Chapter 5 - The Price of a Rossi Name
The call disconnected.
Dominic moved instantly.
“Track it.”
Matteo was already working.
Elena tried to sit up.
Dominic turned.
“You stay here.”
“Your mother—”
“Will be safer if I don't bring the woman Hale already tried to kill.”
Elena knew he was right.
She hated it.
“Dominic.”
He paused.
“Come back.”
Two words.
They affected him more than she intended.
He nodded.
“I will.”
Matteo traced Sofia's phone to an abandoned courthouse annex in Lower Manhattan.
Dominic understood the symbolism.
Hale had prosecuted his first major organized-crime case there.
The building had been closed for renovation.
Dominic arrived with no visible army.
Only Matteo.
But he had also contacted someone he had spent most of his adult life avoiding.
The FBI.
Special Agent Claire Donovan had investigated Rossi businesses for seven years.
When Dominic called and said Senator Marcus Hale had kidnapped his mother, she assumed it was a joke.
Then Dominic sent three pages from Carlo's records.
She stopped laughing.
The FBI surrounded the building quietly.
Dominic entered.
Hale waited in an old courtroom.
Sofia sat in the witness box.
Alive.
Two armed men stood nearby.
Hale wore an immaculate suit.
He looked exactly like the television version of himself.
Calm.
Patriotic.
Respectable.
“Dominic Rossi.”
“Hale.”
“You've caused considerable trouble.”
“You shot a woman seven times.”
“I didn't.”
“Your men did.”
“Men are often enthusiastic.”
Dominic's jaw tightened.
Hale smiled.
“There. That's the Dominic everyone knows.”
Dominic remembered Elena.
A weapon.
He relaxed his hands.
Hale noticed.
“Interesting.”
“Let my mother go.”
“The chip.”
“You have it.”
“A counterfeit.”
Dominic looked at Matteo.
Matteo shrugged.
Hale's expression hardened.
“Where is the real one?”
Dominic smiled.
“I don't know.”
That was true.
Matteo had told him only after leaving the hospital.
The real chip had been removed from Elena's pendant at the shooting scene.
By Matteo.
Elena had instructed him while fading in and out of consciousness in the ambulance.
She had hidden the decoy later.
The real chip was somewhere only Matteo knew.
Hale stepped closer.
“You think federal agents will save you?”
Dominic said nothing.
Hale's smile vanished.
“You've spent fifteen years building a criminal organization.”
“Have I?”
“I can prove it.”
“Then do it.”
Hale studied him.
Dominic had spent years slowly converting his father's empire into legitimate businesses.
Not entirely.
There were sins.
There were crimes.
He wouldn't pretend otherwise.
But Carlo's old laundering network had been dismantled piece by piece.
Hale didn't know how far Dominic had gone.
Dominic looked at Sofia.
“Mom.”
She met his eyes.
He gave the smallest nod.
She understood.
Sofia suddenly dropped beneath the witness box.
Dominic lunged.
Gunfire erupted.
FBI agents stormed the room.
Matteo tackled one gunman.
Dominic struck the other.
Hale ran.
Dominic chased him into the corridor.
Hale reached the stairwell.
Dominic caught him.
They fought.
Hale was older but desperate.
Dominic pinned him against the wall.
Hale laughed.
“Do it.”
Dominic held him.
“Kill me.”
Dominic's fist tightened.
“You know you want to.”
Hale wanted exactly that.
A dead senator.
Killed by Dominic Rossi.
Every file could be dismissed as fabricated revenge.
Dominic released him.
Hale looked surprised.
Dominic stepped backward.
“No.”
Agent Donovan entered.
Weapon raised.
“Marcus Hale, hands where I can see them.”
Hale stared at Dominic.
For the first time, fear appeared.
Dominic smiled.
“You wanted a gangster.”
Agents handcuffed Hale.
“You got a witness.”
Hours later, Dominic returned to the hospital.
Elena was awake.
He entered quietly.
She looked at his bruised knuckles.
“You hit him.”
“Once.”
“Dominic.”
“Maybe twice.”
She sighed.
“Your mother?”
“Safe.”
“Hale?”
“Federal custody.”
Relief crossed her face.
“And the chip?”
Dominic sat.
“Matteo has it.”
“Good.”
“Where?”
“I still don't know.”
Elena smiled weakly.
“Good.”
Dominic looked at her hand.
She had put the ring back on.
He noticed.
She noticed him noticing.
“Don't make a big deal about it.”
“I wasn't.”
“You were.”
“I was breathing.”
“Very dramatically.”
Dominic laughed.
Then Elena became serious.
“What happens now?”
“Hale talks or he doesn't. The files go to federal prosecutors.”
“And you?”
Dominic looked away.
“There are things in those files about my family.”
“About you?”
“Possibly.”
“Did you do them?”
“Some.”
Elena studied him.
Dominic didn't hide.
“I've hurt people.”
She remained silent.
“I've made decisions I'm not proud of.”
“Then answer for them.”
He looked at her.
“You make that sound easy.”
“No.”
Her voice softened.
“I make it sound necessary.”
Dominic nodded.
He knew.
That evening, Agent Donovan arrived.
She wanted a statement.
Dominic agreed.
Hours became days.
Hale's arrest remained secret while investigators verified evidence.
Elena improved.
She began walking.
First five steps.
Then ten.
Dominic attended every physical-therapy session until Elena threatened to throw a walker at him if he kept hovering.
Victor visited once.
Elena allowed him five minutes.
The conversation lasted thirty.
Then an hour.
Forgiveness did not happen instantly.
But something began.
On the sixth day, Matteo entered Elena's room carrying a padded envelope.
“The real chip.”
Dominic frowned.
“Where was it?”
Matteo smiled.
“Father Gabriel's Bible.”
Elena laughed.
Dominic stared.
“You gave evidence against half of New York to a priest?”
“Nobody searches the priest.”
“Apparently.”
Matteo placed the envelope on the table.
Agent Donovan was scheduled to collect it that afternoon.
Elena looked relieved.
It was almost over.
Then Dominic's phone buzzed.
A news alert.
He opened it.
His expression changed.
Elena noticed.
“What?”
Dominic turned the screen.
BREAKING: SENATOR MARCUS HALE FOUND UNRESPONSIVE IN FEDERAL HOLDING CELL.
Matteo cursed.
Elena stared.
Another alert appeared.
Then another.
Someone had leaked documents claiming Dominic Rossi had orchestrated Elena's shooting.
A photograph accompanied the story.
Dominic beside Elena's unconscious body.
The ring in his hand.
The headline was devastating.
MOB BOSS'S MYSTERY BRIDE: WITNESS OR HOSTAGE?
Elena looked at Dominic.
“This was planned.”
“Yes.”
Matteo's phone rang.
He answered.
His expression changed.
“Boss.”
“What?”
“The FBI convoy is downstairs.”
“For the chip?”
Matteo shook his head.
“For you.”
Footsteps filled the corridor.
Agent Donovan entered.
Six federal agents followed.
She looked genuinely sorry.
“Dominic Rossi, you're under arrest.”
Elena sat forward.
“For what?”
May you like
Donovan looked at Dominic.
“The attempted murder of Elena Vale.”
