Chapter 2 - The Brother Who Died Twice
Luca Moretti had been buried six years earlier.
Adrian had carried his coffin.
Now Luca stood twenty feet away smiling.
“Elena,” Adrian said without looking at her. “Run.”
She didn't.
Luca laughed.
“Still giving orders.”
Adrian kept the gun trained on him.
“You threatened her.”
“I protected her.”
“You came to her apartment.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because you were becoming weak.”
Elena stared between them.
“Adrian, who is he?”
“My brother.”
“Your dead brother?”
Luca smiled.
“Our family has a complicated relationship with funerals.”
Adrian's security team entered the cemetery.
Luca immediately stepped backward.
Adrian fired.
The bullet struck marble.
Luca disappeared.
“Boss!”
Four men rushed toward Adrian.
“Get Elena out!”
Two surrounded her.
“No!” Elena shouted. “I'm not leaving without you.”
Adrian looked at her.
For eleven months he had imagined seeing her again.
He had never imagined the reunion would include two resurrected Moretti brothers and gunfire.
“Elena.”
“Don't disappear again.”
The words stopped him.
Adrian lowered his weapon.
“I won't.”
“You already did.”
“I know.”
Her eyes searched his.
“Promise.”
Adrian hesitated.
Promises were dangerous.
Then he said it.
“I promise.”
Elena was escorted toward the armored SUV.
Adrian watched until the door closed.
His security chief, Marco Bellini, approached.
“Luca?”
“Yes.”
Marco went pale.
“You saw him?”
“So did Elena.”
“That changes everything.”
Adrian looked toward the crypt where Luca had vanished.
“Yes.”
It did.
Because Luca wasn't merely alive.
He had known Adrian was alive too.
Which meant Adrian's entire operation had been compromised from the beginning.
And whoever had tried to kill him eleven months earlier had probably never believed he was dead.
The safe house was thirty miles outside the city.
Elena sat in the kitchen wearing borrowed clothes while Adrian stood across from her.
Neither spoke.
Finally Elena said, “Start.”
Adrian nodded.
“The explosion was staged.”
“I gathered that.”
“I discovered someone inside my organization was selling information.”
“So you pretended to die.”
“Yes.”
“And didn't tell me.”
“No.”
“Why?”
“Because anyone who knew became a target.”
“I became one anyway.”
Adrian had no answer.
Elena looked away.
“That man threatened me before your supposed death.”
“Luca.”
“Yes.”
“You're certain?”
“I saw him outside your apartment.”
Adrian poured water.
His hand was steady.
His thoughts weren't.
Luca had always been reckless.
Brilliant.
Jealous.
Their father had preferred Adrian.
Everyone knew it.
When Luca's car went over a cliff six years earlier, Adrian blamed himself for not recognizing how deeply Luca had become involved with rival families.
Apparently the body in Luca's coffin hadn't been Luca.
Elena watched him.
“You loved him.”
Adrian looked up.
“Once.”
“You still do.”
“That's irrelevant.”
“No, it isn't.”
Adrian gave her a tired smile.
“You always did argue with dangerous men.”
“Only one.”
Silence returned.
Elena looked at his face.
“You really watched me at the grave?”
“Yes.”
“How long?”
“Twenty minutes.”
She closed her eyes.
“That's humiliating.”
“It wasn't.”
“I confessed everything.”
“I know.”
“You heard that too?”
“Yes.”
Elena covered her face.
Adrian almost smiled.
Then she lowered her hands.
“Don't.”
“What?”
“Look pleased.”
“I wasn't.”
“You absolutely were.”
For one tiny moment, they were themselves again.
Then Elena remembered the grave.
Her expression changed.
“You hurt me.”
Adrian nodded.
“I know.”
“I don't know whether I can forgive you.”
“I know.”
“But I'm glad you're alive.”
That one nearly broke him.
Adrian looked away.
Elena reached across the table.
Her fingers touched his hand.
He froze.
“I am furious with you,” she said.
“Understood.”
“I may stay furious for a long time.”
“Also understood.”
“But don't die again.”
Adrian looked at her hand.
“I'll do my best.”
A phone rang.
Marco entered.
“We have a problem.”
Adrian stood.
“What?”
“The cemetery shooter survived.”
“Where?”
“Saint Catherine's Hospital.”
“Police custody?”
“Not anymore.”
Adrian's expression hardened.
“He escaped?”
“No.”
Marco placed a photograph on the table.
“He was murdered twenty minutes ago.”
Adrian examined it.
A symbol had been carved into the man's palm.
A crown split down the middle.
Adrian knew it.
Luca's childhood symbol.
He used to draw it everywhere.
Elena noticed something else.
“Wait.”
She pulled the photograph closer.
“What?”
“The ring.”
The dead gunman wore a silver signet ring.
Elena's face changed.
“I've seen it before.”
“Where?”
She looked at Adrian.
“Daniel.”
May you like
Adrian became very still.
“My fiancé was wearing the same ring this morning.”
