Chapter 2 - The Man Behind the Door
Victor Salerno raised both hands.
“Before everyone starts behaving dramatically, perhaps we should talk.”
Matteo immediately stepped between Luca and Victor.
Victor looked offended.
“I've known Luca since he was a child.”
“Then you know not to surprise him,” Matteo said.
Luca watched Victor carefully.
“Dario says you attacked him.”
Victor glanced at the injured man.
“Dario is confused.”
Dario tried to speak.
Victor continued.
“I found him near the service stairs. Someone had already hit him.”
“Why did you disappear from the ballroom?”
“I received a phone call.”
“From whom?”
“My wife.”
“Your wife died three years ago.”
Silence.
Victor's expression changed.
Just slightly.
Eva saw it.
Luca saw it too.
Victor sighed.
“That sounded better in my head.”
Matteo reached inside his jacket.
Victor smiled without humor.
“Do that and you'll never learn who was on the balcony.”
Luca stepped forward.
“You have thirty seconds.”
Victor's gaze moved to Eva.
“Marco's daughter.”
Eva froze.
“You know me?”
“I knew your father.”
“Everyone keeps saying that tonight.”
“Your father was an honorable man surrounded by dishonorable ones.”
Eva's face hardened.
“Were you one of them?”
Victor looked at Luca.
“That depends on which version of history Luca believes.”
Luca's patience disappeared.
“Enough.”
Victor reached slowly into his pocket.
Matteo drew his gun.
“Easy.”
Victor removed a phone.
He placed it on a console table.
The screen displayed a photograph.
Luca looked.
The photograph had been taken less than an hour earlier.
It showed Luca entering the gala.
A red circle had been drawn around his head.
Beneath it:
11:30.
Eva looked at the ballroom clock.
11:18.
“Twelve minutes,” she whispered.
Victor nodded.
“The shot upstairs wasn't meant to kill you.”
Luca's eyes narrowed.
“What?”
“It was meant to frighten someone into moving.”
“Who?”
Victor looked directly at Eva.
“Her.”
Eva stepped back.
Victor continued.
“They knew Eva would warn you.”
“How?”
“Because they've been following her for three weeks.”
Eva's face drained of color.
Luca turned toward her.
“You didn't mention that.”
“I didn't know.”
Victor almost laughed.
“Your apartment. Your office. The coffee shop on Broome Street. The storage facility in Queens.”
Eva stared.
“How do you know about Queens?”
Victor's expression softened.
“Because your father left something there.”
Luca glanced at Eva.
“What?”
“I don't know,” she said.
Victor nodded toward her bracelet.
“That's where she found the receiver.”
Eva said nothing.
Luca understood.
“You lied.”
“I omitted something.”
“That's called lying.”
“I didn't know whether I could trust you.”
“And now?”
Eva looked toward Dario.
“I haven't decided.”
Victor picked up his phone.
“Then decide quickly.”
A message appeared.
ELEVEN MINUTES.
Matteo looked at Luca.
“We need to move.”
“No main entrance,” Eva said.
Victor nodded.
“She is right.”
Luca studied him.
“Why help me?”
“Because if you die tonight, the people responsible become untouchable.”
“Who are they?”
Victor's smile vanished.
“The people who killed both our fathers.”
Luca's stomach tightened.
“My father died of a heart attack.”
“No.”
The single word landed harder than a gunshot.
Victor stepped closer.
“Antonio Moretti was murdered.”
Luca stared at him.
His father had collapsed at home four years earlier.
Doctors had called it cardiac arrest.
Luca had stood beside the hospital bed when they covered Antonio's face.
“Prove it.”
“I can.”
“Now.”
“Not here.”
Luca grabbed Victor by the collar.
“Stop telling me not here.”
Victor didn't resist.
“Your father discovered that someone inside his organization had been selling information. Names. Routes. Accounts. Judges. Police contacts. Everything.”
“To whom?”
“A private network.”
“What network?”
“They call it Meridian.”
Eva's breathing changed.
Victor noticed.
“You've heard the name.”
Eva nodded.
“My father wrote it in his journal.”
