Chapter 9 - What Dante Saw
Dante had been fifteen.
He remembered smoke.
His father shouting.
Kathleen pushing him into a storage room.
And Marco standing over a man on the floor.
The man was Salvatore Moretti.
Maeve's father.
"I saw Marco kill him."
Maeve couldn't speak.
Dante looked sick.
"I forgot."
Trauma had buried the memory.
The cassette confirmed it.
Marco and Hale had killed Moretti after discovering he'd helped Kathleen collect evidence.
Maeve listened to her father's final recorded words.
"Tell Kathleen to take Maeve and run."
She cried quietly.
Dante sat beside her.
He didn't touch her until she reached for his hand.
Then he held it.
"I spent years thinking he abandoned us," Maeve whispered.
"He didn't."
"No."
That single truth healed something old.
Not everything.
But something.
The recording gave authorities enough to begin arrests.
Hale disappeared before they reached him.
Marco did too.
Accounts were frozen.
Properties searched.
Associates detained.
For three days, nothing happened.
Then Maeve received a package.
Inside was her mother's stolen cookbook.
A note rested on top.
ONE BREAKFAST. TOMORROW. COME ALONE OR KATHLEEN DIES.
Maeve ran downstairs.
Her mother was gone.
Security footage showed Kathleen leaving voluntarily.
Dante was furious.
"She went to protect you."
"Again."
Maeve wanted to scream.
Instead she studied the note.
One breakfast.
Marco was mocking her.
He knew how she'd entered their lives.
The meeting location was an old Falcone restaurant abandoned years earlier.
Maeve insisted they use Marco's arrogance against him.
She would go.
The brothers would follow secretly.
Dante refused until Maeve said, "You don't own my choices."
He went silent.
Then nodded.
The next morning, Maeve entered the restaurant carrying a basket.
Marco sat at a table.
Hale stood behind him.
Kathleen was tied to a chair.
Marco smiled.
"The famous maid."
Maeve put the basket down.
"You asked for breakfast."
"I expected fear."
"I brought biscuits."
Hale searched her.
No weapon.
Marco demanded the original evidence.
Maeve placed the locket on the table.
Hale grabbed it.
Empty.
His smile vanished.
"The files have already been sent."
Marco stood.
"Then why come?"
Maeve looked at her mother.
"For her."
Marco laughed.
"Sentimental."
"Yes."
He walked closer.
"That's what made your mother weak."
Kathleen stared at him.
"No. It's what made you predictable."
Marco's smile disappeared.
Outside, engines roared.
But before Dante could enter, Hale grabbed Maeve and pressed a gun against her ribs.
The back door opened.
Dante stepped inside.
May you like
Marco raised his weapon.
And both guns fired.
