Chapter 4 - Forty-Eight Hours Before the Wedding
Dominic’s world became very simple.
Find Elena.
Find Sofia.
Kill anyone who prevented him.
But Elena had spent six years teaching him that anger was useful only when it obeyed strategy.
So Dominic did not threaten Marco.
He asked one question.
“Where?”
“Old Calumet warehouse.”
“I’m coming.”
“Alone.”
“Of course.”
Marco hesitated.
Dominic could hear Sofia crying in the background.
Then Elena’s voice.
“Don’t come!”
A slap sounded.
Dominic’s hand tightened around the phone.
Marco said, “One hour.”
The call ended.
Alessandra had followed him upstairs.
“You can’t go alone.”
“I’m not.”
“You just told him—”
“I lied.”
Dominic called three men.
Not Vale soldiers.
Men who owed Dominic personally.
A retired detective.
A former Marine who ran nightclub security.
And Father Gabriel Russo, whose church had once hidden half the neighborhood during a gang war.
Alessandra stared.
“A priest?”
“Gabriel knows every tunnel under Calumet.”
Thirty-seven minutes later, Dominic stood beneath an abandoned freight terminal.
Gabriel opened a rusted maintenance door.
“You have twenty minutes before they notice the south cameras are looping.”
Dominic nodded.
“Thank you.”
“You can thank me by surviving.”
Dominic entered.
The warehouse smelled of rust and dust.
Voices echoed upstairs.
He moved quietly.
Marco stood beside Elena.
Her lip was bleeding.
Sofia sat tied to a chair.
Vittorio was not there.
Neither was Carlo.
They had sent employees to clean up their problem.
Dominic stepped into view.
“Marco.”
Every gun turned.
Marco looked almost disappointed.
“You should have stayed ignorant, boss.”
“You should have stayed loyal.”
“I was loyal.”
“To Vittorio.”
“To the family.”
Dominic looked at Elena.
Her eyes begged him not to do anything reckless.
He almost smiled.
Even tied to a chair, she was still managing him.
“What do you want?” Dominic asked.
“The drive.”
Dominic removed it from his pocket.
Elena stared.
He had brought it.
Marco smiled.
“Slide it over.”
Dominic tossed it.
Marco caught it.
“Let them go.”
Marco inserted the drive into a laptop.
Nothing.
He tried again.
“What’s the password?”
Dominic shrugged.
“I thought you knew.”
Marco looked at Elena.
She said nothing.
He pointed his gun at Sofia.
Dominic’s voice changed.
“Don’t.”
Marco looked at him.
For the first time, he understood.
Not business.
Not negotiation.
A boundary.
Marco lowered the gun slightly.
“Password.”
Elena whispered, “Salvatore.”
Marco typed it.
ACCESS DENIED.
“Valentina.”
Denied.
“Sofia.”
Denied.
Marco cursed.
Dominic watched Elena.
She looked at him.
Then at the photograph protruding from his jacket.
D.V.S.
Three initials.
Dominic understood.
Daniel.
Valentina.
Salvatore.
He said nothing.
Marco raised the gun again.
A light went out.
Then another.
Gabriel’s diversion.
Dominic dropped.
Gunfire erupted.
The former Marine entered from the west catwalk.
The detective cut Sofia’s restraints.
Dominic reached Elena.
“Can you walk?”
“Yes.”
“Are you hurt?”
“Not badly.”
He touched the blood on her lip.
His expression made her catch his wrist.
“Later.”
Marco ran.
Dominic raised his weapon.
Elena said, “No.”
“He betrayed me.”
“We need him alive.”
Dominic hated when she was right.
They captured Marco outside.
Under questioning, he broke faster than Dominic expected.
Vittorio had paid him for four years.
He had tracked Elena.
He had reported Dominic’s meetings.
And he had provided medical information for the assassination plan.
“Where is Vittorio?” Dominic asked.
Marco spat blood.
“Preparing your wedding.”
Dominic leaned closer.
“Why?”
“Because he thinks you’re still going.”
Dominic smiled.
“I am.”
Elena stared at him.
“No.”
“Yes.”
“Dominic—”
“The entire family will be there.”
“So will police they own, judges they own, Bellini soldiers—”
“And every person who needs to hear what’s on that drive.”
Elena went silent.
Alessandra arrived shortly before dawn.
When Elena saw her, she stepped in front of Sofia.
Alessandra stopped.
“I’m not here to hurt her.”
Elena did not move.
Dominic explained the recording.
Elena listened.
Then looked at Alessandra.
“Your father threatened your sister?”
“Yes.”
“Where is she?”
“Safe now.”
Elena finally relaxed.
A little.
They spent the next twelve hours unlocking the drive.
D.V.S. worked.
Daniel.
Valentina.
Salvatore.
Three people who had created the archive.
The files were devastating.
Thirty years of crimes.
Bribes.
Murders.
Blackmail.
Bank transfers.
Judges.
City officials.
Police commanders.
And one video.
Salvatore Vale sat before a camera.
Dominic stared at his father.
Alive.
Young.
Terrified.
“If Dominic ever sees this,” Salvatore began, “then I failed to get out.”
Dominic stopped the video.
He could not breathe.
Elena touched his shoulder.
“Keep going.”
He pressed play.
Salvatore confessed.
Not to everything.
But enough.
He named Vittorio.
Carlo Bellini.
He described the trust.
Then he spoke about Valentina.
“I loved her. That was my betrayal, according to Vittorio. But Valentina showed me that my son deserved a life outside this.”
Dominic looked at Elena.
She was crying.
The recording continued.
“If they kill me, protect Valentina and her daughters. They are not responsible for my sins.”
Then Salvatore said something unexpected.
“Lucia carries something Vittorio can never allow Dominic to discover.”
The video cut.
Dominic frowned.
“What?”
Elena looked confused.
“I don’t know.”
Daniel did.
His face had gone pale.
“You never told her?”
“Told me what?” Elena asked.
Daniel stood.
“Valentina made me promise.”
“Promise what?”
Daniel looked at Dominic.
Then Sofia.
“Lucia wasn’t Valentina’s biological daughter.”
Elena stared.
“What?”
Daniel continued.
“She was Salvatore’s.”
Silence.
Dominic looked at Sofia.
His mind refused the answer.
Lucia.
His father’s daughter.
Sofia’s mother.
That meant—
“Sofia,” Elena whispered.
Daniel nodded.
“Is Dominic’s niece.”
Sofia looked at Dominic.
He could not speak.
All those familiar details.
Her eyes.
The way she tilted her head.
Vale blood.
His blood.
Dominic crouched before her.
Sofia looked frightened.
“Are you my uncle?”
His throat tightened.
“Yes.”
She studied him.
“Are you bad?”
Nobody had ever asked Dominic Vale that question so simply.
He looked at Elena.
Then back at Sofia.
“I’ve done bad things.”
“That wasn’t what I asked.”
Despite everything, Elena almost laughed.
Dominic nodded.
“No. I don’t think I want to be anymore.”
Sofia considered this.
Then slowly reached for his hand.
Dominic took it.
His phone vibrated.
Unknown number.
A photograph arrived.
Saint Michael’s Cathedral.
Taken minutes ago.
Beneath it was one sentence.
COME TO YOUR WEDDING TOMORROW, OR THE NEXT PHOTO WILL BE ELENA’S BODY.
Dominic looked up.
Elena was standing directly across from him.
Safe.
Then another photograph arrived.
It showed Elena leaving the warehouse earlier that morning.
May you like
Taken from less than twenty feet away.
Someone was still watching them.
