Chapter 7 - Dance Like You Love Me
Eva stared at the photograph of her aunt.
“I’m going.”
“No,” Luca said.
“She is my family.”
“That's exactly why they want you.”
Eva turned on him.
“You don't get to decide this.”
“I can decide whether I deliver you to someone who spent the entire night manipulating us.”
“Then come with me.”
“The message says alone.”
“It also says bring Eva.”
Luca almost laughed despite everything.
“You're impossible.”
“So I've been told.”
Reeves wanted tactical teams.
Luca refused to wait.
Whoever controlled Meridian's failsafe could erase years of evidence within minutes.
More importantly, Isabella might not have minutes.
Luca, Eva, Matteo, and Reeves developed a simple plan.
Luca and Eva would enter the rooftop.
Reeves's team would approach from the east stairwell.
Matteo would use the maintenance access.
No radios.
No obvious weapons.
The rooftop door opened.
Cold Manhattan air struck them.
Eva's blue gown moved in the wind.
The city stretched below.
Isabella sat near the center.
Hands tied.
Alive.
Behind her stood a man.
Luca stopped.
Matteo had been wrong.
The scratched face in the photograph hadn't hidden a dead man.
It had hidden a forgotten one.
Dr. Elias Warren.
Antonio's cardiologist.
Warren smiled.
“Luca.”
Luca's expression hardened.
“You killed my father.”
“I changed medication.”
“You murdered him.”
“If words make you comfortable.”
Eva looked at Isabella.
“Are you hurt?”
“No.”
Warren touched Isabella's shoulder.
“Don't move.”
Luca scanned the rooftop.
No visible gunmen.
No shooter.
“You orchestrated tonight,” Luca said.
“Most of it.”
“The balcony.”
“Yes.”
“You deliberately missed.”
“I wasn't shooting at you.”
Eva understood.
“You shot near Luca because you knew I'd warn him.”
Warren smiled.
“Marco's daughter. Predictable courage.”
Eva's eyes hardened.
“You followed me.”
“For weeks.”
“You wanted me to find the receiver.”
“Yes.”
“The storage unit?”
“Yes.”
“The cemetery?”
“Eventually.”
Luca finally saw the design.
“You needed us to expose Meridian.”
“I needed you to destroy the old leadership.”
Bellmont.
Carlo.
The compromised officials.
All removed in a single night.
Warren had used Luca as a weapon.
“So you could replace them,” Luca said.
Warren smiled.
“Now you understand.”
“Meridian wasn't collapsing.”
“It was evolving.”
Isabella whispered, “He wants Ledger Seven.”
Warren's smile disappeared.
“Where is it?”
Eva answered.
“Somewhere you'll never find.”
Warren pulled a pistol.
Luca moved instinctively in front of Eva.
Warren laughed.
“Interesting.”
“What?”
“You met her hours ago.”
Luca didn't answer.
“You'd die for a stranger?”
Eva whispered, “Don't.”
Warren tilted his head.
“Antonio did the same thing. Loyalty. Sentiment. Love. Men like your father always mistook those weaknesses for virtues.”
Luca looked at him.
“My father died with people mourning him.”
“So?”
“When you die, people will celebrate.”
Warren's expression tightened.
“Ledger.”
“No.”
Warren aimed toward Isabella.
Eva stepped forward.
“Wait.”
Luca caught her wrist.
Eva looked at him.
Trust me.
She didn't say it.
She didn't need to.
Luca released her.
Eva walked slowly toward Warren.
“The ledger isn't with Isabella.”
“Where?”
“I know.”
Warren lowered the gun slightly.
“Tell me.”
“First release her.”
“No.”
“Then you get nothing.”
Warren stared.
Eva continued.
“My father designed the hiding system. Isabella couldn't decode it. Luca couldn't. I could.”
That was a lie.
A convincing one.
Warren considered.
Then he cut Isabella's restraints.
“Walk.”
Isabella moved toward Luca.
Halfway there, Warren suddenly grabbed Eva.
The gun pressed against her side.
Luca's entire body tightened.
“Now,” Warren said, “tell me.”
Eva smiled.
“You made one mistake.”
“What?”
“You believed I came up here without a plan.”
Warren heard the rooftop door behind him.
He turned.
Matteo stepped out.
Warren fired.
The shot went wide.
Eva dropped.
Luca charged.
They hit the ground.
The pistol skidded across concrete.
Warren punched Luca.
Luca struck back.
Years of anger threatened to take over.
His father.
Marco.
Victor.
All the people Meridian had destroyed.
Luca got on top of Warren.
His hands closed around the man's throat.
Warren smiled through the pain.
“There he is.”
Luca froze.
“Antonio's son.”
The words brought back his father's voice.
Do not let my son become what I became trying to fight them.
Luca released him.
