Chapter 5 - The Betrayal Inside His House
Dante had trusted Nico Bellini with his life.
That was what made betrayal dangerous.
Enemies had to break through doors.
Friends were already inside.
"Nico?"
Nico looked at Rafael.
Then at Dante.
"I can explain."
Dante laughed without humor.
"Those are rarely encouraging words."
Mara stood at the end of the hallway.
She hadn't left.
Not yet.
"Did you access my hospital records?" she asked.
Nico's eyes moved toward her.
"Yes."
The answer landed hard.
"When?"
"After the crash."
"You knew who I was?"
"No. I knew there was a surviving girl."
Dante stepped closer.
"Start talking."
Nico sat.
For once, he looked older than his thirty-five years.
"Vincent called me the morning after the crash. I was twenty-seven. Barely inside the organization."
"What did he want?"
"The girl's condition."
Mara's stomach turned.
"My condition?"
"He wanted to know if you'd spoken."
"About what?"
"The truck. Your father. Anything."
Dante's hands curled.
"And you gave him the information?"
Nico looked ashamed.
"Yes."
Mara laughed softly.
"Wonderful."
"I didn't know Vincent caused the crash."
"But later?"
"I suspected."
"When?"
"Years later."
Dante grabbed Nico by the collar.
"Years?"
Nico didn't resist.
"I was trying to protect you."
"Stop using that sentence."
"Dante—"
"You watched me build an organization on top of Vincent's lies."
"I watched you change it."
Dante released him.
Nico continued.
"Your uncle wasn't the man you thought he was. Your father wasn't either. Rourke had his hands in everything. When Vincent died, I thought it ended."
"And Mara?"
"I lost track of her."
Mara stared at him.
"You lost track of me."
"I'm sorry."
"You people say that like it's currency."
Nico lowered his eyes.
Dante looked toward Mara.
She looked exhausted.
Not physically.
Some wounds had nothing to do with flesh.
"Did you pay my medical bills?" she asked.
Nico nodded.
"Vincent ordered it."
"Why?"
"To keep the hospital quiet and control access to the records."
Mara swallowed.
Even the surgery that saved her life had been managed by the people who destroyed it.
Dante saw the realization.
"Mara."
She turned away.
"Don't."
He stopped.
Again.
Rafael, still restrained, smiled from the floor.
"Touching."
Dante turned and punched him.
Once.
Hard.
Rafael spat blood.
"Feel better?"
"No."
Dante crouched.
"But you have my attention."
Rafael's smile disappeared.
"Where's Rourke?"
No answer.
Dante looked at Nico.
"Can you find him?"
Nico hesitated.
Dante's stare hardened.
"This is where you decide which betrayal defines you."
Nico nodded.
"Yes."
By evening, they had a location.
Sebastian Rourke owned a private estate on Long Island.
But Mara had disappeared.
Dante found her on the penthouse terrace.
Rain had stopped.
The city glittered beneath them.
She'd changed into jeans and a sweater.
Her prosthetic was visible below the rolled cuff.
For the first time, she hadn't tried to conceal it.
"I'm leaving," she said.
Dante felt something unexpected.
Fear.
"You can't."
Her eyes sharpened.
"Bad opening."
He corrected himself.
"It's dangerous."
"So is staying."
"I can protect you."
"That's the problem."
"What?"
"You think everything is solved by controlling the room."
Dante said nothing.
Mara looked over Manhattan.
"My father spent his last days trying to protect me by hiding things. Vincent protected himself by killing him. Nico protected you by lying."
She turned.
"I'm tired of men deciding what I should know because they call it protection."
Dante absorbed that.
"What do you want?"
"The truth."
"I'll get it."
"No."
She stepped closer.
"We will."
Dante almost objected.
Then stopped himself.
"We."
"Yes."
"You're impossible."
"So I've been told."
A tiny smile appeared.
Then vanished.
"Dante, there's something else."
She removed Daniel's letter from her pocket.
A line near the bottom had bothered her.
Mara, if Moretti ever finds this, tell him his father didn't die the way Vincent said.
Dante read it.
His face emptied.
"My father died of a heart attack."
"Apparently not."
That night, Daniel's files gave them the answer.
Antonio Moretti had discovered Vincent's arrangement with Rourke.
Vincent poisoned him.
Slowly.
Then inherited control.
Dante sat alone for a long time after reading the medical reports.
Mara eventually joined him.
No speech.
No pity.
She simply sat.
Dante looked at her.
"My whole life is built on dead men's lies."
"No."
His eyes met hers.
"Part of it was."
"What's the difference?"
"What you do after you know."
Something shifted between them.
Dante reached for her hand.
Stopped.
Mara noticed.
Then she closed the distance herself.
Their fingers touched.
No kiss.
Not yet.
This was more intimate.
Trust was expensive in their world.
The next morning they prepared to confront Rourke.
Dante ordered Mara to remain in the armored vehicle until the property was secure.
She agreed.
Too easily.
He should've known.
At the Long Island estate, everything went wrong within three minutes.
Rourke's men were waiting.
Gunfire erupted near the gate.
Dante and Nico took cover.
Then Dante saw a red dot moving across his jacket.
A sniper.
He didn't see where it came from.
Mara did.
From inside the vehicle, she spotted the reflection on an upstairs window.
"Dante!"
He turned.
She slammed the vehicle door into him.
Both fell behind a stone wall as the bullet struck where his chest had been.
Dante stared at her.
"You just saved my life."
"Try not to sound surprised."
Despite everything, he laughed.
It lasted half a second.
Then Mara noticed something near the estate entrance.
A man was running toward a black SUV.
She recognized him from Daniel's files.
Sebastian Rourke.
"There!"
Dante looked.
Rourke reached the vehicle.
Before getting inside, he turned toward them.
And smiled.
Then he called something across the courtyard.
"Ask the girl why her father was really in that car!"
Mara froze.
Rourke climbed inside.
The SUV disappeared through the rear gate.
Dante turned toward her.
"What did he mean?"
"I don't know."
But that night, they found out.
Daniel's final encrypted recording unlocked at 1:17 a.m.
His voice filled Dante's office.
Mara, if you're hearing this, I need you to know something I should have told you years ago.
Mara sat perfectly still.
Your mother didn't die when you were eleven.
The room went silent.
Then Daniel continued.
May you like
She disappeared because Sebastian Rourke took her.
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