Chapter 5 - The Man Behind the Broken Glass
Elena stared at Tasha's photograph.
"No."
Marcus leaned closer.
"When?"
The timestamp was three months old.
Dante examined it.
"Could be innocent."
Elena looked at him.
"You believe that?"
"No. But assumptions get people hurt."
She called Tasha.
Voicemail.
Again.
Nothing.
Then Tasha called back.
Elena answered immediately.
"Tasha?"
Crying.
"Elena, I'm sorry."
"Where are you?"
"I didn't know what they were going to do."
Dante motioned for Elena to keep her talking.
"What happened?"
"Victor came to me months ago. He said Marcus was stealing money. He told me he was investigating."
"You believed him?"
"At first."
Tasha sobbed.
"Then he started asking about you."
"Why?"
"Because of Tuesday."
Elena's heart accelerated.
"He asked whether you'd mentioned hearing anything."
"What did you tell him?"
"Nothing."
"Tasha."
"I swear."
A pause.
"Until last night."
Elena closed her eyes.
"What did you tell him?"
"That you were working."
Marcus turned away.
Tasha cried harder.
"I didn't know they'd come like that."
"Where are you now?"
Silence.
"Tasha?"
Then a male voice replaced hers.
"Hello, Elena."
Dante went still.
Victor Hale.
Elena recognized the voice from booth six.
"Let her go."
"She's perfectly safe."
"What do you want?"
"What Luca stole."
Dante shook his head sharply.
Elena understood.
Don't tell him.
"I don't know what you're talking about."
Victor laughed softly.
"You were always convincing behind the bar."
"What does that mean?"
"It means people reveal extraordinary things around someone they don't consider important."
Elena felt anger burn through her.
"You made one mistake."
"Did I?"
"You considered me unimportant too."
Silence.
Dante looked at her.
Something like approval crossed his face.
Victor's voice became colder.
"Bring the drive to Vespers at midnight."
"No."
"Tasha would appreciate your cooperation."
The call ended.
Elena lowered the phone.
"We're not giving him anything."
Dante nodded.
"We're also not abandoning Tasha."
"I know."
Marcus looked between them.
"Then what?"
Elena stared at Luca's files.
"Rebecca Shaw."
Dante hesitated.
"Luca trusted her."
"He specifically named her."
"Then we find her."
They contacted Shaw through an emergency number buried in Luca's files.
She answered on the second call.
Within three hours, federal agents arrived.
Rebecca Shaw was smaller than Elena expected.
Forties.
Dark suit.
No nonsense.
She examined the evidence.
"This can bring down Hale's entire network."
"Can you protect Tasha?" Elena asked.
"If she's alive, we'll get her."
"If?"
Dante shot Shaw a look.
She didn't soften the reality.
"We need to assume Hale may react unpredictably."
The plan formed.
Elena would go to Vespers.
Dante hated it.
"No."
"It's me he asked for."
"Exactly."
"Agents will be inside."
"That doesn't make you invincible."
"I'm not asking to be invincible."
Elena looked at him.
"I'm asking to stop running."
Dante's expression changed.
"You don't owe anyone courage."
"No."
She held his gaze.
"But I owe myself a life where men like Victor don't decide whether I'm allowed to feel safe."
Dante finally nodded.
At eleven fifty-five that night, Elena entered Vespers.
The damaged window had been boarded.
The piano remained broken.
A single lamp illuminated booth six.
Victor Hale sat there.
Tasha sat opposite him.
Alive.
Elena nearly cried from relief.
Victor smiled.
"Elena."
"Let her leave."
"The drive."
Elena placed a small flash drive on the table.
A decoy.
Victor picked it up.
"Sit."
"No."
His smile disappeared.
"You've become surprisingly difficult."
"I've had a difficult week."
Tasha almost laughed despite herself.
Victor glanced toward her.
Then back.
"Where's Dante?"
"I don't know."
"Liar."
"Probably."
Victor leaned back.
"You think he's protecting you?"
"He has so far."
"His family created men like me."
"Maybe."
Elena remembered Dante's words.
I looked away.
"He's trying to change."
Victor smiled.
"Men don't change."
From somewhere behind the wall, Dante listened through Elena's microphone.
Victor continued.
"Dante's father understood power. Dante inherited his weakness from his mother."
Elena deliberately kept him talking.
"And Luca?"
The smile vanished.
"Luca was sentimental."
"You killed him."
Victor didn't answer.
That silence was enough emotionally, but not legally.
Elena pushed.
"Because he found the files?"
Victor leaned closer.
"Because he refused to understand when he had lost."
Rebecca Shaw's agents recorded everything.
Elena asked, "And the men at Vespers?"
"Insurance."
"You terrified innocent people."
"I needed you frightened enough to make mistakes."
"You failed."
Victor looked at the drive.
"We'll see."
He inserted it into a laptop.
Nothing.
His eyes lifted.
"You brought me garbage."
Elena smiled faintly.
"Yes."
Victor stood.
Federal agents entered from three directions.
"Victor Hale!"
Chaos erupted, but no shots were fired.
Tasha ducked.
Elena pulled her behind the bar.
Dante appeared.
Victor attempted to flee through the service corridor.
Agents followed.
Minutes later, Shaw returned.
"We have him."
Elena breathed.
It should have ended there.
It didn't.
Bell was missing.
And when agents searched Victor's phone, they found one final scheduled message.
It was addressed to Dante.
Dante opened it.
A photograph appeared.
His brother Luca.
May you like
Alive.
Timestamped yesterday.