Luca released Victor.
The pieces were beginning to touch.
Marco Conti.
Antonio Moretti.
Security codes.
The receiver.
The shooter.
“Why tonight?”
Victor answered immediately.
“Because someone learned Eva found the journal.”
Eva shook her head.
“Nobody knew.”
“They did.”
“How?”
Victor looked toward Luca's security men.
“That is the question you should be asking.”
Luca's phone vibrated.
Unknown number.
He opened the message.
A photograph appeared.
It showed Luca and Eva dancing minutes earlier.
Taken from above.
Another message arrived.
BEAUTIFUL COUPLE.
Then:
TEN MINUTES.
Luca handed the phone to Matteo.
“Trace it.”
Matteo began typing.
Victor said, “They'll bounce it.”
“Try anyway.”
Eva stared at the photograph.
“They were watching us.”
“They still are,” Luca said.
He looked at the ceiling camera.
The small black dome above them slowly rotated.
Toward him.
Luca's expression hardened.
“Security room.”
Matteo understood.
“If they've compromised the cameras—”
“They know every move we make.”
Luca turned toward the two guards holding Dario.
“Take him to the kitchen. Use staff exits. No radios.”
Victor shook his head.
“Not enough.”
Luca ignored him.
“Matteo, kill every security channel. Phones only.”
Matteo nodded.
“Eva stays with me.”
Eva folded her arms.
“I don't remember agreeing.”
“You warned me. Congratulations. You're involved.”
Victor looked amused.
“She has more of Marco in her than I expected.”
Eva glared.
“Mention my father again and you'll discover how much.”
They moved through the service corridor.
The glamour disappeared immediately.
White walls.
Steel doors.
Kitchen staff.
Rolling carts.
Nobody paid attention to the elegant woman and the three dangerous-looking men moving quickly past them.
At the freight elevator, Luca stopped.
“No elevator.”
Matteo nodded.
“Stairs.”
They descended one level.
The security room was located behind an unmarked steel door.
Matteo entered his code.
Red light.
He tried again.
Red.
“Someone changed it.”
Victor murmured, “Of course.”
Luca knocked once.
No response.
Matteo drew his weapon.
Luca stepped aside.
Matteo forced the door.
Inside, twelve monitors covered the wall.
Every camera feed showed the same image.
Luca and Eva dancing.
Looping.
Again.
Again.
Again.
Eva whispered, “They're mocking us.”
A chair faced the monitors.
Someone sat in it.
Matteo approached.
He turned the chair.
The security technician was unconscious.
Alive.
Taped to his chest was another black invitation card.
Luca removed it.
Red writing.
47-11.
On the back were four words.
YOU FORGOT YOUR FATHER.
Luca stared.
Victor's voice became quiet.
“Antonio tried to expose them.”
“What happened?”
“He trusted someone.”
“Who?”
Victor didn't answer.
Luca turned.
“Who?”
Victor looked at Matteo.
Then at Eva.
Finally at Luca.
“Your father's last meeting was with one of your current senior men.”
Matteo stiffened.
“Name.”
Victor reached for his phone.
Before he could unlock it, the monitors went black.
One screen flickered back on.
A live camera feed appeared.
It showed Luca's penthouse.
His private study.
Someone was standing inside.
Luca stepped closer.
The figure wore a dark coat.
His face remained outside the camera angle.
He placed something on Luca's desk.
A photograph.
Then he turned it toward the camera.
Antonio Moretti stood beside Marco Conti.
Both men were smiling.
Between them stood a third man.
Someone had scratched away his face.
Words were written beneath the photograph.
ASK MATTEO WHO THE THIRD MAN IS.
Luca slowly turned toward his head of security.
Matteo had gone completely still.
“Matteo?”
Matteo looked at the photograph.
Then at Luca.
“I can explain.”
Luca's voice became dangerously quiet.
“Then explain.”
Matteo opened his mouth.
The security-room lights suddenly died.
A gunshot cracked from the corridor.
Eva screamed Luca's name.
May you like
When the emergency lights came on, Matteo was gone.
And the stairwell door was swinging shut.
