Chapter 4 - When His Own Men Walked Away
The shop went black.
Riley heard Evelyn gasp.
Then Marco's voice.
“Nobody move.”
Streetlight spilled weakly through the rain-covered windows.
The black SUV remained across the road.
Its headlights were off.
Riley reached beneath the counter and found the flashlight she kept beside the register.
A beam cut through the darkness.
Dominic looked furious.
“You idiots.”
Marco turned toward him.
“Who?”
“The people outside.”
“You know them?”
Dominic didn't answer.
Anthony walked to the front door.
The deadbolt wouldn't move.
“Electronic lock's jammed.”
Riley frowned.
“My lock isn't electronic.”
Anthony looked closer.
“Something's clamped outside.”
Vincent peered through the glass.
“Two men.”
Riley joined him.
“East Mercer?”
Dominic rubbed a hand across his jaw.
“Probably.”
Riley looked at him.
“You brought them?”
“No.”
“Then why are they here?”
Dominic's silence lasted too long.
Marco stepped closer.
“What did you do?”
Dominic turned.
“They're insurance.”
“Against what?”
“Complications.”
Marco laughed without humor.
“We're the complications now?”
Dominic looked at him.
“You've become one.”
That was the moment the relationship ended.
Riley could see it in Marco's face.
Not dramatically.
No shouting.
No weapon drawn.
Just recognition.
A loyal man finally understanding that loyalty had only traveled one direction.
Marco removed a small pin from his lapel.
A silver C.
Castelli.
He looked at it.
Then placed it on Riley's stainless-steel counter.
Dominic stared.
“What are you doing?”
Marco stepped back.
“I'm done.”
Dominic laughed.
“You don't get to be done.”
“I just was.”
“After seventeen years?”
“After Nicholas.”
Dominic's face hardened.
“You don't know what happened to him.”
“That's the problem.”
Vincent looked at Marco.
Then at Dominic.
Slowly, he removed his own pin.
He placed it beside Marco's.
Anthony followed.
Three silver Castelli pins lay on Riley's butcher table.
Dominic looked at them.
For the first time, Riley saw him truly humiliated.
And she understood something.
Dominic hadn't come to humiliate her because she mattered so much.
He had come because humiliation was his language of control.
Seeing those pins on the table made him feel what he'd planned for Riley.
Small.
Exposed.
Powerless.
Dominic said quietly, “Pick them up.”
Nobody moved.
“Pick them up.”
Marco answered.
“No.”
Dominic lunged.
Riley moved before she thought.
She caught his arm, turned with his momentum, and drove him forward against the butcher table.
His cheek hit freezing stainless steel.
The sound shocked everyone.
Riley pinned his wrist behind him.
Dominic swore.
“Get off me.”
Riley leaned down.
Her voice was quiet.
“You came into my shop thinking my body made me weak.”
Dominic struggled once.
Riley tightened her grip.
“That was your first mistake.”
The words belonged to the moment now.
Not bravado.
Fact.
Marco stood nearby but did not help Dominic.
Neither did the others.
Riley released him.
Dominic straightened slowly.
His face burned with humiliation.
But the real damage had already been done.
His men had watched Riley put him against the table.
And they had chosen not to intervene.
Dominic looked at them.
“Remember this.”
Marco answered.
“I will.”
Outside, one of the men near the SUV approached the front door.
He held something beneath his coat.
Anthony saw it.
“We need another exit.”
Riley pointed toward the freezer.
“The tunnel.”
They moved quickly.
Dominic stayed where he was.
Teresa looked back.
“You coming?”
He laughed bitterly.
“With you?”
Riley stopped.
“If those are your people, you can stay.”
Dominic looked toward the window.
The man outside lifted his phone.
Dominic's phone vibrated.
He answered.
“What?”
Riley could hear only fragments.
Problem.
Cleanup.
Orders.
Then Dominic said something none of them expected.
“No.”
He listened.
“I said nobody goes inside.”
Marco looked at him.
Dominic's eyes shifted toward Riley.
“No one touches the woman.”
Another pause.
“No.”
The call ended.
Vincent said, “They don't work for you anymore, do they?”
Dominic didn't answer.
That meant yes.
Riley understood.
Dominic had built East Mercer as a tool.
But tools developed owners.
If thirty-two million dollars were at stake, people above Dominic had reasons to remove every loose end.
Including him.
“You're locked in here too,” Riley said.
Dominic looked at the door.
“Yes.”
The reversal was almost absurd.
Twenty-five minutes ago, he'd walked in with three men to intimidate Riley.
Now all five of them were trapped in her butcher shop by the very machine Dominic had created.
Riley headed toward the freezer.
“Then move.”
They descended through the tunnel.
Evelyn knew another route.
The passage extended beneath three buildings and opened inside the basement of an abandoned tailor shop half a block away.
They emerged into dust.