Reeves's agents flooded the rooftop.
Warren was handcuffed.
He stared at Luca in disbelief.
“Kill me.”
“No.”
“You know what happens to men like me in court.”
“Yes.”
“Then finish it.”
Luca stood.
“You don't get the ending you want.”
Reeves took Warren away.
Eva rushed to Isabella.
They embraced.
For years Eva had believed she had lost almost everyone connected to her father.
Now she held one piece of that family again.
Luca looked across Manhattan.
Matteo joined him.
“Boss.”
“Your sister?”
“Safe.”
Luca nodded.
Matteo hesitated.
“I'm sorry I ran.”
“You were trying to save her.”
“I should've trusted you.”
Luca looked at him.
“You did when it mattered.”
That was enough.
By sunrise, Ledger Seven had been copied to three independent federal offices and two investigative teams.
Reeves made sure no single compromised official could bury it.
Arrests began before noon.
Senator Bellmont resigned in handcuffs.
Two judges were indicted.
Several police officials were suspended.
Carlo Moretti entered protective custody and agreed to testify about Marco's murder and the early years of Meridian.
His testimony would not erase his betrayal.
Eva made that clear.
But it would help dismantle what his betrayal had protected.
Victor Salerno's death was harder.
Eva had hated him when she learned what he'd done.
She also learned that for twelve years, Victor had quietly paid for scholarships in Marco Conti's name.
He had spent more than a decade trying to repay a debt that could never truly be repaid.
Luca arranged his funeral.
Quiet.
Private.
Respectful.
Three weeks later, Luca stood beside his father's grave.
Eva approached carrying two coffees.
“You drink coffee?”
Luca looked at the cup.
“I've been known to.”
“I assumed mafia bosses drank whiskey before breakfast.”
“Only in bad movies.”
She smiled and handed him the cup.
Marco Conti's grave was nearby.
After the investigation, Eva had chosen to leave the hidden vault sealed permanently.
The evidence had been removed.
The secrets no longer needed a tomb.
“My aunt wants me to move to Italy with her,” Eva said.
Luca looked at her.
“Are you?”
“I haven't decided.”
He nodded.
That annoyed her.
“That's it?”
“What do you want me to say?”
“I don't know.”
“Stay?”
She looked at him.
Luca took a sip.
“Stay.”
“You could sound more enthusiastic.”
“I don't beg.”
“Maybe you should learn.”
“Maybe.”
Eva smiled.
They walked between the graves.
“What happens to you now?” she asked.
Luca understood what she really meant.
For most of his adult life, the Moretti name had existed somewhere between legitimate business and the shadow his father had left behind.
Antonio had wanted Luca to be different.
Luca finally understood that becoming different required more than surviving.
“I've been speaking to Reeves.”
Eva nearly dropped her coffee.
“Voluntarily?”
“Yes.”
“Should I call a doctor?”
“He wants information about several operations.”
“And?”
“I'll give him what I legally can. The businesses that shouldn't exist are closing.”
Eva stopped.
“You're walking away?”
“From some things.”
“Why?”
Luca looked toward Antonio's grave.
“Because my father spent his life building walls around me and called it protection.”
He looked at Eva.
“I don't want to spend mine doing the same.”
Six months passed.
Meridian didn't disappear overnight.
Organizations built over decades rarely did.
But its secrecy was gone.
Trials began.
Names appeared publicly.
Victims came forward.
Companies collapsed.
Investigations expanded to other states.
Warren eventually accepted a plea that guaranteed he would spend the rest of his life in federal prison.
Bellmont received no heroic ending.
No mysterious disappearance.
No assassination.
He sat beneath fluorescent courtroom lights while prosecutors read the names of people whose lives Meridian had destroyed.
Carlo testified.
When Eva saw him afterward, he tried to apologize.
She stopped him.
“You can spend the rest of your life doing something useful. That's the only apology I'm interested in.”
Carlo nodded.
And he did.
Isabella moved back to New York.
Her relationship with Eva was complicated.
There were too many missing birthdays.
Too many unanswered letters that had never been written.
Too many years.
But complicated was better than gone.
They started slowly.
Coffee.
Dinner.
Long conversations.
Eventually laughter.
And Luca?
Luca discovered something far more frightening than assassins.
A relationship.
Eva refused his driver.
She mocked his expensive suits.
She moved books around in his penthouse because she said his shelves looked “like a hotel lobby designed by a psychopath.”
Luca moved them back.
Eva moved them again.
He eventually surrendered.
One evening almost a year after the gala, the Bellmont Children's Foundation held its first event under new leadership.
The old ballroom had been renovated.
Luca initially refused to attend.
Eva changed his mind.
“How?”
Matteo asked.
Eva smiled.
“I told him his tuxedo would go to waste.”
Luca muttered, “Blackmail.”
