Chapter 4 - The Enemy Inside Moretti House
Mia nearly dropped the glass in her hand.
“That’s impossible.”
Dominic was already moving toward the door.
Alvarez blocked him.
“No.”
“He’s right outside.”
“And that’s exactly why you’re staying here.”
Dominic stared at her.
“You’re giving me orders in her apartment?”
“Yes.”
Alvarez signaled to the officers.
“Bring him in.”
Mia ran to the window.
The sidewalk was empty.
“Where did he go?”
Marco cursed.
The black sedan was still there.
The rear door remained open.
But Julian Vale had vanished.
Officers rushed downstairs.
Two searched the alley.
One checked the roof access.
Nothing.
Mia’s hands shook.
She had imagined this moment for three years.
Sometimes she imagined hitting Julian.
Sometimes embracing him.
Sometimes demanding why he had abandoned his daughter.
She had never imagined seeing him appear silently beneath her window and disappear before she could speak.
Dominic stood beside her.
“That was him?”
“Yes.”
“You’re sure?”
“I knew him for eight years.”
Dominic nodded.
“He looked different.”
“Older.”
“No.”
Mia turned.
“What?”
“Scared.”
Dominic had known Julian in another life.
A world Mia had never entered.
“What was he like before?”
Dominic leaned against the wall.
“Smart. Too smart.”
“That sounds like him.”
“He could look at a room full of people and understand who hated whom before anyone spoke.”
Mia almost smiled.
“He used to guess which couples would break up at restaurants.”
Dominic’s expression softened briefly.
“Sounds right.”
“Did you hate him?”
“No.”
The answer surprised her.
“I trusted him.”
“Then why did you believe he stole from you?”
“Because the evidence was perfect.”
Something about the way he said perfect made Mia look at him.
“Too perfect?”
Dominic did not respond.
Alvarez reentered.
“He’s gone.”
Mia’s stomach sank.
“Did he leave anything?”
“No.”
Dominic turned.
“March eighteenth.”
Alvarez crossed her arms.
“Yes. Let’s discuss that.”
Mia looked at Dominic.
He seemed older suddenly.
“March eighteenth was the night my younger brother died.”
Mia went still.
“How?”
“Car explosion.”
Alvarez’s eyes narrowed.
“You told investigators it was retaliation from another family.”
“That’s what we believed.”
“What did Julian believe?”
Dominic looked toward the envelope.
“He said it came from inside.”
Mia understood.
“And nobody listened.”
“My father didn’t.”
“Did you?”
“I wanted to.”
“That’s not the same.”
“No.”
The admission was quiet.
“Julian disappeared six weeks later.”
Alvarez tapped the note.
“And now he says not to trust the man who calls you family.”
Dominic’s jaw tightened.
“There are a lot of men who call me family.”
“Who has been there the longest?”
Dominic did not answer.
Marco did.
“Antonio Russo.”
Dominic looked at him sharply.
Mia knew that name.
Anyone who read society pages knew Antonio Russo.
He was Dominic’s godfather.
Business adviser.
The elegant gray-haired man photographed at charity galas beside senators, judges, athletes, and Moretti family members.
Alvarez looked between them.
“Russo was at the party?”
Marco nodded.
“He left twenty minutes before the cake incident.”
Dominic’s face darkened.
“Why?”
“Said his wife was ill.”
“Verify it.”
Marco reached for his phone.
Mia remembered something.
“The lion.”
Dominic looked at her.
“What about it?”
“I saw that symbol tonight before Lily mentioned it.”
“Where?”
“On a ring.”
Everyone stopped.
“Whose ring?” Alvarez asked.
Mia searched her memory.
She had spent the evening carrying glasses past dozens of expensive suits.
Hands reached for champagne.
Hands gave tips.
Hands gestured.
One hand had worn a heavy gold ring.
A lion’s head.
“I don’t know.”
Dominic stepped closer.
“Think.”
Mia shut her eyes.
Then she remembered.
An older man had steadied her tray when another guest bumped her.
Silver hair.
Warm smile.
He had said, Careful, sweetheart.
Antonio Russo.
Mia opened her eyes.
“It was him.”
Silence.
Dominic shook his head once.
“No.”
“I’m sure.”
“He wears a family crest.”
“A lion?”
Dominic did not answer.
