Chapter 6 - The Mafia Boss's Most Dangerous Enemy
Luca Ferraro had been Dante's closest adviser since childhood.
Their fathers worked together.
They attended the same private schools.
Luca had stood beside Dante during Vittorio's funeral.
When Dante inherited the organization, Luca helped him survive challenges from older men who considered a twenty-six-year-old heir too weak to rule.
Dante trusted him with passwords.
Bank accounts.
Business meetings.
And decisions that could destroy lives.
Now an old witness had named Luca's father as the man who took Evelyn Brooks.
Dante sat in his study reading Rebecca's message.
He didn't speak for nearly a minute.
Then he looked toward Luca, standing near the fireplace.
"Do you remember your father's work in 2009?"
Luca frowned.
"Why?"
"Answer me."
"Security contracts. Transportation. Whatever Vittorio needed."
Dante studied him.
"Did he ever mention Evelyn Brooks?"
Luca's expression changed.
Only slightly.
But Dante saw it.
"Why are we talking about her?"
Dante set down his phone.
"Because a witness says your father abducted her."
Silence.
Then Luca laughed.
"Seventeen-year-old accusations from someone who supposedly died?"
"She's alive."
Luca stopped laughing.
Dante watched him carefully.
"You knew Marina Cross survived."
It wasn't a question.
Luca looked toward the door.
"No."
Dante stood.
"Luca."
His oldest friend met his eyes.
Then said something that made Dante feel as though the room had dropped beneath him.
"You should have left the Brooks girl alone."
Dante went still.
"Why?"
"Because she's going to destroy everything your father built."
Dante's jaw hardened.
"Maybe everything he built deserves to be examined."
Luca stared at him.
For a moment, they looked like strangers.
Then Luca spoke quietly.
"You're beginning to sound like your mother."
Dante felt a familiar ache.
Lucia Moretti had died when he was eighteen.
She had spent years begging Vittorio to leave the criminal organization.
Vittorio refused.
Their marriage became a battlefield conducted behind expensive doors.
When Lucia died from an illness, Dante inherited his father's certainty that softness was weakness.
Now Luca was using her memory as an insult.
Dante walked toward the desk.
"You're relieved of access to our records pending an independent review."
Luca laughed.
"You can't do that."
"I just did."
"Your father would be ashamed."
Dante looked at him.
"My father already has enough to answer for."
Luca left the estate without a confrontation.
But Dante knew it wasn't over.
He ordered the preservation of financial records and contacted independent counsel.
Then he called Rebecca.
"Your client needs to know something."
Rebecca listened.
Dante explained that Luca's father had been connected to the historical operation and that Luca himself was now under scrutiny.
Rebecca asked what Dante intended to do.
"For once," he answered, "I'm going to let the evidence decide."
Arya received the news that afternoon.
She was sitting in Miriam's garden, helping repot a rosebush.
Rebecca called.
After listening, Arya looked at the soil covering her hands.
"Luca?"
"Yes."
"He was in the car that night."
"I know."
"He stood there while Dante took me away."
"Yes."
Arya swallowed.
"Was he protecting me or watching me?"
Rebecca hesitated.
"We don't know."
Arya stared at the rosebush.
It had thorns.
Tiny.
Sharp.
She'd pricked her finger twice already.
For some reason, the ordinary pain made her want to cry.
She had been surrounded by people who knew pieces of her mother's story.
Dante.
Luca.
Natalie.
Marina.
Samuel Vance.
And yet she'd spent seventeen years alone.
"Rebecca?"
"Yes?"
"Do you think they were waiting for me to grow up?"
There was a silence.
Then Rebecca answered carefully.
"Some of the records suggest people remained interested in what your mother left behind. We need to establish why."
Arya closed her eyes.
Her mother hadn't simply disappeared.
She had left evidence.
And now the people connected to that evidence were becoming frightened.
That evening, Arya met Dante in Rebecca's office.
Neutral ground.
Her choice.
Dante arrived without Luca.
He wore a dark coat and looked as though he hadn't slept.
Arya sat across from him.
"Did you know?"
He shook his head.
"Not about Luca's father."
"Did you suspect?"
"I knew my father had done terrible things. I didn't know how Evelyn's disappearance happened."
Arya studied him.
"Why did you recognize me at the restaurant?"
He took a breath.
"Because I saw your photograph in a file my father left behind."
"What file?"
"A surveillance report."
Arya felt cold.
Dante continued.
"Someone had been tracking people connected to Evelyn Brooks. There was a photograph of you outside your high school."
She stared.
"How old was I?"
"Sixteen."
Her throat tightened.
"Who took it?"
"I don't know."
"Why didn't you tell me before?"
Dante looked down.
"Because I was afraid you'd leave before I could explain."
Arya laughed bitterly.
"So you took me instead."
He closed his eyes.
"Yes."
For the first time, Dante did not try to justify what he'd done.
Arya looked at his hands.
Those scarred hands.
Hands that had helped her stand.
Hands that had ordered another man's fingers broken.
Hands that could protect or terrify depending on what Dante wanted.
She spoke quietly.
"You cannot call something protection when the person you're protecting isn't allowed to choose."
Dante looked up.
"I know."
"Do you?"
He nodded.
"I'm beginning to."
Arya swallowed.
"Then prove it."
"How?"
"Give investigators the records. Stop hiding behind your father's reputation. And leave me out of your personal war with Luca."
Dante was silent.
Then he nodded.
"All right."
Arya stood.
At the door, she stopped.
"Dante?"
He looked up.
"If my mother is alive, I'm going to find her."
His expression softened.
"I hope you do."
She studied him.
"And if your family was responsible, I won't protect you from the truth."
Dante looked directly into her eyes.
"I wouldn't ask you to."
That night, Luca received a call from Samuel Vance.
"The girl knows too much," Samuel said.
Luca stood beside a dark window.
"She's been asking questions for months."
"Then we should have handled it earlier."
Luca's expression hardened.
"No violence against her."
Samuel laughed.
"You're becoming sentimental."
Luca stared into the darkness.
"Don't mistake restraint for affection."
"Then what is it?"
Luca closed his eyes.
"Insurance."
On the other end of the call, Samuel was silent.
Then Luca spoke again.
May you like
"Evelyn Brooks is still alive."
And Samuel Vance dropped his glass.
