Chapter 11 - Leo’s Blood
Dante reached the hospital before dawn.
Leo looked impossibly small beneath the white blankets.
A heart monitor blinked beside him.
An IV line ran into his tiny arm.
Lena stood near the doorway.
Dante sat beside the bed.
One hand surrounded his son’s foot.
The doctors said Leo was stable.
The dose had been dangerous but not fatal.
Someone had mixed a sedative into formula at the estate.
The bottle had been prepared hours after the kidnapping.
That meant Victor’s infiltration went deeper than Paul.
Someone still inside Dante’s home worked for him.
Rosa was devastated.
“I made the bottle myself.”
Dante looked at her.
“Who touched it?”
“No one.”
“Think.”
Rosa closed her eyes.
“The pediatric nurse.”
Dante stood.
“Nurse Collins?”
Rosa nodded.
Matteo was already calling.
The nurse’s apartment was empty.
Her phone had been disconnected.
Her car was found at a bus station.
Gone.
Lena looked at Leo.
“Why sedate him?”
Dante answered.
“To make another kidnapping easier.”
The idea caused something dangerous to enter his eyes.
Lena stepped in front of him.
“Stay here.”
“What?”
“Your people can search.”
“I should—”
“Leo needs his father.”
Dante looked down.
She was right.
Again.
He hated how often Gabriel’s daughter was right.
Hours passed.
Leo slowly woke.
His eyes found Dante.
Then Lena.
A weak smile appeared.
He reached for her.
Dante laughed softly.
“Of course.”
Lena took the baby.
Leo rested against her.
Dante watched.
“You should sleep.”
“So should you.”
“I don’t sleep.”
“That explains your personality.”
Dante looked offended.
Lena smiled.
It was the first light moment in nearly two days.
Then Leo’s tiny hand reached toward Dante’s shirt.
He tugged the open collar.
The dragon appeared.
Leo touched it.
Then looked at Lena.
Something clicked inside her memory.
Dragon.
Music box.
Her mother.
A lullaby.
Lena whispered, “The dragon sleeps beneath the lake.”
Dante looked at her.
“What?”
“My mother used to say that.”
“When?”
“When she put me to bed.”
Lena’s eyes widened.
“I thought it was part of a story.”
“What story?”
“About a dragon beneath blue water guarding a silver bell.”
Dante slowly stood.
“Lake Como.”
Lena nodded.
“Your proposal.”
Dante stared.
Sofia and Elena had never met as far as he knew.
So why did Elena give Lena a clue that matched something Sofia later used?
Unless the location mattered long before Sofia.
Matteo entered.
“We found the nurse.”
“Alive?”
“Yes.”
“Where?”
“Airport.”
Dante’s face hardened.
“She talking?”
“She says Victor forced her.”
“Everyone says Victor forced them.”
“This time she has proof.”
Matteo showed him a photograph of a teenage boy tied to a chair.
The nurse’s son.
Victor had repeated the same method for decades.
Threaten family.
Create traitors.
Turn love into leverage.
Dante stared at Leo.
“No more.”
Lena looked at him.
“What does that mean?”
“It means Victor has survived because everyone fights him separately.”
Paul.
Elena.
Gabriel.
Sofia.
Isabella.
Even Salvatore.
All isolated.
All frightened.
All protecting one person they loved.
Dante turned toward Matteo.
“Call the families.”
Matteo raised an eyebrow.
“All of them?”
“All five.”
Lena looked uneasy.
“You’re bringing the Brotherhood back together?”
“No.”
Dante buttoned his shirt over the dragon.
“I’m ending it.”
That evening, representatives of the five founding families arrived at a private conference room.
Some were old.
Some young.
Some legitimate business owners.
Some still deeply criminal.
Dante stood at the head of the table.
Lena remained beside him.
Several men looked at her with curiosity.
Dante introduced her.
“Alina Valdez Rosselli.”
The name felt strange.
Powerful.
Dangerous.
“My brother Gabriel’s daughter.”
The room erupted.
Dante raised one hand.
Silence returned.
He placed copies of page 88 on the table.
Then evidence from Salvatore.
Paul’s confession.
Sofia’s files.
“Victor Valenti built his power by making us afraid of one another.”
Dante looked around.
“He used our children, wives, brothers, and parents as weapons.”
An old man named Carlo Costa spoke.
“And what do you want?”
“The truth.”
“From criminals?”
Dante smiled without humor.
“Especially from criminals.”
He laid down one final document.
“A federal immunity framework.”
The room exploded again.
Lena stared at him.
“You contacted the government?”
“Yes.”
“When?”
“After the warehouse.”
Dante addressed the families.
“Anything connected to Victor’s trafficking operation gets disclosed.”
“What about our businesses?”
“Legitimate businesses remain.”
“And illegal ones?”
Dante looked at them.
“End.”
Several men stood.
One cursed him.
Another threatened war.
Dante did not move.
“Anyone who chooses Victor leaves now.”
Nobody did.
Slowly, they sat again.
For the first time in nearly seventy years, the Brotherhood faced the possibility of dismantling itself.
Afterward Lena found Dante alone.
“You’re destroying your own empire.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
Dante looked through the hospital glass at Leo.
“My son deserves an inheritance he doesn’t have to fear.”
Lena thought of Gabriel’s letter.
Blood is only where a story begins.
She smiled faintly.
“Your brother would be proud.”
Dante’s expression softened.
“Don’t tell him.”
Lena laughed.
Then Matteo approached.
“Boss.”
“What?”
“Victor surfaced.”
“Where?”
Matteo held up a photograph.
An airport security image.
Victor boarding a private plane.
Destination:
Milan.
Dante’s eyes hardened.
Lake Como.
May you like
Victor knew where Sofia’s evidence was too.
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