Chapter 5 - The Name in Salvatore’s Phone
“Tessa?”
Rachel spoke her daughter’s name as though she had been saving it for eighteen years.
Tessa could not answer.
Danny stood frozen in the parking garage.
Their mother looked older.
Thinner.
A pale scar crossed her jaw.
But it was her.
Tessa knew the eyes.
She knew the small crease between Rachel’s eyebrows.
She knew the silver necklace Rachel had worn in every childhood photograph.
Danny began crying.
Rachel reached toward him.
He stepped backward.
That hurt her visibly.
Good, Tessa thought.
It should hurt.
“You abandoned us.”
“No.”
“You let us bury you.”
“I know.”
“You let Dad raise us alone.”
Rachel closed her eyes.
“Your father helped me disappear.”
Tessa almost dropped the phone.
Rachel explained quickly.
Patrick had threatened the children.
Rachel possessed financial records capable of destroying several criminal and legitimate organizations, including people far more dangerous than Patrick.
If she remained alive publicly, Tessa and Danny became leverage.
So Rachel disappeared.
Their father created the story of her death.
Only four people knew.
Rachel.
Tessa’s father.
Elena.
And Salvatore’s father.
“Then why come back now?”
“Because Patrick found Danny.”
Rachel looked at Salvatore through the screen.
“And because someone inside Salvatore’s organization has been giving Patrick information.”
Salvatore’s face changed.
Who?
Rachel hesitated.
“I don’t know.”
Salvatore took out his phone.
As he did, a message appeared.
Tessa saw the sender.
MARCUS.
Salvatore read it.
His jaw tightened.
Tessa remembered the name.
Marcus Vale was Salvatore’s closest adviser.
The man who had driven them from Bellamy’s.
The man coordinating security.
“What does it say?”
Salvatore showed her.
I FOUND PATRICK. COME ALONE.
Rachel saw it through the video.
“No.”
Salvatore looked at her.
Rachel’s voice sharpened.
“Do not go.”
Why?
“Because Marcus Vale was at Bellamy’s the night you lost your hearing.”
Salvatore stopped.
“He was seventeen,” Rachel said. “Patrick used him as a lookout.”
Salvatore’s expression went blank.
Tessa understood what betrayal looked like without sound.
It looked exactly like that.
Marcus had spent almost two decades beside Salvatore.
Friend.
Interpreter when needed.
Business partner.
Protector.
Perhaps traitor.
Salvatore typed a reply.
WHERE?
The answer came immediately.
Old Marquetti warehouse. Archer Avenue.
Rachel shook her head.
“It’s a trap.”
Salvatore signed.
I know.
Tessa grabbed his arm.
“Then don’t go.”
His eyes met hers.
If I don’t, he runs.
“Let him.”
He knows where Danny is.
That ended the argument.
Rachel moved Danny somewhere safe while Salvatore headed toward the warehouse.
Tessa insisted on coming.
He refused.
She got into the car anyway.
For the first time, Salvatore actually smiled.
Only for a second.
At the warehouse, they found the doors unlocked.
Inside, a single overhead light burned.
Marcus stood beneath it.
Alone.
Salvatore approached.
Marcus began signing.
You shouldn’t have brought her.
Tessa stayed beside Salvatore.
Salvatore answered.
You shouldn’t have lied to me.
Marcus’s face tightened.
I was seventeen.
Were you there?
Yes.
Did you help Patrick?
A long pause.
Yes.
Tessa felt Salvatore’s anger without seeing him move.
Marcus continued.
But not the way Rachel thinks.
He reached into his coat.
Salvatore’s security men tensed.
Marcus removed an old cassette tape.
“Your father recorded Patrick that night.”
Salvatore stared at it.
“Patrick thought he destroyed every copy.”
Marcus held it out.
“I kept one.”
Tessa asked, “Why?”
“Because your mother told me someday Salvatore would need to know who actually ordered the crash.”
Salvatore took the cassette.
Marcus looked at him.
“It wasn’t Patrick.”
The warehouse went silent.
Tessa felt cold.
“Then who?”
Marcus looked toward Salvatore.
Before he could answer, a red laser dot appeared on Marcus’s chest.
Tessa saw it first.
“DOWN!”
The warehouse windows shattered.
Everyone dropped.
A shot struck the light.
Darkness swallowed the room.
Salvatore pulled Tessa behind a concrete pillar.
Another shot.
Then another.
Marcus shouted something Tessa could not hear clearly.
A vehicle screamed away outside.
When emergency lights flickered on, Marcus was on the floor.
Alive.
Bleeding from his shoulder.
The cassette lay beside him.
Tessa grabbed it.
A label was taped across the plastic.
May you like
One name had been written on it.
ELENA MARQUETTI.
