Chapter 4 - The Man Dante Trusted Most
Marco did not turn around.
Dante’s hand moved toward the door.
Locked.
“Marco.”
The driver’s eyes stayed on the road.
Naomi’s heart hammered.
The security vehicle following them suddenly turned down another street.
Gone.
Dante looked through the rear window.
Then back at Marco.
“You have five seconds.”
Marco exhaled.
“I didn’t take your mother.”
“You’re the only person with my hospital authorization code.”
“No.”
“One.”
“Dante.”
“Two.”
“Your mother knows it.”
Dante stopped.
Marco continued.
“She made me memorize it after her stroke.”
Naomi leaned forward.
“Why?”
“In case something happened to Dante.”
Dante’s eyes narrowed.
“Who else?”
Marco hesitated.
“Dr. Mercer.”
Silence.
Dante unlocked his phone.
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Because you would’ve assumed I was protecting myself.”
“I am assuming that.”
“Good. Stay suspicious.”
Marco turned sharply into an underground garage.
Naomi grabbed the seat.
“What are you doing?”
“Getting off the street.”
He stopped between concrete pillars.
Then turned around.
For the first time, Marco looked frightened.
Not for himself.
“For the last six months,” he said, “I’ve been investigating Vanessa.”
Dante stared.
“Without telling me.”
“Your mother asked me not to.”
“What?”
“She suspected someone was stealing from the foundation. She didn’t know how deep it went.”
Dante’s anger shifted.
“My mother asked you?”
“Yes.”
“When?”
“Before the stroke.”
Naomi felt cold.
“Before?”
Marco nodded.
“Three days before.”
Dante’s expression changed completely.
“You think the stroke wasn’t natural.”
“I think Isabella thought someone was going to hurt her.”
No one moved.
Marco reached into his coat slowly.
Dante tensed.
Marco produced an envelope.
“Your mother gave me this.”
Dante took it.
“Why now?”
“Because she told me to give it to you only if she disappeared.”
Dante opened the envelope.
Inside was a photograph.
Vanessa.
Dr. Mercer.
And a third man.
Naomi recognized him.
Her breath stopped.
“No.”
Dante turned.
“What?”
Naomi pointed.
“The man in the middle.”
“You know him?”
“He came to the mansion twice.”
“When?”
“About a month ago.”
“Name?”
“He introduced himself as Thomas Reed. He said he was from the foundation’s insurance company.”
Marco cursed.
“That’s not Thomas Reed.”
“Who is he?”
Dante answered.
“Gabriel Voss.”
The name meant nothing to Naomi.
But Marco’s expression told her enough.
“Who?”
“My father’s former partner,” Dante said.
“Former?”
“They hated each other.”
“Why?”
Dante looked at the photograph.
“Because my father discovered Voss was stealing from the company.”
Naomi felt the pieces move.
“Was he arrested?”
“No.”
“Why not?”
“Because Voss disappeared before prosecutors could charge him.”
“And now he’s back.”
Dante nodded.
Marco looked at the hospital message.
“If Mercer used your code, he could have signed Isabella out.”
“To where?”
Naomi looked at the photo again.
“The yacht.”
Both men turned toward her.
“Belladonna,” she said. “If they know Isabella hid something there, they may think she can tell them where it is.”
Dante was already dialing.
“No police,” Marco said.
Dante looked at him sharply.
“Why?”
“Because someone warned Voss six years ago. That’s how he escaped.”
“You think he has police.”
“I think he has someone.”
Dante lowered the phone.
Naomi stared at both men.
“This is insane.”
“Yes,” Dante said.
“You run companies worth billions. You have lawyers, security teams, politicians calling you for favors—and you’re telling me you can’t trust the police?”
“I can trust some.”
“Which ones?”
“That’s the problem.”
Naomi thought of Isabella being taken from the hospital.
“Then find one.”
Dante looked at her.
“One what?”
“One person you trust because they’ve already lost something by doing the right thing.”
The room went quiet.
Marco smiled faintly.
“She’s good.”
Dante ignored him.
Then he made a call.
Twenty minutes later, they met Detective Lena Ortiz in a parking structure beneath the courthouse.
Ortiz was in her forties.
Plain clothes.
No entourage.
She looked at Dante with open dislike.
“I said I never wanted to see you again unless I had handcuffs.”
“Good to see you too.”
Her eyes moved to Naomi.
“Who is she?”
“Naomi Carter.”
“That tells me nothing.”
Naomi answered herself.
“I care for his mother.”
Ortiz looked at Dante.
“And?”
“And she saved her life.”
