He's warning me again. Telling me that if I go after her, if I bring her back, there will be consequences.
"No complications," I lie smoothly.
"Perfect. I'll be in touch once the transfer is complete."
He hangs up.
I stand there for a moment, phone still in my hand, fury building like a pressure cooker behind my eyes.
Matteo looks up from his phone. "Traffic cam got a hit. Black sedan heading south on the A1. Toward Rome."
South. Not toward the mountains where he'd take her to kill her. Toward airports, ports, international connections.
"He's selling her," I say.
"That's good though, right? Means she's alive."
"For now." I grab my jacket. "How far behind are we?"
"Forty minutes, maybe an hour depending on traffic."
"Get the cars ready. Full tactical team." I'm already planning—intercept points, extraction protocols, contingencies. "And Matteo? Complete communication blackout. No calls, no texts, nothing that can be traced or intercepted."
"You think someone's monitoring us?"
"Might be." I check my weapons. "Either way, we go dark. No one knows we're coming."
"What about Alessandro's transfer?"
"Let him send his blood money. We'll deal with the Rossi family later. Right now, we focus on Torretti."
Matteo nods, understanding the unspoken message. Later, when Camilla is safe, Alessandro will learn what happens to men who celebrate her disappearance.
But first, we get her back.
As we head for the cars, I review what I know. Torretti is a broker, not a buyer. He has contacts across Europe—auctionhouses, private collectors, specialized dealers. A woman like Camilla could be moved through any of those channels.
But moving premium merchandise takes time. Documentation, buyer verification, secure transport. He can't just hand her off in a parking lot. Even if he has interested buyers already lined up.
Which means we have a window of time. Small, but real.
"Boss?" Matteo catches up to me. "What's the actual plan here? We can't just shoot up wherever he's taken her."
"We track him to his destination. We assess the situation. We extract her with minimal exposure." I slide into the passenger seat. "Clean, professional, no witnesses. He’s probably scrambling right now. This wasn’t planned."
"And Torretti?"
"Disappears. Completely. No body, no evidence, no connection back to us."
Matteo starts the engine. "Alessandro's not going to like that we ignored his warning."
"Alessandro can join Torretti in whatever hole we bury him in. But he doesn't find out until it's too late to matter."
We pull out of the villa, following the route the traffic cameras mapped. Matteo drives while I work my phone—calling in favors, activating assets, building a network of eyes along the A1 highway.
Every minute that passes, she's farther away. Every kilometer, the search radius expands.
But Torretti made one critical mistake: he grabbed her in panic, not planning. That means he's improvising, which means he'll follow patterns. Use familiar resources. Make predictable choices.
