Chapter 5 - The Window ManThe bedroom window had not shattered inward.
It had been cut.
A neat circle in the old glass, almost invisible until the night air pushed the curtains away from it. The alarm wire had been bypassed with professional skill. Whoever had reached the second-floor ledge had not intended to break in loudly.
He had intended to enter quietly.
The only reason he failed was Nico.
Later, Elena would learn that her serious son had woken to a tiny scraping sound. Instead of crying, Nico had climbed out of bed, taken Mr. Buttons by one ear, and thrown the rabbit at the window.
The rabbit struck the glass cutter’s hand.
The tool slipped.
The glass cracked.
Rafa woke screaming.
By the time Elena reached the bedroom, Marcus had two men leaning out the window and another sweeping the hall. Dominic’s chair stopped hard in the doorway.
He could not get through.
The old frame was too narrow.
For one unbearable second, he was trapped outside his sons’ fear.
Elena scooped both boys into her arms, dropping to the floor behind the bed.
“Nico? Rafa? Are you hurt?”
Rafa sobbed against her shoulder.
Nico shook his head, but his little face was white.
Dominic gripped the doorframe.
“Elena.”
She looked at him.
No anger now.
Only terror.
“They’re not hurt,” she said.
Dominic nodded once, but his eyes were on the window.
Marcus turned from it.
“He dropped to the alley. We have blood on the sill. Not much.”
“Alive?”
“Probably.”
“Find him.”
Marcus disappeared.
Dominic looked at Nico.
“You heard him?”
Nico nodded.
“What did he look like?”
Elena snapped, “He is three.”
Dominic softened his voice.
“Nico, I am not asking because you did anything wrong. You did very well. I just need to know what you remember.”
Nico hugged Mr. Buttons.
“He had a bird on his hand.”
Dominic’s blood cooled.
“A bird?”
Nico tapped his own wrist.
“Black bird.”
A tattoo.
Marcus returned minutes later with the same information.
“The blood trail ends near the alley gate. Driver waiting. No plates.”
Dominic’s voice was almost calm.
“Tattoo?”
Marcus’s face hardened.
“Raven on the wrist.”
Elena looked between them.
“What does that mean?”
Dominic did not want to answer.
She saw that.
“What does it mean?”
Marcus said, “Victor.”
The name changed the room.
Elena stared at Dominic.
“Your uncle?”
Dominic said nothing.
“The man from the engagement dinner?”
“Yes.”
“The one you told me was old-fashioned but loyal?”
“I was wrong.”
Elena laughed once, a hard sound full of disbelief.
“You think?”
Rafa whimpered.
She immediately softened, rocking him.
Dominic turned his chair back.
“We leave now.”
Elena did not argue this time.
Within twelve minutes, the children were bundled into coats. Within fifteen, the brownstone lights were off. Within twenty, a three-car convoy moved north through sleeping streets.
Elena sat in the second SUV between the boys’ car seats.
Dominic sat across from them because the vehicle had been modified for his chair.
No one spoke for the first twenty minutes.
Then Rafa’s crying faded into hiccups.
Nico kept staring at Dominic.
Finally he asked, “Is the bird man coming back?”
Dominic looked at Elena.
She looked out the window.
So he answered the child honestly.
“Not if I can stop him.”
Rafa sniffed.
“Can you?”
Dominic’s men would have expected certainty. Enemies would have expected a threat. The old Dominic would have delivered both.
But sons required something harder.
Truth.
“I will try with everything I have.”
Nico considered that.
“Mommy tries everything.”
Dominic’s chest tightened.
“I know.”
Elena’s eyes flicked to him, then away.
They drove to a private medical recovery center outside Kenosha, a facility Dominic had quietly funded after his own injury. Officially, it treated veterans and spinal trauma patients. Unofficially, it had secure entrances, discreet staff, and no public records tying it to Caruso money.
Elena noticed the ramps.
The wide halls.
The absence of stairs.
“You built this after the shooting,” she said.
“Yes.”
“For yourself?”
“At first.”
“And now?”
“For people who needed what I hated needing.”
Her expression shifted.
Not forgiveness.
But recognition.
The boys fell asleep before dawn in a suite with reinforced glass and cartoon sheets someone found in storage. Elena sat between their beds, one hand resting on each blanket.
Dominic remained in the hall.
He watched through the open door.
Marcus approached silently.
“We found the man.”
Dominic did not look away from his sons.
“Alive?”
“Yes.”
“Talked?”
“Not yet.”
Dominic’s jaw tightened.
Elena looked up from inside the room.
She had heard enough.
Her voice was low.
“No torture.”
Marcus glanced at Dominic.
Dominic’s eyes stayed on Elena.
She stood slowly and came into the hall, closing the door behind her.
“If you want any chance of being near them,” she said, “you do not bring that world to their feet.”
Dominic’s first instinct was to say Victor deserved worse.
His second instinct was to remember Rafa asking if he was a bad guy.
He looked at the closed door.
Then at Marcus.
“Call our attorney,” Dominic said. “And Detective Walsh.”
Marcus blinked.
“The police?”
Dominic’s voice was cold.
“The man tried to climb into my sons’ bedroom. This ends in court.”
Elena stared at him.
For the first time since the RiverWalk, she looked truly surprised.
May you like
Dominic met her eyes.
“You wanted me to be different,” he said. “I am late. But I am listening.”
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