Chapter 6 - The Man Who Should Have Been Dead
Dante moved before Victor pulled the trigger.
He knocked Lena sideways.
The shot struck stone.
Isabella screamed.
Matteo’s men stormed the side doors.
Victor vanished through a passage behind the altar.
Dante fired once.
Missed.
Then ran after him.
“Dante!”
Lena clutched Leo against her.
Isabella grabbed her wrist.
“Don’t follow.”
“You brought us here!”
“I brought you here because Victor was already watching the Rosselli estate.”
“You knew he would come?”
“I suspected.”
“You used us as bait?”
Isabella’s expression broke.
“I was trying to force him into the open.”
“With a nine-month-old baby?”
“I would never have hurt Leo.”
“You kidnapped him!”
“I saved him.”
Footsteps thundered through the church.
Matteo returned.
“Boss is outside.”
“Victor?”
“Gone.”
Lena shut her eyes.
Of course.
Men like Victor survived because they knew how to disappear.
Dante came back minutes later.
Fury rolled from him.
“He had a tunnel to the street.”
Isabella nodded.
“This church belonged to the Marchetti family.”
“You knew.”
“Yes.”
Dante crossed the distance between them.
His voice became terrifyingly quiet.
“You will never use my son again.”
Isabella met his eyes.
“And if I hadn’t taken him?”
“What?”
“Victor’s men would have.”
Dante stopped.
Isabella reached inside her coat.
Matteo immediately raised his gun.
She slowly removed a phone.
On the screen was a security photograph.
A man in a delivery uniform entering Dante’s property ten minutes before Isabella arrived.
Another photograph showed the same man leaving after Isabella had taken Leo.
The third image showed the trunk of his van.
Inside were restraints.
Sedatives.
A child carrier.
Dante’s anger turned cold.
“Who?”
“Victor’s people.”
Isabella lowered the phone.
“I had one choice.”
“You could have called.”
“Would you have believed me?”
Dante said nothing.
Isabella smiled sadly.
“Exactly.”
Lena shifted Leo against her shoulder.
“Where is page eighty-eight?”
Isabella looked at her.
“Elena never told me directly.”
“You said only you knew.”
“I know the clue.”
“What clue?”
Isabella took a breath.
“Your eighth birthday.”
Lena’s memory flickered.
Her mother had been unusually emotional that day.
They had no money.
Yet Elena had baked a cake.
Eight candles.
One present.
A small wooden music box.
Lena gasped.
“My music box.”
Dante looked at her.
“You still have it?”
“Yes.”
“Where?”
Lena’s face fell.
“My apartment.”
Dante was already moving.
They reached the building before dawn.
The front door to Lena’s apartment stood open.
She stopped in the hallway.
“No.”
Dante held her back.
Matteo entered first.
Two rooms.
Clear.
Kitchen.
Clear.
Bedroom.
Destroyed.
Drawers pulled out.
Mattress cut open.
Books scattered.
Lena stepped inside.
Her life lay in pieces.
A photograph of her mother had been smashed.
She knelt and picked it up.
“Music box,” Dante said softly.
Lena looked toward the closet.
She moved through the debris.
At the back of the top shelf sat a faded wooden box painted with tiny blue flowers.
Untouched.
Lena laughed once in disbelief.
“They missed it.”
“Maybe.”
She opened the lid.
A tiny metal ballerina rose.
The mechanism played the first few notes of “Moon River.”
Lena stared.
“My mother used to sing this.”
Isabella approached.
“Check the bottom.”
Lena turned the box over.
Nothing.
Dante examined it.
He pressed one corner.
A thin wooden panel moved.
Hidden compartment.
Inside was a folded sheet of paper.
Page 88.
Everyone became silent.
Lena unfolded it.
The heading read:
BROTHERHOOD INTERNAL PAYMENTS.
Five names followed.
Victor Valenti.
Carlo Bellandi.
Anthony Costa.
Frank Marchetti.
And…
Lena stopped.
Dante saw her face.
“What?”
She could not speak.
He took the paper.
The final name was:
SALVATORE ROSSELLI.
Dante’s father.
The room went silent.
Dante stared at the name.
“No.”
Isabella looked away.
Dante’s voice hardened.
“No.”
Lena whispered, “Your father betrayed Gabriel?”
Dante shook his head.
“My father loved him.”
“His name is on the page.”
“It means he received money.”
“For what?”
“I don’t know.”
Isabella answered.
“I do.”
Dante turned.
Isabella looked exhausted.
“Salvatore discovered Gabriel was preparing to go to federal authorities.”
Lena felt sick.
“He sold out his own son?”
“No.”
Isabella’s voice cracked.
“He tried to buy Gabriel time.”
Dante stared.
“What?”
“He paid Victor to delay the hit.”
“Why not stop it?”
“Because Victor had evidence tying all five families to decades of crimes.”
Dante’s face darkened.
“So my father paid him.”
“Yes.”
“And Victor killed Gabriel anyway.”
“Yes.”
Dante looked at page 88 again.
A lifetime of hatred reorganized itself inside him.
Everything he thought he knew about his father.
His brother.
The Brotherhood.
All incomplete.
Lena pointed to the bottom of the page.
“There’s another line.”
Handwritten.
Not printed.
Elena’s handwriting.
S.R. IS NOT THE TRAITOR.
THE TRAITOR IS THE MAN WHO CONTROLS DANTE’S HOUSE.
Dante looked at Matteo.
Matteo’s face changed.
“The man who controls your house.”
Dante whispered, “Security.”
Everyone reached the same conclusion at once.
Dante called his estate.
No answer.
Again.
Nothing.
Matteo called the backup line.
A frightened guard answered.
“Mr. Ricci?”
“What happened?”
“The security director disappeared.”
Dante’s jaw clenched.
“Name.”
The guard hesitated.
“Paul Rainer.”
Lena saw recognition hit Dante like a physical blow.
“Who is he?”
Dante said nothing for several seconds.
Then he whispered, “My godfather.”
May you like
And at that exact moment, every light inside Lena’s apartment went out.
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