Chapter 5 - The Price of Trust
Cassidy didn't cry.
That frightened Dante more than if she had.
She sat in the passenger seat while Chicago passed outside in streaks of neon and rain.
Her mother's signature lay folded in her pocket.
Luca Moretti.
Evelyn Hale.
Marek Voss.
Same table.
Six weeks earlier.
“I need you to say something,” Cassidy finally said.
Dante kept driving.
“What?”
“Tell me the receipt could be fake.”
“It could.”
“Do you think it is?”
“No.”
She looked away.
“Great.”
“Doesn't mean your mother betrayed you.”
“You saw her name.”
“I've signed documents with men I planned to kill the next morning.”
Cassidy looked at him.
“That is not comforting.”
“Wasn't meant to be.”
They returned to the machine shop.
Luca was waiting downstairs.
He looked furious.
“You locked me in a building for six hours.”
Dante took off his coat.
“You survived.”
“Barely. Carlo snores.”
Carlo shouted from another room, “I heard that.”
Under different circumstances, it might have been funny.
Dante placed the photograph of Luca and Voss on the table.
Luca stopped smiling.
“Explain.”
His brother stared.
“Where did you get that?”
“Explain.”
“It isn't what you think.”
“That sentence should be illegal.”
Luca exhaled.
“I met Voss because he contacted me.”
“Why?”
“He said somebody inside our organization was moving against you.”
“When?”
“Three months ago.”
“You didn't tell me.”
“I was trying to verify it.”
“By yourself?”
“Because I knew you'd do exactly what you're doing now.”
Dante moved closer.
“What am I doing?”
“Assuming everybody wants your chair.”
“Thirty men tried to kill me.”
“And I'm standing here!”
“Exactly.”
Luca slammed his hand on the table.
“I was trying to protect you!”
Cassidy watched.
Not the volume.
The eyes.
Luca was angry.
But was he lying?
She didn't know.
Dante placed the receipt beside the photo.
Luca saw Evelyn's signature.
His expression changed.
“Where did you get this?”
“You know her?”
Luca looked at Cassidy.
Then back at Dante.
“Not personally.”
“Wrong answer.”
“I've met her once.”
Cassidy stepped forward.
“When?”
“The night on the receipt.”
“Why?”
Luca hesitated.
Dante's voice dropped.
“Luca.”
“Voss brought her.”
Cassidy's face tightened.
“What did they talk about?”
“Your father.”
“Daniel?”
“Yes.”
“What about him?”
Luca looked at Dante.
“Voss said Daniel Hale had proof our father was murdered.”
The room went silent.
Dante stared.
“You knew?”
“I suspected.”
“For six weeks.”
“Yes.”
“And said nothing.”
“I needed evidence.”
“You needed permission to breathe when we were twelve.”
Luca's face twisted.
“Maybe I got tired of being twelve.”
There it was.
Old damage.
Dante heard it.
Cassidy did too.
Luca continued.
“You became Dad before they even buried him. Everybody looked at you. Everybody listened to you.”
“This isn't about succession.”
“No, Dante. It isn't.”
Luca lowered his voice.
“It's about the fact that you think love means obedience.”
Dante's jaw hardened.
Luca pointed at the receipt.
“I met Voss because he said Dad had discovered Vincent was using Meridian.”
Cassidy watched Dante.
“And Evelyn?”
“She said Daniel encoded the ledger before he died.”
Cassidy touched the key under her shirt.
“What else?”
“She said the code was split.”
“Split how?”
“Part memory.”
Cassidy felt cold.
“And the rest?”
Luca looked at her.
“Music.”
She blinked.
“What?”
“A melody.”
Her father's voice came back.
Piano.
Sunday mornings.
The same song.
Always unfinished.
Cassidy's knees nearly gave out.
Dante caught her elbow.
She pulled away.
“I know it.”
“What?” Luca asked.
“My father played a melody every Sunday.”
“Can you remember it?”
“Yes.”
Dante looked at her.
“Then we have both halves.”
“No,” Cassidy said.
“Why?”
“Because I don't know what to do with them.”
A slow clap came from the doorway.
Everyone turned.
Vincent Bellini stood there.
Alone.
“You've finally caught up.”
Dante drew his gun.
So did Matteo.
Vincent raised his hands.
“Easy.”
Dante walked toward him.
“You knew about the code.”
“Yes.”
“You knew Daniel.”
“Yes.”
“You were at his house.”
Vincent's face tightened.
Cassidy stepped forward.
“Say it.”
He looked at her.
“I was.”
Her eyes burned.
“You killed him.”
“No.”
“I heard you.”
“I was trying to get him out.”
“Don't.”
“Cassidy, your father called me.”
She stopped.
“What?”
“He knew Meridian was coming.”
“Meridian isn't a person.”
“No.”
Vincent looked at Dante.
“It became a council.”
“Who?”
“People from every family. Businessmen. police. officials.”
“Names.”
“The ledger has them.”
“Who leads them?”
Vincent laughed bitterly.
“That is the question that got your father killed.”
Dante's patience snapped.
He pressed the gun beneath Vincent's jaw.
“My father.”
Vincent closed his eyes.
“Antonio discovered the council had been ordering killings without family approval.”
“Who killed him?”
“Thomas.”
Dante froze.
“Your brother?”
Vincent nodded.
