Chapter 13 - A Brother’s Betrayal
Panic is contagious.
I refused to let it spread.
“Search every room.”
Marco repeated the order.
“Children out of the house?”
“Yes.”
Elena grabbed Sophie.
The triplets were moved to armored vehicles in the courtyard.
Doctors checked them again.
No symptoms.
That was all that mattered.
Luca examined the capsule.
“It isn’t explosive.”
“Then what?”
“Sedative compound, maybe aerosolized.”
“Could it kill them?”
“In a high enough concentration, anything can.”
I turned toward Ethan.
He had gone pale.
“I didn’t know.”
“You keep saying that.”
“I swear.”
“Where is Nora’s original device?”
“I don’t know.”
“Who handled them after removal?”
“Security evidence team.”
Marco stiffened.
“Four people.”
“Names.”
He gave them.
Three were still present.
One had left.
Impossible under lockdown.
“Who?”
Marco’s face changed.
“Samuel.”
Samuel Bellini.
Marco’s younger brother.
Head of evidence security.
The man Marco had personally brought into my organization nine years ago.
Marco looked as though I had struck him.
“No.”
I understood the word.
I had said it about Gabriel.
“No is not evidence.”
Marco swallowed.
“Call him.”
No answer.
Track phone.
Offline.
Vehicle.
Still in garage.
We searched his room.
Empty.
Locker.
Empty.
Then Luca checked security footage from earlier.
Samuel carried an evidence case toward the laboratory.
Thirty seconds later, camera feed cut.
When it returned, Samuel was gone.
“Passage,” I said.
Marco looked broken.
“My brother.”
“Find him first. Feel later.”
He stared at me.
Then nodded.
We found Samuel in the old wine cellar.
Sitting alone.
Gun on the table.
Real device beside it.
Marco entered before anyone else.
“Sam.”
Samuel looked up.
Older brother and younger brother stared at each other.
“You shouldn’t be here,” Samuel said.
Marco’s voice cracked.
“What did you do?”
“I had to.”
“No.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
Samuel laughed bitterly.
“Because your boss destroyed our family.”
Every eye turned toward me.
Marco frowned.
“What are you talking about?”
“Our father.”
Their father died eighteen years earlier.
Officially caught in crossfire between Moretti and Vieri soldiers.
Samuel looked at me.
“Dominic told me the truth.”
“What truth?” Marco demanded.
“Adrien’s father ordered the shooting.”
I knew the incident.
My father had denied involvement.
But I had learned enough this night to stop assuming family stories were true.
“Do you have proof?” I asked.
Samuel pointed at the device.
“Dominic has proof.”
“Dominic has lies.”
“He showed me documents.”
“Like he showed Ethan videos of a kidnapped sister who was never kidnapped?”
Samuel looked toward Ethan.
“What?”
Ethan lowered his head.
“Rachel’s fine.”
Samuel’s confidence flickered.
Marco stepped closer.
“What exactly did Dominic show you?”
“An order.”
“Signed?”
“Initialed.”
“By Matteo Moretti?”
“Yes.”
I thought.
My father’s full name.
Matteo.
Mateo Vega.
Two similar names.
Dominic loved confusion.
“Show us.”
Samuel pulled a folded photocopy from his pocket.
Luca scanned it.
Minutes later:
“The initials were added later.”
Samuel stared.
“No.”
“Ink layer doesn’t match.”
“It’s a copy.”
“Digital artifact shows separate source.”
Marco approached his brother.
“Dominic lied to you.”
Samuel’s eyes filled.
“I put that device back because he said it would only release enough vapor to make them sleep.”
Marco grabbed him.
“They are babies!”
“I know!”
“You helped a man poison children because of something our father may or may not have suffered?”
“I was angry!”
“And now?”
Samuel looked at the device.
“Now I don’t know.”
Marco released him in disgust.
I picked up the device carefully.
“Is it active?”
Samuel shook his head.
“I removed the timer.”
Relief.
Then his face changed.
“But Dominic has another.”
“How many?”
“One.”
“Where?”
“I don’t know.”
“Samuel.”
“He never told me.”
“Why?”
“He said if I failed him, he had another way to finish it.”
My patience vanished.
“Finish what?”
“Not the children.”
“Then what?”
Samuel looked directly at me.
“You.”
Silence.
“Dominic doesn’t actually want the triplets dead.”
“I know.”
“He wants you desperate.”
“For what?”
“To bring every Moretti account, route, contact, and private record into one place.”
The truth formed.
“The crisis.”
Samuel nodded.
“He knew you would consolidate security after an attack.”
Marco swore.
Of course.
Since the devices were discovered, we had moved emergency information onto isolated servers at the estate.
Exactly what any organization would do during a breach.
Dominic had engineered the breach.
Not only to recover Mateo’s card.
To force all my secrets into one location.
“Server room.”
Luca ran.
We followed.
The door was open.
Inside, drives had been removed.
Not all.
The most sensitive backup array.
Gone.
A note rested on the rack.
YOU ALWAYS PROTECTED WHAT MATTERED BY BRINGING IT CLOSER.
THANK YOU.
I almost admired the cruelty of it.
Almost.
Gabriel read the note.
“He has your records and his ledger.”
“Why both?”
“To trade.”
“With who?”
Gabriel’s face changed.
“Vieri.”
My old rivals.
We had maintained an uneasy peace for four years.
If Dominic gave them my routes, financial records, and internal names, war would return.
“Contact Vieri.”
Marco stared.
“You want to call them?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because Dominic expects us to shoot first.”
History had already taught me what happened when I did.
The call took ten minutes to arrange.
Leon Vieri answered.
We had not spoken directly in two years.
“Moretti.”
“Leon.”
“Strange hour.”
“Dominic Russo contacted you.”
Silence.
That was answer enough.
“What did he offer?”
“Why would I tell you?”
“Because seven years ago he manipulated both our families into a war.”
Another silence.
“He told me you ordered the warehouse ambush.”
“He told me you did.”
Leon breathed slowly.
“That war killed my brother.”
“It killed my men too.”
“What do you want?”
“Don’t buy what Dominic is selling.”
“Why?”
“Because after he sells you my secrets, he’ll sell yours to me.”
Leon laughed once.
“You expect trust?”
“No.”
I looked around the room.
“I expect intelligence.”
A pause.
Then Leon said, “He wants to meet tonight.”
“Where?”
“You really expect me to answer?”
“Yes.”
Another pause.
Then—
“St. Vincent docks.”
“When?”
“Eleven.”
I checked the clock.
Two hours.
“Don’t go alone.”
Leon laughed.
“Neither should you.”
The call ended.
Marco stared at me.
“This could be a trap from both sides.”
“Probably.”
“What’s the plan?”
I looked toward Samuel.
Then Ethan.
Two men Dominic manipulated.
Two men who knew his habits.
“Dominic likes using people’s fear.”
Marco nodded.
“So?”
“So tonight we give him something he has never learned how to handle.”
“What?”
I looked at Gabriel.
Elena.
Sophie standing quietly beside her mother.
“The truth.”
Dominic’s empire survived because everyone had only one piece of the story.
Tonight, I was going to put every piece in the same room.
May you like
And if Dominic wanted another war—
he was going to have to start it while both sides watched him light the match.
