Chapter 2 - The Dead Man at the Table
Ara could not move.
The man approaching them had aged, but not enough to disguise himself.
Same narrow nose.
Same gray-green eyes.
Same slight tilt of the head.
Her father.
Gabriel Valenti.
Dead eleven years.
Leo stepped in front of Ara.
"Stay behind me."
She grabbed his arm.
"No."
Gabriel stopped ten feet away.
His eyes found his daughter.
"Ara."
Her face twisted.
"You don't get to say my name."
Gabriel's shoulders fell.
Daniel stood.
"You came."
"You said she deserved the truth."
Ara looked at Daniel.
"You knew?"
Daniel did not answer quickly enough.
Ara slapped him.
The restaurant went silent.
Daniel accepted it.
"You deserved that."
Leo almost approved.
Ara looked at her father.
"I buried you."
"I know."
"I stood beside Mom while she cried over an empty coffin."
"I know."
"You let me believe you were dead."
Gabriel nodded.
"Yes."
Ara's voice broke.
"Why?"
Gabriel looked toward Leo.
"Because of his father."
Leo's expression hardened.
"Careful."
Gabriel placed the photograph on the table.
It showed Gabriel and Vittorio standing beside a shipping container.
Between them was a woman Leo recognized immediately.
His mother, Elena.
Leo hadn't seen a photograph of her that young in decades.
"What were you doing together?"
Gabriel sat.
"Trying to stop something."
"What?"
"A war."
Leo remained standing.
Gabriel explained that twenty years earlier, Vittorio Rossi had discovered several senior members of his own organization were using Rossi shipping routes for operations Vittorio refused to tolerate.
He wanted out.
Not from the family.
From the criminal machinery surrounding it.
Gabriel had been an accountant who discovered the money trail.
Elena Rossi helped hide records.
"They were building evidence," Gabriel said.
"Against whom?" Leo asked.
Gabriel looked at him.
"Men you still trust."
Leo's jaw tightened.
Ara sat slowly.
"Why fake your death?"
"Because someone found out."
"Who?"
"I never knew."
Leo didn't believe him.
Gabriel saw it.
"You have your father's eyes when you think someone is lying."
"My father lied professionally."
"So do you."
Leo leaned closer.
"I can make this conversation extremely unpleasant."
Ara touched his wrist.
The contact stopped him instantly.
Gabriel noticed.
So did Daniel.
Ara withdrew her hand.
"Continue."
Gabriel explained that Vittorio created a contingency plan.
If anything happened to him, evidence would eventually pass through someone outside the Rossi family.
Someone enemies would overlook.
Ara.
Leo stared at her.
"That's why the employment document existed."
Gabriel nodded.
"Vittorio wanted Ara close to you."
Ara stood abruptly.
"No."
"Ara—"
"You planned my life before I finished college?"
"I tried protecting you."
"You abandoned me."
Gabriel looked devastated.
"I disappeared because staying would have killed you."
"You don't know that."
"I watched them kill your mother."
Ara froze.
Her mother had died three years after Gabriel's supposed death.
Car accident.
At least that was what she had believed.
"What did you say?"
Gabriel's eyes filled.
"Your mother's accident wasn't an accident."
Ara swayed.
Leo caught her.
For once, she didn't pull away.
Her fingers gripped his jacket.
"Who killed her?"
"I don't know who ordered it."
"You're lying."
"No."
Ara pushed away from Leo.
"You've lied for eleven years."
Gabriel reached for her.
She stepped backward.
"Don't."
Leo's phone vibrated.
Marco checked the restaurant entrance.
"Boss, we need to move."
"Why?"
"Black sedan across the street. Same vehicle that followed us from Midtown."
Leo looked through the glass.
Tinted windows.
Engine running.
"How many?"
"Unknown."
Leo turned.
"We leave now."
Daniel gathered the documents.
Leo stopped him.
"Those stay with me."
"They belong to Gabriel."
"Not anymore."
Gabriel nodded.
"Give them to him."
Daniel looked unhappy but complied.
They exited through the kitchen.
Leo's security SUV waited in the alley.
Ara refused to leave without Gabriel.
Leo refused to leave Daniel.
Everyone piled inside.
The SUV accelerated.
Three blocks later, the black sedan followed.
Marco looked through the rear window.
"We've got company."
Leo pulled Ara down below the window line.
She resisted.
"What are you doing?"
"Keeping you alive."
"I can sit by myself."
"Tonight you're doing what I say."
"That attitude is why you're single."
Daniel laughed.
Leo stared at him.
Daniel looked out the window.
"Terrible time. Sorry."
The sedan accelerated.
Marco's driver turned sharply.
Another vehicle appeared ahead.
Trap.
"Brace!"
Their SUV slammed through a construction barrier.
Ara fell against Leo.
His arm wrapped around her.
Gunshots cracked behind them.
The rear window spiderwebbed.
Gabriel shouted.
Marco returned fire through a narrow opening.
Leo held Ara against his chest.
She heard his heartbeat.
Fast.
Not fearless.
Leo Rossi was afraid.
Not for himself.
For her.
They escaped through a service tunnel and reached a secure Rossi property twenty minutes later.
Inside, Leo ordered every door locked.
Gabriel spread the documents across a dining table.
Daniel opened a laptop.
Ara remained standing apart.
Leo approached.
"You okay?"
"No."
"Good."
She stared at him.
"Good?"
"If you'd said yes, I'd know you were lying."
Despite herself, Ara almost smiled.
Leo noticed.
For a second, everything else disappeared.
Then Gabriel called them.
"You need to see this."
They approached.
He had unfolded an old ledger.
Several names appeared.
Leo recognized most.
Carmine Bellucci.
Anthony Serrano.
Peter Vale.
Then one name stopped him.
Marco DeLuca.
Leo looked toward his bodyguard.
Marco stood near the door.
"What?" Marco asked.
Leo closed the ledger.
"Nothing."
Ara had already seen it.
Her eyes met Leo's.
Marco had served Leo for thirteen years.
Saved his life twice.
Leo trusted him more than almost anyone.
Ara quietly said, "Leo."
It was the first time she had used his first name.
He looked at her.
She pointed toward the bottom of the ledger.
Another handwritten note appeared beneath Marco's name.
CURRENT HANDLER.
A sound came from the hallway.
The locked door opened.
May you like
Marco turned toward it.
Someone stepped inside and said his name.
