Chapter 6 - THE SNAKE IN THE GRASSWhile Don Sal Moretti understood the brutal reality of Vincent Torino’s warning, his son Leo was consumed by an intoxicating combination of ego, cocaine, and envy.
Leo sat in his penthouse suite overlooking the harbor, snorting a line of white powder off a glass table, his eyes bloodshot and wild.
"My father is a coward!" Leo roared, slamming his fist into a leather couch. "He went to that chapel and bowed his head like a beaten dog! Torino threatens us, and my father apologizes?!"
Across the room sat Arthur Pendelton—the former estate manager of the Torino mansion, who had been fired two days prior after Vincent discovered his financial fraud.
Pendelton sat nervously on the edge of a chair, sipping a glass of cheap scotch.
"Mr. Torino is not a man to be trifled with, Leo," Pendelton warned nervously. "He stripped me of my position in three minutes. He has surveillance on every door, every road, every server in that house."
"I don't care about his servers!" Leo spat, standing up and pacing across the room. "You worked there for five years, Pendelton. Tell me about the weakness. Tell me about the maid."
Pendelton’s eyes glittered with spiteful malice. "Carmen Martinez. She’s weak. She’s sick. And her daughter, Isabella... the girl is everything to her. And lately... the girl seems to be everything to Vincent as well."
Leo stopped pacing. A slow, terrifying smile spread across his face.
"He put the girl in his house?" Leo asked.
"She’s there every day after school," Pendelton confirmed. "Vincent personally assigned two guards to watch her when she walks to the school bus at four o'clock. But at three-thirty, she sits in the small park behind St. Jude’s Elementary, waiting for her mother to finish her medical appointments."
Leo walked over to the window, staring down at the city lights glittering in the rain.
"If I take Torino's warehouses, he fights back with his syndicate," Leo whispered, his voice dripping with twisted logic. "If I take his money, he buys more. But if I take the little girl he’s trying so hard to protect..."
"Leo..." Pendelton gulped, suddenly realizing the extreme danger of the path they were walking. "If you kidnap that child, Vincent will kill everyone involved. There won't be any negotiations."
"He won't kill anyone if he’s forced to sign over the harbor deeds in exchange for her life," Leo laughed, turning around with an unhinged glint in his eyes. "He’s soft now, remember? He broke his own rule for her. A man who breaks rules for a child will give up an empire to save her."
Leo pointed at Pendelton. "You know her schedule. You know her face. You're going to help me grab her tomorrow at three-thirty."
"No... no, I can't do that!" Pendelton panicked, standing up. "I just wanted my money!"
Leo pulled a snub-nosed revolver from his waistband and pressed the cold steel barrel directly against Pendelton’s forehead.
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"You're in this now, Arthur," Leo sneered. "Either you help me grab the kid tomorrow, or I leave your body in an alley tonight and blame it on Torino."
Pendelton trembled, his pants wetting slightly in fear. "O-Okay... okay! I'll help you!"