They entered together.
The chandeliers were the same.
The skyline was the same.
But Luca wasn't.
Neither was Eva.
There were no hidden receivers in her bracelet.
No compromised security channels.
No assassin on the balcony.
At least Matteo had checked three times.
The orchestra began playing.
Eva looked at Luca.
“Well?”
“Well what?”
“Ask me.”
“Ask you what?”
She rolled her eyes.
“A year ago I had to order you onto the dance floor.”
“You were very aggressive.”
“Someone was trying to kill you.”
“Still rude.”
Eva stepped closer.
“Dance with me, Moretti.”
Luca looked suspicious.
“Is someone aiming at me?”
“Not tonight.”
“Are you sure?”
“I checked.”
“Then why should I dance?”
She smiled.
“Because this time you don't have to pretend.”
Luca's expression softened.
He offered his hand.
Eva took it.
They moved onto the floor.
His hand settled naturally around her waist.
She placed hers on his shoulder.
For a moment, both remembered the first night.
The whispered warning.
The fear hidden beneath a smile.
The stranger in blue who had walked into the arms of a dangerous man because she couldn't watch someone die.
“Do you remember what you said to me?” Luca asked.
“Which part?”
“Put your hand on my waist and smile.”
Eva laughed.
“You looked furious.”
“I was.”
“You still did it.”
“You threatened me with death.”
“I warned you about death.”
“Semantics.”
She leaned closer.
“Smile.”
Luca did.
A real smile this time.
Eva noticed immediately.
“There.”
“What?”
“That.”
“What?”
“You finally learned.”
“Learned what?”
“How to look happy.”
He pulled her slightly closer.
“Maybe I had the wrong dance partner before.”
Eva became quiet.
The teasing disappeared.
“So what happens now?” she asked.
Luca looked at the woman who had entered his life as a stranger and somehow remained after every reason for them to separate was gone.
“No shooters.”
“Hopefully.”
“No secret organizations.”
“Definitely.”
“No people trying to kill us.”
“That's a low bar for romance.”
“I'm new at this.”
She laughed.
Luca reached inside his jacket.
Eva immediately narrowed her eyes.
“What are you doing?”
He removed a small black invitation card.
The same one from that night.
He had kept it.
The red number 47-11 remained visible on the back.
Eva stared.
“You kept that?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Turn it over.”
She did.
Something new had been written beneath the old number.
Not a security code.
Not a threat.
A date.
Tonight's date.
Eva looked up.
“Luca?”
He reached into his pocket again.
This time he removed a small velvet box.
Eva stopped breathing.
People nearby began noticing.
Luca glanced around.
“I hate audiences.”
Eva laughed through sudden tears.
“You're Luca Moretti. You love audiences.”
“I tolerate them.”
He opened the box.
Inside was a ring.
Eva covered her mouth.
Luca didn't kneel immediately.
Instead he looked at her with the same serious expression he had worn the first night.
“You walked up to a man you didn't know because you thought someone was going to kill him.”
Eva's eyes filled.
“You were having a bad evening.”
“You lied to me.”
“You interrogated me.”
“You ordered me to dance.”
“You needed supervision.”
“You ruined my quiet life.”
Eva laughed.
“Your life was not quiet.”
“It was quieter.”
He finally lowered himself onto one knee.
The ballroom fell silent.
Eva stared down at him.
Luca said, “I spent most of my life thinking trust meant giving someone the ability to protect you.”
He paused.
“You taught me it means giving someone the ability to hurt you and believing they won't.”
Eva wiped a tear.
“That was almost romantic.”
“Almost?”
“You were doing well.”
He shook his head.
“Eva Conti.”
“Yes?”
“Will you marry me?”
She pretended to consider.
Luca stared.
“Don't.”
She laughed.
Then she lowered herself enough to kiss him.
“Yes.”
Applause exploded through the ballroom.
Luca stood and placed the ring on her finger.
Matteo was applauding louder than anyone.
Isabella cried openly.
Reeves raised a champagne glass from the back of the room.
Eva wrapped her arms around Luca's neck.
Her lips moved toward his ear.
For one second, the position was exactly the same as that first night.
Luca whispered, “If you tell me someone is aiming at me, I'm leaving.”
Eva laughed against his cheek.
“No.”
“Good.”
“I was going to say something else.”
“What?”
She pulled back enough to look into his eyes.
“Dance like you love me.”
Luca smiled.
“I don't have to act anymore.”
Then he kissed her.
Around them, chandeliers glittered over a ballroom that had once concealed assassins, traitors, and secrets.
Tonight it held family.
The orchestra continued.
Luca placed his hand around Eva's waist.
She rested her head against him.
And for once, neither of them looked over the other's shoulder.
May you like
There was nothing left to fear behind them.
They simply danced.
