Chapter 2 - The Man I Trusted Most
Nico approached through the rain with his hands visible.
“Dante.”
I closed the wooden box before he could see inside.
Five of our men spread across the site.
“Where is Marcus?” Nico asked.
“Gone.”
“You saw him?”
“He used speakers.”
Nico looked toward the dirt.
“Is she there?”
“No.”
Relief crossed his face too fast for me to read.
“What was in the box?”
“A message.”
“What message?”
I studied him.
Twenty-two years.
That was how long I had known Nico Bellini.
We had met when I was sixteen and he was seventeen, both stupid enough to believe loyalty could solve every problem life created.
He had stood beside me when my father died.
He had held Elena when she was eight years old and crying into his shirt because she didn’t understand why everyone in the house wore black.
He had taken a knife meant for me when we were twenty-three.
If Maya’s note was right, then my life was built around a lie.
If Maya’s note was wrong, someone wanted me to destroy the one man I trusted most.
“I’ll tell you in the car,” I said.
Nico nodded.
We left Oak Ridge without finding Marcus.
But on the drive back I did something I had never done before.
I gave Nico a false destination.
“Take everyone to the Ashland safe house.”
His eyes met mine in the mirror.
“Elena is at Salerno’s.”
“I know.”
“Then why Ashland?”
“Marcus may hit one of our properties tonight.”
Nico considered it.
Then nodded.
“Okay.”
I drove separately.
Ten minutes later I called Luca, a twenty-six-year-old accountant who had been working quietly for me for three years.
“Where is Nico?”
Luca hesitated.
“At Ashland.”
“All the cars?”
“Yes.”
I exhaled.
Maybe Maya had been wrong.
Then Luca said, “Except his.”
My grip tightened on the steering wheel.
“Where did he go?”
“We lost his tracker near the river.”
I said nothing.
“Boss?”
“Forget this conversation.”
I went to Dr. Salerno’s private clinic.
Elena was asleep beneath a blanket when I entered.
Bruises marked her wrists, but Salerno had found no serious injuries.
“She needs rest,” he whispered.
“She needs the truth.”
“She needs both.”
I sat beside her.
Twenty minutes later her eyes opened.
“Dante?”
“I’m here.”
She looked past me.
“Where’s Nico?”
“Why?”
Her expression changed.
“Maya didn’t trust him.”
My stomach dropped.
“Why?”
“She never told me exactly. A month ago she asked whether Nico knew about your shipping accounts.”
“What did you say?”
“I said Nico knows everything.”
Elena swallowed.
“She looked scared.”
I removed the flash drive from my coat.
“Have you seen this?”
Her eyes widened.
“Maya’s.”
“You’re sure?”
“She wore it around her neck sometimes. She said it contained insurance.”
I looked down.
“Insurance against who?”
“I thought the Vales.”
“So did I.”
We connected the drive to an isolated laptop Salerno kept for medical records.
It was encrypted.
Password required.
Elena stared at the screen.
“Try midnightespresso.”
I looked at her.
“Maya’s joke. She always stole your coffee at midnight.”
I typed it.
Incorrect.
“Try scarybrother.”
Incorrect.
Elena almost smiled.
“Of course she’d make it harder.”
A memory came back to me.
Maya sitting in my kitchen six months earlier, eating tiramisu directly from the box.
She had pointed her fork at me.
“Dante, you know what your problem is?”
“I have several.”
“You think everyone remembers power. They don’t.”
“What do they remember?”
“Who stayed.”
At the time I had laughed.
Now I typed:
WHOSTAYED
The drive opened.
Folders filled the screen.
Photographs.
Shipping manifests.
Bank transfers.
Names.
Dozens of them.
Then we found a video.
Maya appeared on screen.
Alive.
She sat in what looked like her apartment.
Her eyes were red.
“If Dante is watching this, then I didn’t make it to the authorities.”
Elena covered her mouth.
Maya continued.
“Marcus Vale is dangerous, but he’s not the person running this.”
I leaned closer.
“Someone inside the Moretti organization is feeding him information.”
Elena whispered, “Oh God.”
Maya looked directly into the camera.
“I thought it was Nico.”
My chest hardened.
“Then I found out I was wrong.”
I stopped breathing.
Maya continued.
“Nico is investigating the same thing I am.”
Elena grabbed my arm.
The video went on.
“The real leak has access to Dante’s financial accounts, his private schedules, and Elena’s security details.”
A document flashed on screen.
I recognized the login system immediately.
Only four people had that level of access.
Me.
Nico.
Our attorney, Charles Vieri.
And—
The clinic lights died.
Elena screamed.
I pulled her down.
Glass shattered in the hallway.
Footsteps.
Salerno shouted.
A second later emergency lights flickered on.
I reached beneath my coat but froze when someone appeared in the doorway.
Nico.
Breathing hard.
A cut across his cheek.
“Get away from the windows,” he said.
I stared at him.
He tossed a phone onto the bed.
On the screen was a message.
THE CLINIC. NOW. FINISH THE GIRL.
The sender’s number belonged to a man who had eaten dinner at my house two nights earlier.
My attorney.
Charles Vieri.
Nico looked at me.
“You’ve got a traitor, Dante.”
I stared at the screen.
“No.”
Nico’s expression hardened.
“We’ve got two.”
Because beneath Charles’s message was another name.
Julian Vale.
And according to the phone, Julian had been communicating with someone identified only as—
May you like
M.
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