Chapter 13 - A Traitor Inside Dante’s House
Dante’s first order was not about Hale.
It was about the children.
“Safe room.”
Clare grabbed Maya.
Sofia lifted Leo.
Dante stopped Clare before she entered the hidden stairway.
“You stay there.”
“No.”
“Clare.”
“You know that doesn’t work.”
“This time it does.”
She looked at Maya.
He was right.
Clare hated it.
But Maya needed her more than Dante did.
“Come back.”
The words slipped out.
Dante paused.
Their eyes met.
“I will.”
Clare entered the safe room.
The reinforced door closed.
Inside were monitors showing security cameras.
Sofia held Leo.
Maya clung to Clare.
“Are bad people here?”
Clare crouched.
“Some people are angry.”
“Like Daddy?”
Clare swallowed.
“Yes.”
“Is Mr. Dante angry?”
“Probably.”
Maya thought.
“But he doesn’t yell at me.”
Clare hugged her.
“No.”
On the monitor, three vehicles stopped outside.
Victor Hale stepped out.
Clare recognized him from photographs Marco had shown her.
Fifty-two.
Silver-blond hair.
Expensive coat.
Calm.
Richard exited the second vehicle.
Clare’s stomach dropped.
He was not being held.
He walked freely.
Betrayal should not have surprised her.
It still did.
Dante met them in the courtyard.
Marco stood beside him.
No weapons were visible.
That meant nothing.
The cameras had audio.
Hale smiled.
“Dante.”
Dante’s voice was cold.
“Victor.”
“I hoped we could avoid all this.”
“You hid my wife.”
Hale’s smile faded.
“I saved her.”
“You kidnapped her.”
“She would have died.”
“Then why tell her I tried to kill her?”
Hale glanced toward Richard.
“Because Matteo wanted her controlled.”
“And you did what he said.”
“For a while.”
Dante stepped closer.
“Where is Matteo?”
Hale smiled again.
“You still think I work for him.”
“Don’t you?”
“Not anymore.”
Dante’s expression changed.
Hale continued.
“Matteo is old. Paranoid. He believes your father stole the family from him.”
“He tried to kill my father.”
“Your father tried first.”
Dante looked unimpressed.
“Family history is rarely clean.”
Hale glanced toward the house.
“I came for the drive.”
“It’s gone.”
“I know.”
“Then why are you here?”
“For Clare.”
Inside the safe room, Clare froze.
Dante’s voice turned deadly quiet.
“No.”
Hale laughed.
“She is evidence.”
“She is a person.”
Richard shifted uncomfortably.
Hale noticed.
“Oh, Richard knows the difference only when convenient.”
Clare looked at the man she had married.
Richard said nothing.
Dante stepped forward.
“You leave now.”
Hale shook his head.
“You don’t understand.”
“I understand enough.”
“No. You think this is about old criminal money.”
Hale looked toward the cameras as though he knew exactly where they were.
“It became much larger.”
Clare’s skin prickled.
Hale continued.
“The medical network was valuable because identities are valuable. Birth records. Insurance numbers. Death certificates.”
Dante’s face darkened.
“You sold identities.”
“To people who needed them.”
“Criminals.”
“Some.”
Hale shrugged.
“Others needed to disappear.”
Clare suddenly understood.
Alessia.
Hale could make people disappear on paper.
Alter records.
Create deaths.
Create lives.
“Did you fake Alessia’s death?” Dante asked.
Hale smiled.
“Not initially.”
Dante’s face tightened.
“But later?”
“She became useful.”
“Where is she?”
Hale’s expression changed.
“I genuinely don’t know.”
Dante stared.
Hale continued.
“She escaped Matteo. After that, every side searched.”
“Was she alive when you last heard?”
“Yes.”
“When?”
“Four months ago.”
Dante’s breathing changed.
The latest information yet.
Alessia may have lived two months beyond the explosion.
Clare watched his face on the monitor.
Hale continued.
“Give me Clare, and I give you the last location Alessia used.”
Richard finally spoke.
“That wasn’t the deal.”
Hale looked at him.
“You are no longer in a position to discuss deals.”
Richard’s face changed.
Clare recognized that expression.
Fear.
Dante laughed once.
“You came to my house expecting me to trade a woman for information?”
“You’ve traded worse.”
“Not anymore.”
Hale’s smile vanished.
“You think holding a baby changed you?”
“No.”
Dante looked toward the house.
“Losing his mother did.”
Inside the safe room, Clare’s eyes filled.
Hale stepped closer.
“Matteo will come for the children eventually.”
Dante went still.
“The children?”
“Leo.”
Then Hale smiled.
“And the little girl, if Clare remains involved.”
Clare grabbed Maya tighter.
Something changed in Dante’s face.
Marco noticed.
“Dante.”
Dante did not move.
Hale had threatened Leo.
Threatened Maya.
Old Dante would have ended the conversation differently.
Clare knew that without anyone telling her.
Then Dante looked directly toward the camera.
Toward the hidden safe room.
It was as if he could see her through the lens.
Alessia’s words seemed to fill the space between them.
Leo needs a father more than I need vengeance.
Dante took one step backward.
“Hale, you are under surveillance.”
Hale’s face changed.
Dante continued.
“Everything you said was transmitted to federal investigators and Italian authorities.”
Hale looked toward Richard.
Richard stared.
“You told them?”
Richard shook his head.
Dante smiled without warmth.
“I did.”
Sirens sounded in the distance.
Hale turned toward his vehicles.
The gate behind them closed automatically.
For the first time, Victor Hale looked frightened.
Richard backed away.
“You said no police.”
Hale grabbed his arm.
“You idiot.”
Dante remained still.
Within minutes, law enforcement vehicles surrounded the property.
Hale’s men surrendered.
No dramatic gunfight.
No bodies.
No revenge.
Just handcuffs.
Clare watched in disbelief.
Dante Salvatore had chosen evidence over violence.
Richard attempted to approach the house.
Police stopped him.
He called Clare’s name.
She did not move.
Maya looked up.
“Daddy?”
Clare turned the monitor off.
“No.”
Not now.
Maybe one day, with lawyers and supervised visits and consequences.
But not now.
The safe room door opened.
Dante stood outside.
Maya ran toward him.
Clare expected him to hesitate.
Instead he crouched.
Maya hugged him.
“You came back.”
Dante closed his eyes.
“Yes.”
She pulled away.
“Were you mad?”
“Yes.”
“Did you yell?”
“A little.”
Clare almost laughed through her tears.
Dante stood.
Clare looked at him.
“You used police.”
He raised an eyebrow.
“You sound shocked.”
“I am.”
“Your standards for me are insulting.”
“You earned them.”
“Fair.”
Then his expression became serious.
“Hale gave one last location before they took him.”
Clare’s breath caught.
“Alessia?”
“Maybe.”
“Where?”
Dante looked toward the dark horizon.
“New York.”
His home.
The city where Alessia had supposedly died.
If Hale was telling the truth, she had returned there months ago.
May you like
Which meant the answers Dante had crossed an ocean to find might have been waiting within miles of Leo’s nursery all along.
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