Chapter 3 - The Name Chloe Wasn't Supposed to Hear
The stranger was perhaps sixty.
Gray hair.
Expensive suit.
No visible weapon.
Vincent did not lower his gun.
“Salvatore.”
So this was the missing man.
Salvatore Moretti looked at Chloe as if Vincent wasn’t there.
“You have Maria’s eyes.”
Chloe stepped backward.
“You knew my mother?”
“Yes.”
Vincent moved between them.
“Where were you?”
Salvatore smiled faintly.
“Handling a problem.”
“You disappeared when someone called from my father’s number.”
“That sounds unfortunate.”
Vincent’s expression hardened.
“Don’t play games with me.”
Salvatore’s smile vanished.
For a moment, Chloe saw something ancient and hostile pass between the two men.
Family.
Not affection.
History.
Salvatore looked at the open compartment.
“You found the box.”
“Apparently.”
“You weren’t supposed to.”
Chloe held up the envelope.
“My mother wrote his name.”
Salvatore looked at her.
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because Maria believed Vincent might become a better man than his father.”
Vincent’s jaw tightened.
“What did she know about my father?”
“Enough to get herself killed.”
The words struck Chloe physically.
“My mother disappeared.”
Salvatore looked almost sorry.
“No, child.”
“Don’t call me that.”
He nodded.
“Your mother died because she discovered something Carlo Moretti could not allow outside the family.”
Vincent lowered the gun slightly.
“My father killed her?”
“I didn’t say that.”
“Then say what you mean.”
Salvatore looked toward the door.
“Not here.”
Vincent laughed without humor.
“You’ve had twelve years to choose a better location.”
Chloe tore open the envelope.
Vincent turned.
“Wait.”
“No.”
Inside was a letter.
The first line stopped her.
Vincent, if Chloe is with you, then Derek Vale has already found her.
Chloe’s knees weakened.
Vincent took the page.
He read quickly.
“What?”
Chloe grabbed his arm.
“What does it say?”
His eyes moved lower.
Then he looked at Salvatore.
“You knew.”
Salvatore said nothing.
Vincent stepped toward him.
“You knew Derek was watching her.”
“I knew someone was.”
“For how long?”
“Years.”
Chloe stared at them.
“You let him?”
Salvatore’s expression changed.
“We kept our distance to keep you alive.”
“Derek hit me.”
“I didn’t know that.”
“He locked me in rooms.”
Salvatore looked away.
“He watched me sleep.”
Silence.
Chloe laughed bitterly.
“You people call that protection?”
Vincent folded the letter.
“No.”
Salvatore looked at him.
“Careful.”
“No,” Vincent repeated. “That wasn’t protection.”
Something shifted between them.
Chloe saw it.
Salvatore had expected obedience.
He wasn’t getting it.
Vincent handed Chloe the letter.
“Read.”
Maria’s words trembled in her hands.
She had written about a ledger.
Not money.
Names.
Judges.
Police officers.
Businessmen.
People Carlo Moretti had paid.
People another organization had paid.
A network that had survived because each side believed the other controlled it.
Maria had discovered that someone inside the Moretti family was selling information to both sides.
She had copied the evidence.
Then hidden it.
Room 317.
Chloe looked at the key.
“What is room 317?”
Salvatore answered.
“St. Catherine’s Hospital.”
Vincent frowned.
“That wing closed twenty years ago.”
“Exactly.”
Chloe continued reading.
The final paragraph was shorter.
If Derek Vale reaches Chloe, do not trust the person who tells you to kill him. Derek is only the leash. Find the hand holding it.
Chloe looked at Vincent.
“Someone wants Derek dead.”
Vincent glanced at Salvatore.
“Yes.”
Salvatore’s face remained unreadable.
Then Marco entered.
“Boss.”
Vincent turned.
“Derek’s gone.”
Chloe’s stomach dropped.
“What?”
“Transport vehicle was hit two blocks from here. Driver’s alive. Guard unconscious.”
“And Derek?”
“Taken.”
“Evan?”
“Dead.”
Chloe covered her mouth.
Vincent’s eyes went to Salvatore.
“You said you were handling a problem.”
Salvatore stared back.
“I was.”
“Was Evan the problem?”
“No.”
“Then who?”
Salvatore stepped closer.
“You’re asking the wrong question.”
Vincent’s patience broke.
He grabbed Salvatore’s jacket.
“Give me the right one.”
Salvatore leaned close.
“Ask why Maria trusted you before she ever met you.”
Vincent froze.
Chloe did too.
“What?”
Salvatore gently removed Vincent’s hand.
“Maria knew exactly who you were.”
“I was seventeen when she disappeared.”
“Yes.”
“I never met her.”
“That’s what your father told you.”
Vincent stared at him.
A memory seemed to surface.
Chloe saw it happen.
“What?”
He walked toward the window.
“There was a woman.”
Salvatore said nothing.
“At the hospital.”
Chloe’s pulse quickened.
“What hospital?”
Vincent turned.
“The night my mother died.”
He had been seventeen.
His mother had been dying from cancer.
A nurse had stayed after everyone else left.
Dark hair.
Brown eyes.
She had given Vincent coffee.
She had sat beside him while he cried where his father couldn’t see.
Vincent had never known her name.
Until now.
“Maria.”
Chloe whispered it.
Vincent nodded.
Salvatore looked tired.
“She saved your life that night.”
“How?”
“Carlo ordered you taken home. Maria refused. The vehicle sent for you exploded twenty minutes later.”
Vincent went still.
“Who planted it?”
“That,” Salvatore said, “is why Maria died.”
A phone buzzed.
Not Vincent’s.
Chloe’s.
She stared at her pocket.
Her phone had been destroyed.
Yet the borrowed coat she wore now vibrated.
She reached inside.
A phone she had never seen before rested there.
Vincent drew his gun.
“Don’t touch anything.”
The screen illuminated.
One message.
CHLOE, ROOM 317. COME ALONE IF YOU WANT DEREK ALIVE.
Chloe looked up.
Vincent took the phone carefully.
A second message appeared.
THIS ISN’T ABOUT DEREK.
Then a photograph loaded.
Derek was tied to a chair.
Behind him stood a woman in hospital scrubs.
Chloe stared at the woman’s face.
She knew her.
May you like
Everyone had told Chloe that woman died seventeen years ago.
Her mother was looking directly into the camera.
