Mia Figlia

Chapter 12 ✔️

PoV Riccardo

Cazzo! She was gone. She went to the toys department a moment ago and now she was nowhere to be seen. My heart pounded heavily in my chest. My palms were sweaty. Where was my little innocent angel? Did one of my enemies get her? I did not hear her scream. Perhaps someone lurked her into following them silently. Or they muffled her right away.

"Search the whole building," I yelled at my men, while I was frantically looking in every aisle. She could not just disappear. I had to find her.

"A good friend of mine is working for the security. He will show us the tapes, so we can see who abducted her. We will find her." Romano tried to assure me. I nodded then followed him to the security office of the shopping center. Slapping myself mentally for my dumb idea to take her with me. I should have bought her stuff online, like I usually did. But no, my darling wanted to accompany me, and I was stupid enough to allow it. I could have known that something bad would happen. Mad at myself for my evident failure, I stormed into the office. The Italian guy at the desk winced when he saw me. A lot of Milwaukee's inhabitants had no single clue who I was. Beside of my legal businesses, my life was a mystery to them. But Italians knew who I really was.

"We need to watch the tapes from video surveillance, Luca." Romano sat down on the chair next to this Luca guy, while I wandered back and forth in the small room. The screens showed me how my men were looking for my little girl. The small bakery, clothing stores, an antique store and even a lingerie store weren't safe from them. Still, there was no sign of my daughter. I sighed and massaged my throbbing temples.

"No problem, Romano. But my boss should not hear about this, or I will get into trouble," the security guy said.

"You will be in real trouble if you do not help us," I growled, watching him slipping almost under his desk as he tried to avoid my angry gaze. Usually, I did not threaten innocent citizens, but this wasn't an ordinary situation.

"Of course, I will help you," he stammered now terrified.

"Va bene." I watched him rewind the videos to the point when Isabella had disappeared. She was busy in an aisle, looking at some weird dolls, when a black-haired woman approached her. Her face was clearly visible, but I did not recognize her.

"Might be an Italian woman, boss." Romano muttered. He, too, tried to identify her but failed as well.

We saw how that woman put her hand on my daughter's mouth to make sure that the girl would not scream. It looked like she whispered something in the child's ear, then walked away with her. It seemed that Isabella followed her voluntarily, but you never knew what she said to make her obey. Perchance offered her to take her to her mother, which was an outright lie.

"We need the tapes from the parking lot." If we were lucky, we would see an accomplice of her or maybe her car with the license plate. Luca obeyed. Shortly after we were watching those tapes, but the woman knew what she was doing. She did avoid the cameras for the biggest part of the videos. No sign of any accomplice or the getaway car. I slammed my fist on the table. Cazzo!

"I want a copy of all the recordings where she is clearly visible. Especially her face." Fuming mad I left the office and walked to my car. Romano followed a couple of minutes later with a USB stick.

"Got it, boss." He hopped into the driver's seat. Half an hour later we arrived at the mansion. Mario and Francesca greeted me in the hallway. They already knew that Isabella got kidnapped. Fuck! What kind of mafia boss was I? I could not even protect my own daughter! I stormed into my office and slammed the door shut. My eyes rested on the cocktail cabinet. No, I had to keep calm and sober. Getting drunk would not bring her back. I could solely wait for my men to find anything which would get us closer to her kidnapper. Isabella had trusted that woman. That bitch most likely lured her away from me with something. Small kids loved candy and toys. But Isabella was not that kind of a child. Sure, she enjoyed gifts, but was that tempting enough? On the other hand, there was still the possibility that this bitch offered her to get her back to Stella. I grabbed my phone and made a call.