Chapter 10 - Blood Brothers
Luca called me from Elena's grave.
"Come alone," he said.
I almost laughed.
"You've picked a bad night to give me instructions."
"If I wanted you dead, Dom, you would've been dead before dessert. Come alone. Five minutes."
I brought Quinn anyway. I just kept her two rows of graves away.
Luca stood in the rain beneath a black umbrella, facing Elena's stone. A handgun rested on the wet grass beside him.
"You took that from my safe."
"Because Frank has men inside your security detail."
"Names."
"I only know one. Kevin Sloan. Night rotation."
I knew Sloan. His daughter had leukemia. I had paid for six months of treatments.
Betrayal rarely arrived wearing horns. Sometimes it showed up in a uniform you had trusted for years.
Luca handed me a folder.
"Harlow Consulting isn't mine. Frank created it using my mother's old name. He wanted the payments to point at me if anybody found them."
"Convenient again."
"Check the incorporation date."
I did.
The company had been formed nine years earlier, before Luca took over any Moretti finances.
"Why would Frank want Ethan dead?"
Luca looked at Elena's grave.
"Because Ethan's trust activates tonight. And the trust holds more than voting shares."
"What else?"
"A ledger."
I stared at him.
"Elena built it quietly. Arthur helped. Records of old Moretti operations, bribes, payoffs, shell companies. Things Dad and Frank did before you took over. Elena wanted insurance in case they ever threatened you or Ethan."
The rain seemed colder.
"Where is it?"
"Encrypted. The trust releases the key when Ethan turns eight. Midnight tonight."
I checked my watch.
11:18 p.m.
Forty-two minutes.
"If Ethan dies before midnight?"
"The trust never activates. Control reverts through Elena's family attachment. Arthur could bury the ledger forever."
"Then Arthur is with Frank."
"Maybe. Or maybe Arthur tried to stop him and got beaten for it."
Headlights appeared beyond the cemetery gate.
A black SUV entered too fast.
Luca saw it first.
"Down!"
The windshield exploded.
Gunfire cracked across the graves.
I hit the ground behind Elena's headstone as Luca fired toward the gate.
Then my phone buzzed in my pocket.
A message from Sophia.
May you like
Three words.
THEY TOOK ETHAN.
