Chapter 9 - A Debt Older Than Dominic
The private airfield sat forty miles west of the city.
Lena drove.
Dominic sat beside her.
Riley, Paulie, and Vincent rode behind.
Sarah remained at the shop under federal protection.
Nobody planned to confront Hale directly.
Lena had contacted federal investigators.
Their job was to confirm departure and keep Hale from disappearing before agents arrived.
At least that was the plan.
Plans changed when Marco Bellini appeared.
His SUV entered the airfield ten minutes before Hale’s plane was scheduled to depart.
Dominic watched through binoculars.
Bellini stepped out.
Captain Brennan greeted him.
Hale followed.
Riley whispered, “Everybody trusts everybody.”
Dominic almost smiled.
“Criminal alliances are beautiful things.”
“You sound experienced.”
“I read.”
Paulie snorted.
Dominic ignored him.
They watched men load two suitcases.
Vincent pointed.
“Documents?”
Lena nodded.
“Could be.”
Riley looked at Dominic.
“What happens if they burn them?”
“The trust can probably be reconstructed.”
“Probably?”
“Lawyers love that word.”
Riley hated it.
Federal vehicles were twenty minutes away.
Hale’s plane started its engines.
Lena swore.
“They’re leaving early.”
Dominic opened the door.
Riley grabbed him.
“What are you doing?”
“Delaying them.”
“With what?”
“Conversation.”
“You’re terrible at conversation.”
Paulie nodded.
“She’s right.”
Dominic looked offended.
Then he walked onto the runway.
Bellini saw him first.
His smile disappeared.
Brennan reached for his weapon.
Dominic lifted both hands.
Hale looked terrified.
“Dominic!”
“Frederick.”
“What are you doing here?”
“Family paperwork.”
Bellini laughed.
“You came for money?”
“No.”
Dominic looked at Hale.
“I came for the truth.”
Hale glanced toward the plane.
Dominic continued.
“My mother trusted Arthur Hayes.”
Riley joined him.
Bellini frowned.
Dominic looked at her.
“You were supposed to stay.”
“I’ve heard that before.”
Brennan pointed his gun.
“Both of you stop.”
Riley stopped.
Dominic did too.
Paulie and Vincent remained hidden.
Hale looked at Riley.
“You’re Arthur’s daughter.”
“Yes.”
“You should have burned his records.”
“So everyone keeps telling me.”
Bellini stepped closer.
“Arthur made people nervous.”
“He made dishonest people nervous.”
Bellini smiled.
“Same thing in this city.”
Dominic looked at Hale.
“Where are my mother’s documents?”
Hale laughed nervously.
“You think after all these years you can just claim them?”
“They were left to me.”
“Your father disputed that.”
“My father lied.”
Hale’s face changed.
Dominic noticed.
“He threatened you, didn’t he?”
Hale said nothing.
Dominic continued.
“Salvatore paid you to bury the trust because Elena was leaving.”
Hale swallowed.
Riley watched him.
“He wasn’t protecting Dominic.”
“No,” Hale admitted.
Dominic felt something go cold.
“He was controlling him.”
Hale looked away.
Dominic’s voice became quiet.
“My father spent my entire life telling me loyalty meant staying.”
Nobody answered.
Riley looked at him.
Now she understood something deeper.
Dominic had not merely inherited crime.
He had inherited a cage disguised as duty.
Hale gestured toward the plane.
“The documents are irrelevant.”
“Then why take them?”
Bellini sighed.
“Because they prove things.”
“What things?”
Bellini looked at Dominic with something close to pity.
“Elena Castelli wasn’t only leaving your father.”
Dominic’s chest tightened.
“She was going to testify.”
Silence.
Hale closed his eyes.
Riley looked at Dominic.
Bellini continued.
“She had records. Names. Accounts. Enough to destroy Salvatore.”
Dominic’s voice barely worked.
“Arthur knew?”
“Yes.”
“Did my father know?”
“Eventually.”
Dominic remembered his mother’s illness.
Her final months.
The closed bedroom doors.
The whispers.
The way Salvatore told everyone Elena needed rest.
A terrible thought appeared.
“No.”
Riley saw it.
“Dominic.”
He looked at Hale.
“How did my mother die?”
Hale went pale.
“Cancer.”
“That’s what I was told.”
“It was cancer.”
“Then why are you afraid?”
Brennan interrupted.
“This is over.”
Federal sirens sounded in the distance.
Bellini cursed.
Hale ran toward the plane.
Riley moved.
Brennan grabbed her.
Dominic crossed the space between them.
He struck Brennan once.
The gun fell.
Paulie and Vincent emerged.
Bellini’s men raised weapons.
Then something unexpected happened.
Paulie did not aim at Bellini.
He aimed at Brennan.
Vincent aimed at the ground.
“No shooting,” Dominic ordered.
Bellini laughed.
“You really changed.”
Dominic looked at him.
“No. I finally decided what parts of me are mine.”
Federal agents entered the runway.
Bellini’s men dropped weapons.
Hale stopped.
Brennan tried to run.
Paulie tripped him.
Riley almost smiled.
Agents arrested them.
Bellini looked at Dominic while being handcuffed.
“This city will eat you alive without fear.”
Dominic looked at Riley.
Behind her, dawn had begun turning the sky gray.
“Maybe.”
Bellini smiled.
“You think the butcher loves you?”
Riley stared.
Dominic’s expression changed.
Bellini continued.
“She sees what you are.”
Riley answered before Dominic could.
“Yes.”
Bellini raised an eyebrow.
Riley stepped beside Dominic.
“That’s why he still has a chance.”
Dominic looked at her.
Bellini’s smile faded.
Federal agents led him away.
Lena recovered the suitcases.
Inside were original trust documents.
Elena’s letters.
Financial records.
And one sealed envelope addressed to Arthur Hayes.
Dominic opened it.
His mother’s handwriting covered several pages.
He read silently.
Riley waited.
When he finished, his eyes were wet.
He did not hide it.
“What did she say?” Riley asked.
Dominic looked toward the sunrise.
“She told Arthur that if she didn’t get out, he had to make sure I knew I could.”
Riley said nothing.
Dominic folded the letter.
“My whole life I thought leaving meant betraying my father.”
“What do you think now?”
Dominic looked at her.
“Maybe staying did.”
They stood together beside the runway while federal agents searched the plane.
For the first time since Dominic had entered Hayes Prime Cuts, Riley reached for him voluntarily.
She touched his hand.
Not romantic.
Not yet.
But not accidental.
Dominic looked down.
Her fingers remained there.
“Come on,” she said.
“Where?”
“Home.”
Dominic almost asked which home.
His mansion across town?
The Castelli estate?
The office where men waited for orders?
Then Riley clarified.
“The shop.”
Something unexpected warmed inside him.
He followed her.
But as they drove back toward the city, Lena received a call.
Her expression darkened.
“What?”
She looked at Dominic.
“Tony made a deal.”
Dominic frowned.
“With prosecutors?”
“No.”
“With someone inside your organization.”
Paulie and Vincent exchanged looks.
Lena continued.
“Three Castelli crews just rejected your authority.”
Dominic leaned back.
Tony might have been under arrest.
Bellini might have been finished.
Hale might have been caught.
But the family Dominic had inherited was beginning to split.
And this time, the enemy would not be standing across the street.
May you like
They would be sitting at his own table.
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