Chapter 5 - The Billionaire Who Chose the Wrong Waitress
By sunset, Pier Seventeen was surrounded by Moretti security.
Avery was not supposed to know that.
She also was not supposed to be sitting in the back of Elena’s borrowed town car wearing dark jeans, sneakers, and a coat while Rosa drove toward the harbor.
Rosa looked terrified.
“I want it officially stated that this is a terrible idea.”
“Officially recorded.”
“Cameron will murder me.”
“He won’t.”
“How do you know?”
“Because he likes your coffee.”
“That man does not like my coffee.”
Avery looked at her.
“I knew it.”
“No sane billionaire wakes up before six to drink coffee brewed by Eddie.”
“Who’s Eddie?”
“Exactly.”
Despite herself, Avery laughed.
Then she became serious.
“How did you know my father?”
Rosa tightened her hands on the steering wheel.
“Vincent helped me open the diner.”
“What?”
“He loaned me twelve thousand dollars.”
Avery smiled faintly.
“That sounds like Dad.”
“He said everyone deserved one place in the world where they were known by name.”
Avery looked out at Brooklyn passing through the wet glass.
Rosa’s voice softened.
“Your father loved you very much.”
“I know.”
“He was scared near the end.”
Avery turned.
“Of Salvatore?”
“Of making the wrong choice.”
“What choice?”
Rosa hesitated.
“Ask Cameron.”
Avery groaned.
“Has everyone in New York signed a contract requiring them to say that?”
Rosa drove into a parking structure two blocks from the pier.
Avery climbed out.
She had gotten exactly thirty yards when someone grabbed her elbow.
She nearly screamed.
Cameron.
His expression was terrifying.
Rosa immediately raised both hands.
“She threatened me.”
Avery stared.
“I absolutely did not.”
Rosa pointed at Avery.
“She has emotional leverage.”
Then she hurried back toward the car.
Traitor number three.
Cameron looked at Avery.
“You shouldn’t be here.”
“You’re becoming repetitive.”
“Do you understand what danger means?”
“Yes.”
“I don’t think you do.”
“And I don’t think you understand that this is about my father.”
“It is exactly because it’s about your father that you shouldn’t be here.”
“Bradley humiliated me this morning.”
“That has nothing to do with this.”
“He walked into my workplace because someone is looking for me. He knew my name before I knew his. That makes it my business.”
Cameron closed his eyes.
“When this is over, we are going to discuss your survival instincts.”
“I have excellent survival instincts.”
“You smuggled yourself into an active security operation with a sixty-two-year-old diner owner.”
“She has pepper spray.”
Cameron stared.
Avery almost smiled.
Almost.
Then a voice came from the dark.
“Still impossible, Russo?”
They turned.
Bradley Hayes stood beneath an overhead light.
No expensive suit now.
Dark coat.
Hands visible.
Alone.
Cameron moved slightly in front of Avery.
Bradley laughed.
“There he is. Cameron Moretti. Human shield for waitresses.”
“Talk.”
“You always were impatient.”
Cameron’s voice lowered.
“You have thirty seconds.”
Bradley looked at Avery.
“You know, that coffee thing this morning?”
Avery’s jaw tightened.
“What about it?”
“I was supposed to scare you.”
Cameron stepped forward.
Bradley immediately raised his hands.
“Easy.”
Avery stared.
“Who told you to scare me?”
“I wasn’t supposed to burn you.”
“You mocked me.”
Bradley actually looked ashamed.
“That part was me.”
“Well, at least you’re consistently terrible.”
A strange expression crossed his face.
“You sound like Vincent.”
Cameron moved faster this time.
He grabbed Bradley’s coat and shoved him against a column.
“You do not say his name.”
Bradley didn’t fight.
“That’s your problem, Cameron. You still think this is about revenge.”
“Who betrayed my father?”
“Let go.”
Cameron didn’t.
Avery touched his arm.
“Cameron.”
His body was rigid.
“Let him talk.”
He released Bradley.
Bradley adjusted his coat.
“Salvatore Moretti stole from your father.”
“We know.”
“Hayes Capital washed the money.”
“We know.”
“But Salvatore didn’t have passwords to move funds through Moretti Maritime.”
Cameron went still.
“Who did?”
Bradley looked at him.
“Your mother.”
Cameron’s face emptied.
Avery felt the air change.
“Your mother, Isabella Moretti, discovered Lorenzo was hiding money overseas.”
“My mother had nothing to do with company accounts.”
“That’s what you were told.”
“She was dying.”
“She was planning to leave him.”
Cameron stepped closer.
Bradley continued quickly.
“Isabella found evidence Lorenzo had been funding private operations without board approval. She copied everything.”
“What operations?”
“Payments to Vincent Russo.”
Avery froze.
“My father?”
Bradley looked at her.
“Vincent wasn’t investigating Salvatore originally.”
“Then who?”
“Lorenzo Moretti.”
Cameron’s expression turned to stone.
Bradley reached inside his coat.
Marco and two security men appeared instantly.
“Slowly,” Marco warned.
Bradley removed a folded document.
“Vincent discovered Lorenzo was paying informants, politicians, dock officials.”
Cameron grabbed the paper.
Avery looked over his arm.
A ledger.
Her father’s handwriting.
At the top:
LORENZO MORETTI — PRIVATE ACCOUNT
Cameron whispered, “This is fake.”
“No.”
“My father hired Vincent.”
“Eventually.”
Avery looked at Bradley.
“What happened first?”
“Vincent was hired by federal investigators.”
Everyone went silent.
“Dad worked for the government?”
“Unofficially. He was gathering records.”
Cameron stared at the ledger.
“Why would my father later hire the man investigating him?”
Bradley smiled grimly.
“Because Vincent discovered Lorenzo wasn’t stealing money.”
Avery frowned.
“Then what was he doing?”
Bradley looked toward the dark harbor.
“Buying people.”
“For what?”
“To protect witnesses.”
Cameron’s expression changed.
Bradley nodded.
“Your father had been moving endangered families out of New York for years. Salvatore discovered the accounts and realized he could use them as a pipeline to steal millions without anyone noticing.”
Avery’s thoughts raced.
“So Lorenzo wasn’t corrupt?”
“Not the way Vincent thought.”
“Then why was my father killed?”
Bradley looked directly at Avery.
“Because he found Salvatore’s partner.”
Cameron stepped forward.
“Name.”
Bradley shook his head.
“I don’t know.”
“You dragged us here to say that?”
“I know where the name is.”
Avery’s pulse jumped.
“Where?”
Bradley pointed toward her locket.
“Vincent stored more than one file.”
Avery touched it.
“We found the memory card.”
“Not that.”
“What else?”
Bradley looked at the silver casing.
“The locket has two compartments.”
Cameron took it carefully.
He examined the edge.
Found a second seam.
Click.
A tiny folded strip of paper slid into his palm.
One name.
Cameron read it.
Then his face changed.
Avery reached for the paper.
“Who is it?”
Cameron tried to close his fist.
She took it first.
Read the name.
And understood why he had wanted to hide it.
MARCO BELLINI.
Avery slowly looked up.
Marco, Cameron’s security chief, stood ten feet away.
His gun was already in his hand.
May you like
And he was pointing it directly at Cameron.
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