Chapter 10 - The Traitor at Vincent’s Table
“Don't move,” Luca said.
Elias smiled.
“Finally.”
Maggie looked between them.
“You're working together?”
Luca ignored her.
Anthony stared at him.
Twenty years of history passed silently between the two men.
Then Luca fired.
Not at Anthony.
At Elias.
The bullet knocked the weapon from his hand.
Anthony lunged.
Maggie kicked the gun away.
Luca’s men entered.
Within seconds Elias was restrained.
“You could have explained that,” Maggie said.
Luca shrugged.
“He needed to believe I was still useful.”
Maggie decided she disliked mafia theatrics.
Vincent arrived minutes later.
He entered running.
Saw Maggie.
Then Anthony.
He stopped.
The brothers stared at each other.
Anthony stood slowly.
Vincent looked twenty-three again.
“Tony?”
Anthony’s face broke.
“Hey, little brother.”
Vincent crossed the distance.
They embraced.
Neither man spoke.
Maggie looked away because the moment belonged to them.
Later, Anthony explained.
He had survived because Luca moved him overseas.
Their father’s men hunted him for years.
When their father died, Elias inherited the network and continued the search for the ledger.
Anthony stayed hidden.
“Why didn't you contact me?” Vincent asked.
“I didn't know whether you had become him.”
The words hurt.
Vincent nodded.
“I almost did.”
Anthony looked toward Maggie.
“But you didn't.”
Elias was turned over to federal authorities with enough evidence to keep him detained.
The ledger, however, remained missing.
Anthony refused to reveal its location.
Not yet.
“There are names in there that could bring people after all of us.”
Vincent understood.
Maggie did not like secrets anymore.
Still, for one week, life calmed.
Anthony visited Sullivan’s Flowers.
He was worse at bows than Vincent.
Maggie considered it hereditary.
Vincent and Anthony began repairing twenty years of silence.
Luca joined them once.
Nobody shot anyone.
Maggie considered that progress.
Then Marco disappeared.
His apartment was empty.
His phone abandoned.
Vincent refused to believe he had betrayed them.
Anthony wasn't so certain.
“There was another person who knew where the ledger was.”
“Marco?” Maggie asked.
Anthony nodded.
The following morning, Maggie found something beneath her counter.
A small envelope.
Marco’s handwriting.
Inside was a key and a note.
Maggie read aloud.
I DIDN’T BETRAY VINCENT.
I FOUND THE PERSON WHO DID.
DON’T TRUST ANYONE WHO WAS AT THE CHURCH.
Maggie looked at Vincent.
Vincent looked at Anthony.
Anthony looked toward Luca.
Nobody spoke.
Then Maggie noticed something else.
Blood.
One dried drop on the envelope.
The shop phone rang.
Maggie answered.
Marco’s voice whispered, “Maggie, don't let Vincent open the greenhouse door.”
She turned.
May you like
Vincent was already walking toward it.
His hand closed around the handle.
