Chapter 4 - Under Moretti Protection
Dante’s security team recovered Bunny two hours later.
The stuffed rabbit arrived inside a clear evidence bag.
One ear was torn.
Its pink fabric was dirty from the apartment floor.
Mia cried when she saw it.
Not loudly.
That made it worse.
“My Bunny.”
Elena knelt beside her.
“He’s okay.”
“He’s hurt.”
“We’ll fix him.”
Dante stood several feet away, feeling an emotion he was not used to.
Helplessness.
He could buy buildings.
Move politicians.
Close businesses with one phone call.
But there was nothing impressive about telling a seven-year-old that her favorite toy had been ripped apart by men searching for something her dead father had hidden.
Mia looked at Dante.
“Did the bad people do it?”
Elena’s gaze snapped toward him.
He crouched.
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because they were looking for something.”
“In Bunny?”
“Maybe.”
Mia hugged the plastic bag to her chest.
“Daddy gave him to me.”
“I know.”
She studied him.
“You knew Daddy?”
Dante nodded.
“Was he nice?”
Elena closed her eyes.
Dante answered carefully.
“He was very nice.”
“He made big pancakes.”
“He did.”
Mia’s eyes widened.
“You ate his pancakes?”
“Once.”
“Were the ears too big?”
Dante almost laughed.
“Terrible.”
Mia smiled.
The first genuine smile he had seen from her.
It hit him somewhere unexpectedly deep.
Teresa took Mia upstairs to repair Bunny.
Elena remained.
“What are you going to do?”
“Find the star.”
“They already tore Bunny open.”
“They may not have found it.”
“You’re guessing.”
“Yes.”
“I hate that.”
“So do I.”
Elena walked toward the enormous windows.
“Everything was easier when I thought Marco was just dead.”
Dante said nothing.
“I know that sounds awful.”
“No.”
“I hated him sometimes.”
“You were allowed.”
“I would lie awake and think, How could you leave me?”
Her voice trembled.
“And now I’m finding out he spent years doing things I never knew. Maybe I didn’t know him at all.”
“You knew the part that mattered.”
She turned.
“How can you possibly know that?”
“Because Marco talked about you constantly.”
That caught her off guard.
“What?”
Dante leaned back against the desk.
“Your first date.”
Elena blinked.
“He told you?”
“Repeatedly.”
“Our first date was terrible.”
“He said you spilled coffee on him.”
“He knocked it over.”
“He left that part out.”
A reluctant smile touched her mouth.
Dante continued.
“He told me about Mia’s first word.”
“Dog.”
“He insisted she said ‘Dada.’”
“Of course he did.”
“He carried a photograph of you both in his wallet.”
Elena’s smile disappeared.
Dante’s voice softened.
“He loved you. Whatever else he lied about, that part was real.”
For several seconds neither spoke.
Then Elena asked, “Did you have a family?”
The question surprised him.
“No.”
“Never married?”
“No.”
“Children?”
“No.”
“Why?”
Dante almost said because men like me do not build ordinary lives.
Instead he answered honestly.
“I never met anyone who made the risk feel worthwhile.”
Elena looked away first.
The silence changed.
Not romance.
Not yet.
Just recognition.
Two people standing near wounds they had learned to hide differently.
A knock interrupted them.
Dante’s head of security entered.
“Bunny was examined.”
“And?”
“Nothing inside the stuffing.”
Elena exhaled.
“Then Mia remembered wrong.”
“Maybe.”
The man held up the rabbit.
“There is something unusual.”
He turned it over.
A tiny brass star formed part of the zipper pull.
Elena frowned.
“That was always there.”
Dante looked closer.
The star was scratched.
Old.
Removable.
“Tool kit.”
Minutes later, the brass piece came apart.
Inside was something no larger than a fingernail.
A microSD card.
Elena stared.
“That was beside my daughter every night for four years?”
Dante’s expression became grim.
“Yes.”
“No.”
She backed away.
“No, I don’t want it here.”
“Elena—”
“Destroy it.”
“We need to know what’s on it.”
“I don’t care.”
“It may be the only thing that can stop Sarto.”