Teresa checked the street from a back window.
“Clear.”
Marco looked at Riley.
“We need to move your mother.”
Riley stiffened at the word.
Evelyn noticed.
“I can take care of myself.”
“You disappeared for twenty-eight years,” Riley said. “Apparently you're very good at that.”
Evelyn flinched.
Riley instantly regretted it.
But not enough to apologize.
Not yet.
Anthony said, “The bank.”
Dominic laughed.
“You still think you're going?”
Riley looked at him.
“Yes.”
“They'll be waiting.”
“Then we'll go somewhere else first.”
“Where?”
Riley thought.
Her father had always said that when someone expected you to run, the safest move was often to stand in public.
She pulled out her phone.
No signal.
Marco's worked.
She called Detective Elena Ruiz.
Riley knew her from the neighborhood.
Elena bought Sunday roasts at Hayes Prime Cuts and had once helped Samuel after a break-in.
Marco's eyebrows rose.
“Police?”
Riley looked at him.
“You object?”
He glanced at Dominic.
“Not anymore.”
Dominic smiled.
“You think a detective can protect you from this?”
“No.”
Riley handed Marco the phone.
“I think evidence can.”
Forty minutes later, they walked through the rear entrance of St. Matthew's Hospital.
Teresa had suggested it.
A public building.
Security.
Cameras.
And Elena Ruiz's husband worked in administration.
Detective Ruiz met them in a conference room.
She was forty-three, sharp-eyed, and visibly irritated by the number of familiar criminals in one place.
She looked at Riley.
“This better be good.”
Riley placed copies of the documents on the table.
Elena spent twelve minutes reading.
Then she looked up.
“This is not good.”
Dominic smiled.
“I told you.”
Elena ignored him.
“This is federal.”
Louis nodded.
“I know.”
“You were declared dead.”
“Also true.”
Elena closed her eyes.
“Wonderful.”
Marco placed Nicholas's watch on the table.
Elena studied it.
“Where did you find this?”
“Under Riley's shop.”
“Was the site disturbed?”
“Yes.”
Elena exhaled.
“You people are trying to give me a stroke.”
Riley said, “Can you get us into First National safely?”
Elena looked at the key.
“Tomorrow morning.”
Dominic said, “You'll never make it.”
Elena finally looked at him.
“Mr. Castelli, unless you suddenly developed a badge, stop talking.”
Anthony nearly smiled.
Dominic did not.
Elena turned back to Riley.
“Who's coming?”
“Me.”
“Anyone else?”
Evelyn said, “Me.”
Louis nodded.
“Me too.”
Marco stepped forward.
“And me.”
Elena shook her head.
“One witness too many.”
Marco placed the photograph of Nicholas on the table.
“My brother is part of this.”
Elena studied him.
Then nodded once.
“All right.”
Dominic moved toward the door.
Elena blocked him.
“You're staying.”
“You arresting me?”
“Should I?”
Dominic smiled.
“Not unless you have something.”
Elena lifted the ledger.
“I have a very interesting evening.”
“Interesting isn't probable cause.”
Louis looked at him.
“Still remember your father's lawyers.”
Dominic's smile disappeared.
Elena arranged temporary protection through a federal contact.
By 2:30 a.m., Riley sat alone in an empty hospital cafeteria.
She hadn't slept.
Evelyn approached carrying two coffees.
Riley looked at the cup.
“How do you know how I take it?”
Evelyn stopped.
“Your father told me.”
That hurt more than it should have.
Riley took the coffee anyway.
Evelyn sat.
For a while, neither spoke.
Finally Riley said, “Did you ever see me?”
Evelyn stared at her hands.
“From a distance.”
“When?”
“Your high school graduation.”
Riley looked up.
“My father's funeral?”
Evelyn's eyes filled.
“Yes.”
Riley stood so quickly the chair scraped backward.
“You were there?”
“Across the street.”
“You watched me bury him alone?”
“I wanted to come to you.”
“But you didn't.”
“I was afraid.”
Riley shook her head.
“You let fear raise me.”
Evelyn's face crumpled.
“I know.”
Riley walked away.
She reached the hallway before her phone rang.
Unknown number.
She almost ignored it.
Then answered.
“Hello?”
A man's voice spoke quietly.
“You have something that belongs to us.”
Riley stopped.
“Who is this?”
“You'll find out.”
The call ended.
A text arrived.
A photograph.
Marco standing outside the conference room.
Taken seconds earlier.
Then another message.
BANK. 9:00 A.M. COME ALONE.
Riley stared.
Before she could show Elena, another photograph arrived.
This one was older.
Her father.
Samuel Hayes.
Standing beside a man Riley had never seen.
On the back of the scanned photograph were five handwritten words.
RILEY MUST NEVER TRUST TERESA.
Riley looked down the hallway.
May you like
Teresa Castelli was walking toward her.
And she was holding a gun.
