Exposed to the CEO Behind the Mafia Mask (by Silver Spoon) novel Chapter 362

Chapter 362: Chapter 146 Voice of Terror

Dominic’s POV

I took the encrypted phone from Gemma’s trembling hands and switched it to speaker without hesitation. The tension in our secure safe house was suffocating as we waited for the voice that had been haunting my woman for months.

"Well, well, well, Gemma baby! Woohoo! Guess who’s calling?" A disturbing laugh crackled through the speaker, the kind that made my trigger finger itch. "Sweet little Gemma, won’t you talk to your old friend? Getting all emotional on me?"

Gemma’s face drained of color, but she managed to keep her voice steady despite the fear I could see in her dark eyes. "How did you get this number, Nick?"

"Oh, princess, don’t you know?" Another sick laugh followed, making my blood pressure spike dangerously. "That pretty little friend of yours Lila was kind enough to share it with me today."

"Was it you? You sick bastard!" Gemma’s composure finally cracked, fury replacing fear as her hands clenched into fists.

"Guilty as charged, sweetheart. I had one of my boys pay her a visit today." His voice was dripping with the kind of twisted satisfaction that made me want to put a bullet between his eyes. "Too bad my guy couldn’t finish the job like I told him to. Lila got lucky this time."

Watching Gemma struggle not to completely break down made rage burn through my veins like acid. She whispered, "You’re nothing but a psychotic animal, Nick."

"Psychotic about you, baby girl! This little incident today was just a friendly reminder that there’s nowhere you can hide from me. You belong to me, Gemma! And I’m gonna drag you back to where you belong, even if I have to go through your rich mafia boyfriend."

"You’re completely insane!" Gemma’s control was slipping fast, tears starting to stream down her cheeks.

"Crazy in love with you, princess! Today’s little knife party was just a warm-up. Next time that interfering bitch dies for real. But if you want to keep your precious mommy, your little girlfriends, and your mafia boyfriend breathing, you’ll come crawling back to me where you belong."

My hands were already moving toward the gun holstered under my jacket. This street rat had just threatened my family, and in our world, that was a death sentence.

"You’ll never touch any of them, and I will never come back to you. You’ll never put your filthy hands on me again." Gemma’s tears were flowing freely now, but her voice carried the kind of steel that made me fall in love with her in the first place.

"We’ll see about that, princess. We’ll see real soon." The line went dead with an ominous click.

The moment the connection ended, Gemma collapsed into heart-wrenching sobs. I pulled her against my chest immediately, wrapping my arms around her shaking form as she buried her face in my shirt. My hand moved in slow circles across her back while my mind was already calculating exactly how I was going to make Nick suffer before I put him in the ground.

When her crying finally subsided to quiet sniffles, I pressed my lips to the top of her head. "Songbird, let me get you that chamomile tea. Amber will keep you company."

"You don’t have to take care of me like this, Dominic," she protested weakly, though she made no move to leave my arms.

"Yes, I absolutely do. Hot tea and those butter cookies you love are the only things that calm you down when you get worked up like this." My attempt to lighten the mood earned me a small, watery smile that made my chest tighten.

Amber was already padding over to the edge of our bed, pressing his massive head against her leg with that uncanny ability he had to sense when she needed comfort. That dog was better therapy than half the shrinks in the city.

The next morning, after dropping Gemma off at the family’s legitimate front office where she worked, I promised to have one of my men deliver her a clean phone by lunch. I kept her compromised device with me as I drove straight to the precinct to meet with Detective Daniel, one of our most reliable assets in the police department. He was going to lose his mind when he found out Nick was behind the attack on Lila.

"At least now we have his current number. I can push for a wiretap authorization given the escalation in violence." Daniel sighed heavily, his shoulders sagging under the weight of this new development.

"When they told me our favorite tech mogul was gracing our humble station house again, I had to see it with my own eyes." Detective Inspector Adler walked in with his characteristic easy swagger. "Dominic, thinking about switching careers and joining the force?"

I managed a genuine smile for the veteran detective. "Even if I wanted to, Adler, I’d make the world’s worst cop."

"Well, considering the amount of trouble you family associates seem to attract, you’d definitely be the biggest target for every criminal organization in the city." Adler’s infectious laugh filled the room, and despite the gravity of our situation, I found myself chuckling along.

Daniel quickly brought Adler up to speed on my visit, and the detective’s expression sharpened immediately at the mention of wiretap possibilities.

"A surveillance authorization could be exactly what we need to jumpstart this investigation, which has been moving at a snail’s pace. Your father vanished without a trace, Nick’s been ghost for weeks, and we still haven’t confirmed whether he was behind those poisoned chocolates that almost killed Gemma." Adler ticked off each point on his fingers methodically.

"So basically, you still don’t know anything concrete." I couldn’t keep the frustration and growing desperation out of my voice, terrified this nightmare might drag on indefinitely.

"It’s not quite that simple, Dominic. We’re not completely incompetent here." Adler’s smile held a hint of something mysterious that caught my attention.

"Sorry, Adler, I didn’t mean it like that. But it’s incredibly frustrating to be stuck in this dangerous mess for months without making any real progress toward ending it." I tried to explain my mounting sense of helplessness without insulting their professional capabilities.

"I understand your frustration completely, Dominic. And you’re not wrong about our lack of visible progress. But I was actually just coming to brief Daniel on some fresh intelligence we received overnight. Lucky for us that you’re here, because we might need your particular expertise to make sense of it." Adler settled into the chair beside me, his expression turning deadly serious.