Chapter 2 - The Black Box
The restaurant was cleared within four minutes.
Dante’s men moved with the precision of soldiers.
Doors were locked.
Guests were guided through the rear exit.
Phones were checked.
Cameras were secured.
The police would eventually arrive, but everyone who mattered knew that whatever had happened inside L’Orso D’Oro had been intended for Dante Rosselli.
Or for Lena.
Dante was beginning to suspect the second possibility.
The black box sat untouched on the floor.
Lena stood near the kitchen entrance holding Leo.
She had refused to surrender the baby.
Not consciously.
Every time Dante approached to take his son, Leo tightened his fists in Lena’s shirt and began to cry again.
Under different circumstances Dante might have found that amusing.
Tonight he found it disturbing.
“Where did you see the box?” Dante asked.
Lena kept staring at it.
“My mother’s bedroom.”
“When?”
“When I was a kid.”
“How old?”
“Maybe nine.”
“What was inside?”
“I don’t know.”
“You never opened it?”
“My mother wouldn’t let me.”
Matteo crouched beside the box.
“No wires.”
Dante nodded.
“Open it.”
Matteo lifted the lid.
Lena flinched.
Inside lay only three things.
A brass key.
A faded photograph.
And a folded piece of paper.
Matteo handed Dante the photograph first.
Dante stared at it.
For several seconds, the feared crime boss said nothing.
Lena saw his expression change.
“Who is it?”
Dante turned the photograph toward her.
It showed five young men and one young woman standing outside an old auto shop.
The picture was almost thirty years old.
The men were barely recognizable.
One of them was unmistakably Dante.
He looked twenty-one.
No beard.
No scar.
His hair black and thick.
Beside him stood a beautiful dark-haired woman.
Lena’s lips parted.
“My mother.”
“Yes.”
Elena Valdez had one hand on Dante’s shoulder.
And around her neck hung a pendant.
A small silver dragon.
Lena looked from the photograph to Dante’s tattoo.
“No.”
Dante unfolded the paper.
His face hardened.
Matteo saw the handwriting.
“Boss?”
Dante read the message aloud.
“Dragon blood remembers.”
Nothing else.
Lena whispered, “What does that mean?”
“I don’t know.”
“You expect me to believe that?”
“Yes.”
“You knew my mother.”
“I knew her for six months.”
“Six months?”
“Twenty-seven years ago.”
“You never mentioned her?”
“To whom?”
Lena’s anger finally broke through her fear.
“To me.”
Dante stared at her.
“We met ten minutes ago.”
She closed her eyes.
“That’s not what I meant.”
“I know.”
She looked at the photograph again.
“What was she to you?”
The question carried something Dante understood.
Suspicion.
Confusion.
And something deeper.
An unspoken calculation about dates.
Dante shook his head.
“No.”
Lena looked at him.
“No what?”
“I was not your father.”
Her cheeks flushed.
“I didn’t ask.”
“You were thinking it.”
“I was not.”
“You were.”
Matteo almost smiled.
Dante ignored him.
“Elena was my friend.”
“Just a friend?”
“Yes.”
Lena studied his face.
Dante’s voice hardened.
“She was in love with someone else.”
“Who?”
Dante looked at the remaining men in the photograph.
His eyes stopped on one.
A tall young man with light eyes and a dangerous smile.
“My younger brother.”
Lena’s breath caught.
Dante continued.
“Gabriel Rosselli.”
“Where is he?”
“Dead.”
“How?”
Dante looked at her.
“Murdered.”
The word hung between them.
Leo shifted against Lena’s shoulder.
Dante reached for his son.
This time, Lena allowed him.
Leo protested briefly.
Dante pressed his forehead to the baby’s temple.
His calm returned.
“Matteo.”
“Yes, boss.”
“Move Lena to the house.”
“I said I’m not—”
Dante turned toward her.
“Someone threw your mother’s property through a restaurant window after following you for three nights.”
“I can call the police.”
“You can.”
“And?”
“They’ll take a statement.”
“That’s their job.”
“They’ll put a patrol car outside your apartment for a few hours if you’re lucky.”
Lena crossed her arms.
“And you?”
“I’ll put twelve armed men around you.”
“That is not comforting.”
“It isn’t supposed to be.”
Dante moved closer.
“It’s supposed to keep you alive.”
Lena looked toward the shattered front window.
For the first time, uncertainty replaced defiance.
“My apartment is six blocks away.”
“You’re not going there.”
“My things are there.”
“We’ll get them.”
“My roommate—”
“Name.”
“Erin.”
Dante looked at Matteo.
“Check her.”
Lena’s anger returned.
“You don’t get to investigate my friends.”
“I do tonight.”
“No, you don’t.”
Dante stopped.
The confrontation lasted only three seconds.
Then Leo began reaching for Lena again.
Dante looked at his son.
Lena looked too.
The baby stretched one hand toward her, blinking sleepy brown eyes.
Something inside Lena surrendered.
Not to Dante.
To Leo.
“I’m staying one night.”
Dante nodded.
“One night.”
Matteo knew better than to comment.
Twenty minutes later, Lena sat inside the rear seat of an armored black SUV.
Leo was strapped into a luxury infant seat beside her.
Dante sat opposite them.
Rain streaked the dark windows.
Two SUVs traveled ahead.
Two more followed.
Lena watched city lights slide across Dante’s face.
“Why the dragon?”
Dante looked at her.
“The tattoo.”
He remained silent.
“My mother warned me that men with the dragon destroyed families.”
“She wasn’t wrong.”
Lena stared at him.
Dante continued.
“The dragon was used by a group formed by my father and four other men.”
“Your mafia family.”
“Not exactly.”
“What does that mean?”
“It started before the Rossellis controlled anything.”
Dante looked out the window.
“They called themselves the Brotherhood of Saint George.”
Lena almost laughed.
“That sounds ridiculous.”
“It became less ridiculous when people started dying.”
She stopped smiling.
Dante loosened the top button of his shirt.
More of the tattoo appeared.
The dragon curled over his chest.
Beneath its wing were five tiny stars.
“One for each founding family.”
“Why did my mother have the necklace?”
Dante’s eyes darkened.
“Because Gabriel gave it to her.”
“So your brother was part of this?”
“Yes.”
“And my mother?”
“No.”
“Then why was she involved?”
Dante hesitated.
“Because she discovered what the Brotherhood really was.”
Lena felt cold.
“What was it?”
Before Dante could answer, the lead SUV suddenly swerved.
Brakes screamed.
Dante grabbed Leo’s seat.
The armored vehicle lurched violently sideways.
Lena slammed against the door.
A second vehicle struck them from the side.
Gunfire cracked outside.
Matteo’s voice exploded through Dante’s earpiece.
“AMBUSH!”
Dante reached beneath his jacket.
“Down!”
He pushed Lena below the window line.
Leo began screaming.
Bullets hammered the armored glass.
Lena covered the child instinctively.
Dante turned toward her.
“Stay with Leo.”
“What are you doing?”
“Ending this.”
He opened the door.
“Dante!”
He looked back.
For the first time, Lena saw exactly what her mother had feared.
Not a businessman.
Not a wealthy father.
A man who had survived a lifetime of violence.
May you like
Then he stepped into the gunfire.
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