said, his voice dropping into a razor-sharp threat. "Starting today, you're going to tell me every single thing Gabriel Costello says to his mother, to his lieutenants, and to you. If you bring me his private ledger code... I'll give you fifty thousand dollars. You can leave New York forever."
"And if I refuse?" Chloe asked, her chest heaving with terrified rage.
Silas’s smile vanished completely. He stepped forward, grabbing her chin in a tight, painful grip, forcing her to look into his cold eyes.
"If you refuse, Miss Mercer," Silas whispered, "I will make sure you end up just like your little brother. Dead before your time."
A wave of pure, blinding fury crashed through Chloe. Hearing this rat mention Leo’s name pushed past her fear.
Without thinking, Chloe swung the wooden rolling pin with all her strength, slamming it straight into the side of Silas Donati’s face.
CRACK!
Silas stumbled back with a howl of rage, blood spraying from his nose. "Kill her!" he roared, clutching his face.
May you like
The two heavy henchmen lunged forward.
Before they could reach her, the front door of the apartment was blown off its hinges with a deafening crash.
