Chapter 6 - A Debt the Mafia Couldn’t Repay
Harper didn't cry.
That worried Luca.
He had seen people receive devastating news before.
Some yelled.
Some collapsed.
Some negotiated with facts as though refusing to believe them could rewrite reality.
Harper did none of those things.
She simply became quiet.
For the next hour, she sat near the window holding her mother's letter.
Luca gave her space.
Vincent tried twice to speak.
Harper ignored him.
Evelyn eventually left after giving Harper her number.
By noon, rain had started again.
Not the violent winter storm from the previous night.
A steady gray drizzle.
Luca found Harper in the kitchen staring at a cup of coffee she hadn't touched.
“Can I sit?”
“It's your house.”
He took the chair opposite her.
“That isn't what I asked.”
Harper looked up.
Something softened slightly.
“Yes.”
Luca sat carefully.
His wound pulled beneath the bandage.
He ignored it.
“I want to apologize.”
“For?”
“Running your background.”
“You were trying to find out whether I was part of an assassination attempt.”
“When you say it like that, it sounds worse.”
“How else would you say it?”
“I wouldn't.”
A faint smile appeared.
Then disappeared.
Harper looked at the rain.
“My mother lied to me.”
Luca said nothing.
“She told me my father abandoned us.”
“Maybe that was easier.”
“That doesn't make it true.”
“No.”
“She spent my whole life teaching me honesty.”
Harper laughed once.
“She used to ground me if I lied about finishing homework.”
“She might have been protecting you.”
“Everyone keeps using that word.”
Luca knew what she meant.
Protecting.
It could become an excuse for controlling someone.
For withholding truth.
For making decisions they never consented to.
“I won't use it again.”
Harper studied him.
“You mean that?”
“Yes.”
“Then tell me everything you know about Thomas Rourke.”
Luca leaned back.
“Some of it is ugly.”
“I didn't ask whether it was pretty.”
So Luca told her.
Thomas Rourke began as a dockworker.
Then union organizer.
Then fixer.
He became useful to men who needed cargo moved without inspection and disputes resolved without courts.
By thirty-five, Rourke controlled several waterfront crews.
By forty, he had enemies on both sides of the law.
“He wasn't technically part of my family's organization,” Luca explained.
“What does technically mean?”
“It means he answered to nobody.”
“That sounds worse.”
“It was.”
“Did he kill people?”
Luca paused.
“There were disappearances connected to him.”
“That's not an answer.”
“It’s the only answer I can prove.”
Harper nodded.
“What happened between him and your father?”
“My father once refused Rourke access to a trucking company.”
“The one connected to Vincent?”
Luca nodded.
“Rourke responded badly.”
“How badly?”
“He had my father beaten.”
Harper closed her eyes.
The story Evelyn told finally connected.
“My mother found Antonio afterward.”
“Yes.”
“And that's how she met Thomas?”
“Probably.”
Harper opened her eyes.
“That doesn't make sense.”
“I know.”
“If Thomas hurt Antonio, why would my mother later be involved with Thomas?”
“We don't know the timeline.”
“Vincent does.”
“Yes.”
“Where is he?”
Luca looked toward the hallway.
“He's avoiding you.”
“That’s going to end.”
Harper stood.
Luca almost warned her.
Then remembered his promise.
No protecting.
No deciding.
He followed.
They found Vincent inside the security room.
Screens showed every entrance to the property.
Several men were reviewing footage.
Vincent saw Harper.
His shoulders lowered.
“I suppose we're doing this.”
“Yes.”
Harper closed the door behind them.
“How did my mother meet Thomas Rourke?”
Vincent removed his glasses.
“Katherine worked at the diner where everyone ate.”
“Everyone meaning criminals?”
“Dockworkers. Drivers. Cops. Criminals. Half of East Boston.”
“When did they date?”
“A few months after Antonio was attacked.”
“Did she know Rourke ordered it?”
“No.”
“When did she find out?”
“After she became pregnant.”
Harper swallowed.
“How?”
