Chapter 7 - THE FILE IN THE LOCKED DRAWER
Dante Vanel had inherited his father's empire at twenty-nine.
Vittorio Vanel had ruled through violence.
Fear.
And the belief that loyalty could be purchased or enforced.
Dante had spent years trying to make the organization less brutal.
He had closed several illegal operations.
Removed corrupt managers.
And moved legitimate businesses away from the family's criminal network.
But the past remained.
It lived in old debts.
Old enemies.
Old graves.
And now, apparently, in the eyes of a twenty-three-year-old waitress.
Dante returned to his office and summoned his longtime adviser, Luca Romano.
“Find everything on Michael Vance.”
Luca went still.
“Michael Vance?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
Dante looked at him.
“Because his daughter is Elena.”
Luca's face changed.
For the first time in twenty years, Dante saw fear in the older man's eyes.
“What do you know?” Dante asked.
Luca hesitated.
“Your father kept a private file.”
“Where?”
“In the old office.”
Dante stood.
“Show me.”
The file was locked inside a cabinet beneath Vittorio's former desk.
Inside were photographs.
Shipping records.
Bank statements.
And a newspaper clipping about Michael Vance's fatal car accident.
Dante read silently.
Then found a handwritten note.
Vance refused the transfer.
Handle before he speaks.
The signature belonged to Vittorio Vanel.
Dante stared.
His father had ordered something.
But the file contained another name.
A man who had carried out the order.
GREGORY HART.
Dante frowned.
“Gregory Hart?”
Luca nodded.
“He worked security for your father years ago.”
Dante felt something cold settle inside him.
Greg Hart.
The floor manager at the Velvet Lounge.
The man who had grabbed Elena's arm.
The man Dante had fired two nights earlier.
And suddenly Dante understood that Elena's suffering had not begun when he walked into the nightclub.
May you like
It had begun nine years earlier.
With a murder his own family had helped conceal.
