Chapter 12 - The Last Meal
Gasoline ran beneath the door.
Vincent smelled it first.
“Back!”
Marco dropped the lighter.
Fire raced across the floor.
Vincent grabbed the hard drive.
Norah grabbed the recipe book.
They escaped through the rear maintenance panel seconds before flames consumed the locker.
Marco disappeared.
But the evidence survived.
That mattered more.
Vincent made a decision nobody expected.
He contacted federal prosecutors through an attorney.
Not surrender.
Not yet.
A negotiation.
Evidence in exchange for protection for Norah, Caleb, and employees uninvolved in violent crimes.
Vincent knew consequences might still come for him.
He accepted that.
Norah didn’t romanticize it.
She cared about him.
But she refused to pretend his world had been clean.
That was one reason Vincent trusted her.
She never lied to make him comfortable.
Marco, meanwhile, planned one final move.
A dinner.
He sent Vincent an invitation to the old Rossi social club.
COME FINISH WHAT OUR FATHERS STARTED.
Norah wanted Vincent to refuse.
Instead, she created a plan.
“You’re going to eat.”
Vincent looked confused.
“At a meeting with Marco?”
“Yes.”
“He poisoned me.”
“That’s why.”
She prepared the same broth that had started everything.
Chicken.
Rice.
Garlic.
Pepper.
Simple.
She poured it into a thermos.
Vincent laughed.
“You’re sending me to a mob confrontation with soup?”
“I’m sending you with something you trust.”
At the club, Marco waited alone.
Or appeared to.
Hidden microphones transmitted everything.
Vincent sat.
Marco smiled.
“You brought dinner?”
“I’ve learned not to trust the kitchen.”
Marco’s smile faded.
Vincent ate.
Calmly.
Spoon after spoon.
For months, Marco had controlled him through fear of food.
Now Vincent ate while staring directly at him.
Marco began talking.
Pride did the rest.
He admitted manipulating Russo.
Paying Vale.
Ordering the kitchen surveillance altered.
Using Caleb.
Targeting Norah.
Every word was recorded.
Then Marco realized.
His eyes shifted toward Vincent’s shirt.
Microphone.
Marco drew a gun.
Norah heard everything from the surveillance van.
“Vincent!”
The feed exploded with gunfire.
Then silence.
The microphone went dead.
Norah stared at the black screen.
Nobody inside answered.
Then the club’s front door slowly opened.
May you like
A man stepped out.
But from the van, Norah couldn’t see his face.