Marco looked ill.
Alvarez asked, “What?”
Marco lowered his voice.
“The Moretti crest isn’t a lion.”
Dominic finished.
“It’s an eagle.”
Mia felt cold.
“Then why does Antonio wear a lion?”
Nobody knew.
Dominic called Russo.
No answer.
Again.
No answer.
Marco called Russo’s driver.
The driver answered immediately.
Russo had never gone home.
He had asked to be dropped near Grand Central.
Then dismissed the car.
Alvarez swore softly.
“We need to find him.”
Dominic’s voice became ice.
“So do I.”
Alvarez pointed at him.
“No private justice.”
Dominic said nothing.
“That silence is not reassuring.”
“He threatened my son.”
“We don’t know that yet.”
“My brother died after Julian warned us about an inside betrayal. Julian disappeared. Tonight someone tried to hurt Ethan. The intruder wore a lion medallion. Russo wears a lion.”
“That’s evidence for investigation.”
“To you.”
“To everyone who wants this solved without creating three more funerals.”
Dominic looked away.
Mia understood the struggle in his face.
He had built his life around retaliation.
Around certainty.
Around answering threats with greater threats.
But Ethan had almost paid the price.
Lily had stepped between generations of violence without understanding any of it.
Perhaps that mattered.
“Dominic.”
He looked at Mia.
“If you do something stupid, Ethan loses you too.”
That landed.
Hard.
Mia saw it.
Dominic slowly exhaled.
“Fine.”
Alvarez blinked.
“That easy?”
“No.”
He looked at Mia.
“But she’s right.”
The next morning, they were moved to a secure apartment used by the district attorney’s office.
Dominic objected to the location.
Alvarez ignored him.
Lily ate pancakes.
Ethan, under guard at another location, called on video.
“Did you get a new cake?” Lily asked.
“No.”
“Why?”
“My dad says cake is suspicious now.”
Mia covered her mouth to stop herself from laughing.
Dominic, standing near the window, failed to hide his smile.
“I did not say that.”
Ethan grinned.
“You did.”
The children talked for ten minutes.
For ten minutes, the nightmare almost disappeared.
Then Alvarez entered with an evidence folder.
“We got preliminary lab results.”
Dominic stood.
“And?”
“The cake was contaminated.”
Mia squeezed Lily’s hand.
“With what?”
“I’m not going into technical details until the report is final.”
“Would it have hurt Ethan?”
Alvarez’s expression answered before her mouth did.
“Yes.”
Dominic turned toward the window.
His shoulders tightened.
Mia felt Lily leaning against her.
Alvarez continued.
“There’s more.”
She placed a photograph on the table.
The bottle cap from the kitchen had a partial print.
They had found a match.
Not to the unidentified man upstairs.
Not to Luca.
To Antonio Russo.
Dominic stared.
“No.”
Alvarez slid another document forward.
“Russo was questioned seventeen years ago after your brother’s death.”
Dominic looked up sharply.
“I never knew that.”
“Apparently your father had the interview buried.”
“Why?”
“That’s what we’re trying to learn.”
Mia saw Dominic’s expression shift from anger to betrayal.
His father had hidden something.
Julian had known something.
Antonio had known something.
And somewhere inside those seventeen missing years was the reason Lily had become a target.
Alvarez’s phone rang.
She answered.
Her expression changed.
“What?”
She listened.
“Where?”
Another pause.
“We’re coming.”
She hung up.
“Julian Vale just walked into the Manhattan DA’s office.”
Mia stood so fast her chair tipped over.
“What?”
“He asked for immunity.”
Dominic’s eyes narrowed.
“From what?”
Alvarez looked directly at him.
“He says he has evidence identifying the person who killed your brother.”
Mia’s heart slammed.
“And Antonio?”
Alvarez hesitated.
“He says Antonio Russo is only the beginning.”
Dominic reached for his coat.
Then Alvarez’s phone buzzed again.
A photograph arrived.
She opened it.
Her face drained.
“What is it?”
Alvarez turned the screen toward them.
It showed Julian sitting alone in an interview room.
Behind him, visible through the small window in the door, stood a man in a black suit.
A man wearing a lion pin.
May you like
Marco whispered, “That’s not one of ours.”
Then the lights in the district attorney’s building went out.
