Chapter 3 - The Road Out of Castellano Territory
“Get down!”
Nadine barely heard Adrian’s man before gunfire cracked through the darkness.
Celeste dragged her below the dashboard.
Glass shattered.
Nadine covered her belly.
The shooting stopped almost immediately.
Then Dante shouted.
“Nadine!”
She lifted her head.
Adrian’s men had formed a barrier between her and the SUVs.
Dante stood twenty yards away.
His gun pointed down now.
“Nadine, they’re using you!”
She opened the car door.
“Stay inside,” Adrian’s man warned.
Nadine ignored him.
Dante stared at her.
“Come here.”
“No.”
His face hardened.
“You don’t know Vale.”
“I know you.”
The words landed.
Dante lowered the gun completely.
“I never wanted Celeste.”
“Congratulations.”
“Nadine.”
“You kissed her.”
“Yes.”
“Then we have nothing else to discuss.”
“This is bigger than that.”
“So everyone keeps telling me.”
Dante looked toward her stomach.
“Our daughter is in danger.”
“From whom?”
He did not answer.
Nadine laughed bitterly.
“That’s what I thought.”
Adrian’s man opened the sedan.
“We have to move.”
Dante took a step forward.
Several guns rose.
Nadine turned.
“Nadine!”
She looked back once.
Dante’s expression was no longer angry.
He looked afraid.
Not for himself.
For her.
That almost stopped her.
Almost.
She got into Adrian’s car.
They drove north.
Celeste remained beside her.
Two hours later, they crossed a bridge.
Adrian’s man finally spoke.
“You’re outside Castellano territory.”
Nadine opened the envelope the bodyguard had given her.
Inside were bank records.
Photographs.
A birth certificate.
She stopped.
The certificate was twenty-nine years old.
The mother’s name meant nothing.
The father’s did.
Salvatore Castellano.
Dante’s father.
The child's name:
Adrian Salvatore Vale.
Celeste stared over her shoulder.
“No.”
Nadine read it again.
Dante’s greatest enemy was his half-brother.
There was another document.
A handwritten letter.
Nadine unfolded it.
If anything happens to me, Salvatore’s second son must never be allowed near the Castellano family. Vittorio knows the truth.
Nadine frowned.
“Who’s Vittorio?”
Celeste whispered, “Dante’s uncle.”
The car suddenly slowed.
Their escort turned around.
“Mrs. Castellano.”
“What?”
“We have a problem.”
Ahead stood a checkpoint.
Police vehicles blocked the road.
Nadine exhaled.
“Police are good.”
“No,” he said. “Not these police.”
A uniformed officer approached.
Then Nadine recognized the man standing beside him.
Vittorio Castellano.
May you like
Dante’s uncle smiled.
And pointed directly at her…