“I told her.”
Silence.
“Why?”
“Because Thomas was becoming dangerous.”
“He was already dangerous.”
“Yes.”
“What changed?”
Vincent's jaw tightened.
“He became obsessed with loyalty.”
“To him?”
“To control.”
Harper looked at Luca.
He understood the type.
“Your mother discovered Thomas was watching her,” Vincent continued. “Checking who she talked to. Following her after work.”
Harper folded her arms.
“She left.”
“She tried.”
“Tried?”
“He wouldn't accept it.”
Luca's face hardened.
“What did my father do?” Harper asked.
“Antonio helped her disappear.”
Harper stared.
Luca did too.
“My father knew?”
Vincent nodded.
“He arranged an apartment under another name. Gave Katherine money. Got her out.”
“And Thomas?”
“He believed she'd left the state.”
“But she stayed in Boston.”
“Eventually.”
Harper looked toward the old letter.
“And when I was born?”
“Thomas was already disappearing from public view.”
“Why?”
“Federal investigations. Enemies. Internal problems.”
“Did he know about me?”
Vincent hesitated.
“Yes.”
Harper's face tightened.
“But he never came?”
“Antonio made sure he couldn't find you.”
“How?”
“I never asked.”
Luca understood immediately.
His father had done more than run a grocery store.
He had confronted a dangerous man to protect a woman and child.
Another part of Antonio Moretti that Luca had never known.
Harper whispered, “Your father protected me.”
Luca looked at her.
“Apparently.”
“And my mother protected him.”
“Yes.”
She laughed softly.
“What a mess.”
Vincent moved closer.
“There’s more.”
Harper looked exhausted.
“Of course there is.”
“The last time anyone we trusted saw Thomas Rourke was the night Antonio's grocery store caught fire.”
Luca's body went still.
“What?”
Vincent looked at him.
“You were twenty-four.”
“I remember the fire.”
“You were told electrical wiring caused it.”
“The report said electrical.”
“The report was changed.”
Luca stepped forward.
“By who?”
“Someone your uncle paid.”
“My uncle?”
Vincent nodded.
Luca's uncle Carlo had died eleven years earlier.
A man Luca had trusted.
A man who helped him enter the organization after Antonio died.
“Why?”
“Because there was evidence the fire was deliberate.”
Luca felt his pulse slow.
Dangerously.
“My father died six months later.”
“Yes.”
“You think Rourke was responsible?”
“I've always suspected.”
“Why did you never tell me?”
“Antonio begged me not to.”
“He was dead!”
“Exactly.”
Vincent's voice rose for the first time.
“He spent his final months trying to keep you from becoming what he had escaped.”
The words struck Luca harder than expected.
Harper watched him.
Vincent continued.
“Antonio knew if you believed Rourke tried to burn his store, you'd go after him.”
Luca looked away.
Because Vincent was right.
At twenty-four, Luca would have hunted Thomas Rourke until one of them was dead.
Maybe that was exactly what his father had feared.
Harper approached.
“Luca.”
He didn't answer.
She touched his arm.
A small gesture.
But Luca felt it.
“You okay?”
“No.”
It was the first completely honest answer he had given anyone in years.
Harper's hand remained there.
Vincent's phone vibrated.
He checked it.
His face changed.
“Something happened.”
Luca turned.
“What?”
“Our people found the man who was watching Brennan's.”
“Thomas?”
“No. The younger watcher from today.”
“Where?”
“He's willing to talk.”
“Why?”
Vincent read the next message.
“Because somebody just tried to kill him.”
Harper looked between them.
The conspiracy was turning inward.
Luca said, “Bring him here.”
Vincent hesitated.
“He says he'll only speak to Harper.”
Harper stared.
“Me?”
“Apparently.”
“Why?”
Vincent's eyes moved over the message once more.
Then he looked at Luca.
“Because he says Thomas Rourke didn't come back to Boston for you.”
Luca's expression hardened.
Vincent looked at Harper.
May you like
“He came back for his daughter.”
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