“Thomas believed Antonio was going to expose all of us.”
“You said Thomas was used.”
“He was.”
“By who?”
Vincent opened his eyes.
“Carlo.”
A cane hit the floor behind them.
Everyone turned.
Carlo stood in the hallway.
His face had gone gray.
Dante lowered the gun.
“Uncle?”
Carlo said nothing.
Vincent continued.
“Tell him.”
Carlo closed his eyes.
“Thomas came to me.”
“Why?”
“He said Antonio was going to destroy everything.”
Dante stepped closer.
“So you ordered my father's death?”
“No!”
Carlo's voice cracked.
“I told Thomas to stop him.”
“With a conversation?”
Carlo looked away.
That was enough.
Dante felt something in himself go quiet.
Cassidy knew that silence.
It was the same silence before he fired at the diner.
Carlo whispered, “I didn't know he would burn the warehouse.”
“But you knew violence was possible.”
“Yes.”
Dante stood inches from him.
“You raised me after he died.”
Carlo began to cry.
Old men crying didn't look noble.
They looked small.
“I loved your father.”
Dante's voice was almost gentle.
“You loved yourself more.”
Carlo sank into a chair.
Cassidy looked toward Vincent.
“What about my father?”
“Daniel discovered proof Carlo had authorized Thomas's move against Antonio.”
Carlo whispered, “I never authorized murder.”
Vincent ignored him.
“Daniel copied everything.”
“Then why did he wait four years?”
“Because he was afraid.”
Cassidy laughed once.
It broke halfway through.
“Good reason.”
Vincent looked at her.
“Your mother convinced him to hide the evidence.”
“Then why is she working with Voss?”
“Because she has spent seven years trying to find the person above Carlo.”
Dante looked up.
“There is someone above him.”
“Yes.”
“Who?”
Vincent shook his head.
“Daniel never knew.”
A phone rang.
Cassidy's.
Unknown number.
She answered.
“Mom?”
Evelyn's voice whispered, “Cassie.”
Cassidy nearly collapsed.
“Where are you?”
“No time.”
“Mom, Luca said—”
“I met him because I thought he could help.”
“Are you with Meridian?”
“No.”
Cassidy closed her eyes.
Relief.
Then Evelyn said, “But I used to be.”
Cassidy stopped breathing.
“What?”
“Before your father.”
The room disappeared around her.
“I helped move documents. Money. Messages. I thought it was business.”
“You lied to me.”
“I kept you alive.”
“By lying every day?”
“Yes.”
The answer hurt more because it came without hesitation.
Evelyn whispered, “Listen to me. The melody Daniel taught you is not just encryption.”
“What is it?”
“It's a map.”
“To what?”
“The original server.”
Dante stepped closer.
Cassidy put the call on speaker.
Evelyn continued.
“Meridian's records were mirrored offline. Daniel hid the access coordinates inside the notes.”
“Where?”
A door slammed on Evelyn's end.
She gasped.
“Mom?”
“Union Station. Old mail tunnels. Locker room beneath platform storage.”
Then a man's voice.
“Enough.”
Evelyn screamed.
The call ended.
Cassidy was already moving.
Dante caught her.
“We're going.”
“I know.”
“No army.”
She looked at him.
“No?”
“They expect one.”
Dante turned toward Luca.
“You still want to protect me?”
His brother stood straighter.
“Yes.”
“Then prove it.”
For the next four hours, they built a lie.
A beautiful one.
Matteo leaked word that Dante had fled Chicago.
Luca contacted Voss's remaining network and implied he wanted control of Moretti operations.
Vincent arranged a fake transfer of the supposed ledger.
Carlo, pale and broken, provided names of old Meridian intermediaries.
Cassidy played the melody from memory.
A technician converted notes into coordinates.
Union Station.
Sublevel B.
Storage room 17.
Again.
317.
Her father's key.
At 11:40 p.m., Cassidy and Dante entered through maintenance tunnels.
No entourage.
No visible weapons.
At locker B-317, Cassidy inserted the key.
Inside was an old hard drive.
One sticky note.
Daniel's handwriting.
If Cassidy is reading this, I'm sorry I made you carry my fear.
Her eyes filled.
Dante looked away.
She turned the note over.
A password hint.
Her first song.
Cassidy laughed through tears.
“My dad used to sing me ‘Blue Moon.’”
Dante said quietly, “Then we have it.”
They connected the drive.
Folders appeared.
Meridian.
Payments.
Names.
Photographs.
Audio.
Dante opened one file.
The diner attack.
Payment authorization.
Signed electronically by:
L. MORETTI.
Cassidy turned toward him.
Dante stared at the screen.
Then a second authorization appeared.
Full authentication record.
LORENZO MORETTI.
Dante frowned.
“There is no Lorenzo.”
Vincent, listening through an earpiece, said, “Yes, there is.”
Dante went still.
“Who?”
A long silence.
Then Vincent answered.
“Your father's older brother.”
Dante's face changed.
“My father had no older brother.”
“He did.”
“What happened to him?”
Vincent's voice dropped.
“He was supposed to be dead.”
Cassidy stared at Dante.
And somewhere beneath Chicago, the screen refreshed.
A live access notification appeared.
Someone else had just logged into Meridian.
Name:
LORENZO MORETTI.
Location:
Warehouse 17.
May you like
Where Evelyn Hale was being held.
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