Something changed in Ortiz’s expression.
Dante showed her the photograph of Voss.
Her face hardened.
“Where did you get this?”
“My mother.”
Ortiz cursed under her breath.
“You know him?”
“I spent four years trying to find him.”
“Why?”
“He wasn’t just stealing from your father.”
Dante went still.
Ortiz continued.
“Human trafficking shell companies. Property fraud. Extortion. Witness intimidation. Your father discovered part of it.”
Naomi stared.
“Isabella knew?”
“Maybe.”
Ortiz looked at Dante.
“Your father planned to testify.”
Dante’s face changed.
“My father died of a heart attack.”
Ortiz held his gaze.
“That’s what the certificate said.”
Nobody spoke.
Naomi felt the air leave the garage.
Dante’s voice was quiet.
“What are you telling me?”
“I’m telling you your father contacted federal investigators seventy-two hours before he died.”
Marco looked away.
Dante leaned against the car.
For the first time since Naomi met him, he looked unsteady.
“My mother knew.”
“Possibly.”
“And she never told me.”
“Maybe she was protecting you.”
Dante laughed once.
There was no humor in it.
“Everyone keeps protecting me by lying.”
Naomi looked at him.
“Maybe she was afraid you’d go after Voss.”
“I would have.”
“Exactly.”
His eyes met hers.
Neither spoke.
Ortiz cleared her throat.
“If Voss has Isabella, we move now.”
They returned to the marina with a small trusted unit.
Belladonna was gone.
The slip sat empty.
A severed rope floated against the dock.
Dante stared at it.
“When?”
The marina manager checked footage.
“Forty minutes ago.”
“Who took it?”
“Two men. One woman. Elderly passenger.”
Naomi’s chest tightened.
“Vanessa.”
Ortiz called harbor patrol.
Marco called private aviation contacts.
Dante stood utterly still.
Naomi went to him.
“We’ll find her.”
He said nothing.
“Dante.”
“My father died because he tried to expose Voss.”
“You don’t know that yet.”
“My mother almost died because she tried again.”
“She’s still alive.”
“You don’t know that.”
Naomi stepped directly in front of him.
“No. I don’t.”
That forced him to look at her.
“But I know Isabella fought through a stroke, drugs, and people trying to silence her. She played those three piano notes until I came downstairs. She wrote that warning with a hand that can barely hold a pencil.”
Dante’s breathing slowed.
“She is not finished fighting.”
Naomi lowered her voice.
“So don’t you finish for her.”
Something passed through his eyes.
Gratitude.
Fear.
Something else.
He touched Naomi’s cheek.
Only for a second.
His hand was warm.
Then Marco called from the dock.
“We have something.”
They hurried over.
A harbor tracking system had caught Belladonna moving east.
Then the transponder went dark.
Ortiz studied the map.
“There are dozens of private docks.”
Dante pointed.
“No.”
Everyone looked.
“My father had a warehouse on the river.”
“Where?”
“Sixteen miles east.”
Ortiz called her team.
They left immediately.
The warehouse looked abandoned.
One door hung open.
Dante tried to enter first.
Ortiz blocked him.
“You stay behind me.”
“That’s my mother.”
“And this is my operation.”
“Lena.”
“Do you want to rescue her or make this harder?”
Dante stopped.
Ortiz’s team entered.
Naomi waited outside with him.
Gunshots sounded from within.
Naomi flinched.
Dante moved forward.
Marco held him back.
Then silence.
A radio crackled.
“Clear.”
Ortiz emerged.
Her expression told them everything.
No Isabella.
No Vanessa.
No Voss.
Only an empty chair.
Rope lay on the floor.
A phone sat on the seat.
It began ringing.
Dante answered.
Vanessa’s voice came through.
“You should have stayed out of this.”
“Where is my mother?”
A laugh.
“She always did choose the wrong Moretti man.”
Dante’s face became ice.
“If you hurt her—”
“Oh, Dante. This stopped being about Isabella years ago.”
Naomi heard movement behind Vanessa.
Then Isabella’s weak voice.
“Dan…”
Dante closed his eyes.
“Mother.”
“She’s alive,” Vanessa said. “For now.”
“What do you want?”
“The flash drive.”
Dante looked at Naomi.
Vanessa continued.
“And Naomi Carter.”
Dante’s face changed.
Naomi stopped breathing.
Vanessa laughed softly.
“Bring both by midnight.”
The line went dead.
Then Naomi’s secure phone buzzed.
A location appeared.
May you like
And beneath it, four words:
COME ALONE OR SHE DIES.