“I said destroy it.”
Dante understood exactly why.
Information had taken Marco.
She would not let information take Mia too.
But destroying it might leave them defenseless.
“If we destroy it, Sarto will never believe it’s gone.”
“He doesn’t need to know.”
“He will keep looking.”
“For what?”
“You.”
Elena’s face tightened.
“Then tell him you found it.”
“If I do, he comes after me.”
“Good.”
Dante nearly smiled.
“You really don’t like me.”
“I haven’t decided.”
“Progress.”
She stared at him, then unexpectedly laughed.
It vanished quickly.
“Dante, I’m serious.”
“So am I.”
He stepped closer.
“We copy the card. Then the original goes somewhere no one can reach it.”
“You promise Mia never gets involved again.”
“Yes.”
“You do not use us as bait.”
“Never.”
“And if there is anything on that card about Marco that I have a right to know, you tell me.”
That was harder.
But Dante nodded.
“All of it.”
She searched his face.
“Why should I trust you?”
He could have answered with power.
Money.
Security.
Marco.
Instead he said the only thing that mattered.
“You shouldn’t yet.”
Elena’s brows lifted.
“Trust is earned.”
That answer stayed with her.
The card was taken downstairs to a secure computer.
It was encrypted.
Of course.
Dante’s technical team tried standard keys.
Nothing.
Dates.
Names.
Marco’s birthday.
Elena’s birthday.
Mia’s birthday.
Nothing.
After an hour, Mia wandered into the room holding her repaired rabbit.
She watched the adults.
“What are you doing?”
Elena tried to redirect her.
“Nothing, sweetheart.”
Mia pointed at the screen.
“That’s Daddy’s game.”
Every adult stopped.
“What?” Dante asked.
She came closer.
“The moon game.”
Elena crouched.
“What game?”
Mia pointed at the password box.
“Daddy made me say numbers when I was little.”
Dante’s heart started beating faster.
“What numbers?”
Mia frowned.
“I don’t know.”
“Don’t push her,” Elena warned.
Dante nodded.
Mia looked at the screen again.
Then began humming.
Four notes.
Pause.
Three notes.
Pause.
Four.
Dante stared.
Elena’s eyes filled.
“Clair de Lune.”
Marco had used music.
One of the technical specialists mapped the note sequence to corresponding keys.
The system unlocked.
Folders appeared.
Hundreds of them.
Company names.
Account numbers.
Photographs.
Recorded conversations.
Dante stared at the screen.
“This is it.”
Elena whispered, “The ledger?”
“Part of it.”
Then a folder appeared at the bottom.
Unlike the others, it contained only one name.
ELENA.
Dante clicked.
Inside was a video file.
The date was forty-eight hours before Marco died.
Elena gripped the back of a chair.
“Play it.”
Marco appeared on the screen.
He was sitting in what looked like a motel room.
Tired.
Unshaven.
Alive.
Elena covered her mouth.
Marco looked directly into the camera.
“Elena.”
Her knees weakened.
Dante steadied the chair but did not touch her.
“If you’re seeing this,” Marco continued, “then I failed to keep my two worlds apart.”
Tears filled Elena’s eyes.
“I’m sorry.”
Marco swallowed on the screen.
“I lied to you.”
Elena whispered, “Yes, you did.”
“I lied because I thought danger only followed people who knew enough to fear it.”
He looked down.
“I was wrong.”
Then Marco said something neither Elena nor Dante expected.
“There is one person you must not trust.”
Dante leaned toward the screen.
Marco took a breath.
“If Dante finds you, stay with him. He is many things. But he will not hurt you.”
Dante went still.
“Elena, the person you must fear is someone much closer.”
The video flickered.
Audio distorted.
Then returned.
A name emerged.
“Gabriel Moretti.”
Dante’s face changed.
Elena turned toward him.
“Who is Gabriel?”
Dante did not answer immediately.
Because Gabriel Moretti was not an enemy.
Not a rival.
Not a stranger.
He was Dante’s uncle.
The man who had helped raise him.
May you like
And the man currently responsible for half of Dante’s organization.
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