Chapter 14 - One Bullet, One Name
Dominic pulled Riley behind a concrete barrier.
Security evacuated the courthouse.
No shot came.
That was the point.
Fear.
One Harbor operative remained.
Tony knew who.
He agreed to speak in exchange for protection.
The name shocked everyone.
Victor Castelli.
Dominic stared through the interrogation glass.
His uncle had confessed to helping Anthony.
But not everything.
Victor had been playing both sides.
He wanted Anthony removed.
Crane removed.
Dominic weakened.
Then he intended to rebuild Harbor under himself.
Victor had surrendered only because surrender placed him close to protected witnesses.
He had escaped custody that morning.
Elena was his final target.
Daniel understood why.
Elena possessed one piece of evidence never entered into the archive.
A recording.
Victor ordering Ethan’s murder.
Elena had kept it eleven years.
Victor reached the courthouse parking structure.
Dominic found him near Elena’s vehicle.
Gun raised.
Dominic stepped between them.
Victor laughed.
“You always were Daniel’s son.”
“Yes.”
“Too sentimental.”
“No.”
Dominic looked toward Riley.
“Just finally careful about what I’m willing to become.”
Victor fired.
Dominic moved.
Another gunshot echoed.
Victor fell.
Marco stood behind him.
Weapon smoking.
Victor survived.
Barely.
Police arrested him.
No execution.
No revenge.
A trial.
The cycle ended in the least dramatic way possible.
With evidence.
Witnesses.
And consequences.
Months followed.
Anthony Valente was convicted.
Crane’s network collapsed.
Victor pleaded guilty after Elena’s recording surfaced.
Tony cooperated and received a long sentence.
Daniel entered witness protection temporarily, then returned after the prosecutions.
Dominic surrendered control of every illegal operation still attached to the Castelli name.
He pleaded guilty to financial and racketeering offenses connected to the years before Harbor’s discovery.
His cooperation mattered.
So did his crimes.
The judge gave him a reduced sentence.
Eighteen months.
Riley attended sentencing.
Dominic looked at her before marshals led him away.
“I’m not asking you to wait.”
“I know.”
“I mean it.”
“I know.”
“You have a life.”
Riley stepped closer.
“You really haven’t learned anything, have you?”
He almost smiled.
“Nobody tells me what to do.”
There she was.
The woman from the butcher shop.
He laughed.
Riley waited.
Not because Dominic owned her loyalty.
Because she chose him.
During those eighteen months, she rebuilt Hayes Prime Cuts.
Bigger windows.
New counters.
Her father’s restored scale behind the register.
A framed photograph of Ethan and Daniel hung in the office.
No mythology.
No pretending either man had been perfect.
Just truth.
On the morning Dominic was scheduled for release, Riley arrived early.
She waited outside.
Ten minutes.
Twenty.
Forty.
Nobody came.
She called his attorney.
No answer.
Then Marco called.
“Riley.”
Something in his voice made her stand.
“Where is Dominic?”
Silence.
“Marco.”
“He was released three hours ago.”
Riley’s stomach dropped.
“That’s impossible.”
“He never came through the public exit.”
“Then where is he?”
Marco hesitated.
“We found the transport vehicle.”
Riley stopped breathing.
The driver was unconscious.
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The rear door was open.
And Dominic Castelli was gone...
