Chapter 3 - The Ghost of the MorettisWhile the hospital room remained locked in a tense, high-stakes medical lockdown, across town in an opulent, wood-paneled study overlooking the harbor, an entirely different kind of storm was brewing.
Leonard Voss sat in a leather armchair, his hands trembling as he poured himself a fingers-width of neat scotch. His expensive suit was wrinkled, and the calm, untouchable veneer he had cultivated for decades had completely shattered. Standing across from him was a man who made even the hardened mobsters of Providence look like choirboys: Paulie "The Hammer" Moretti—a distant cousin of Vincent Moretti, operating his own rogue faction of the syndicate out of Boston, completely disconnected from Vincent's refined empire.
"What do you mean, he survived?" Paulie snarled, slamming a heavy silver-plated ash tray down onto the mahogany desk. "You told me the injection would make it look like a natural post-surgical cardiac arrest! You swore to me, Leonard!"
"I couldn't do it!" Voss shouted back, his voice cracking with hysteria. "That damn nurse! She was right there! She caught my wrist like a vice grip, logged every detail, and threatened to take the evidence straight to the federal authorities if I made a single move!"
Paulie stepped forward, grabbing Voss by the lapels of his suit and hoisting him out of the chair until their noses were inches apart. "I don't give a damn about a nurse! Stefano is supposed to be dead. With him out of the picture, the Boston-Providence shipping corridors open up completely, and our syndicates merge under my control. If Stefano wakes up and talks, he’s going to trace the gunrunning pipeline straight back to my warehouses. Do you understand what he’ll do to us?!"
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"Then you deal with the nurse," Voss hissed, clawing at Paulie’s hands until the syndicate boss shoved him back into the chair with a contemptuous sneer. "She’s just an agency temp. She has no family in the area, no high-profile protection—just a couple of guards Danny posted at the door. But inside the hospital, she’s untouchable. You need to pull her out of there."
Paulie walked over to the floor-to-ceiling windows, staring out at the dark, crashing waves of Narragansett Bay. A slow, cruel smile spread across his scarred face. "We don't need to break into the hospital to get to her. People vanish on their way home from night shifts all the time. Find out where she lives. Let's see how brave nurse Alice is when she's tied to a chair in an abandoned warehouse."
