Chapter 5 - The Night Bruno Refused to Leave
Bruno survived.
The bullet passed through the muscle above his shoulder without striking bone.
The veterinarian called him lucky.
Dante didn't believe in luck.
Sophie did.
She sat beside Bruno's recovery bed at the private veterinary clinic, holding his paw.
“I told you,” she whispered. “Forever.”
Dante stood behind the glass watching.
Elena joined him.
“You could have sent someone else.”
“No.”
“He's a dog.”
Dante looked at her.
Elena immediately regretted the sentence.
“I didn't mean—”
“I know.”
She watched Sophie.
“She loves him.”
“He loves her.”
Elena smiled faintly.
“Apparently everyone does.”
Dante glanced at her.
She looked away.
The tracker was discovered an hour later.
Tommy brought it to Dante.
“Professional equipment.”
“Vale?”
“Too sophisticated.”
“Salerno.”
“Probably.”
Dante closed his hand around the device.
“Then we use it.”
Tommy understood.
“You want them to think it's still active.”
“Yes.”
They built a trap.
The tracker would travel in a decoy vehicle.
Salerno's people would follow.
Dante's men would follow them.
For the first time in eleven years, Dante might finally reach the man connected to his father's murder.
The plan worked.
Too well.
The tracker led Salerno's men to an abandoned warehouse outside Boston.
Dante followed.
Inside, they found documents.
Photographs.
Records.
And one man waiting.
Gabriel Vale.
Elena's husband.
Dante entered alone.
Gabriel smiled.
“So you're the famous Dante Moretti.”
“Where's Salerno?”
“You don't waste time.”
“Where?”
Gabriel leaned against a table.
“You think you're protecting Elena.”
“I asked you a question.”
“And I think she likes it.”
Dante's expression didn't change.
Gabriel smiled wider.
“She always wanted somebody to save her.”
Dante moved closer.
“You're confusing protection with ownership.”
“She is mine.”
“No.”
“My wife.”
“Not your property.”
“My daughter.”
“Not your property either.”
Gabriel's smile vanished.
“You don't know what Elena did.”
“She survived you.”
“She stole from me.”
“She escaped you.”
Gabriel stepped closer.
“Careful, Moretti. You might start believing you're some kind of hero.”
Dante almost laughed.
“I've never made that mistake.”
Then Gabriel said the one thing that changed everything.
“Your father did.”
Dante froze.
“What?”
“Vincenzo thought he could clean things up. Thought he could walk away.”
Dante's voice lowered.
“You were there?”
“I was nineteen.”
The warehouse seemed to shrink around them.
“Tell me.”
“Salerno ordered the hit.”
Dante had suspected it.
Hearing it was different.
“Why?”
“Your father discovered Salerno was trafficking women through businesses protected by Moretti money.”
Dante's stomach turned.
“Vincenzo wanted out.”
“He wanted more than out. He was going to expose Salerno.”
Dante thought of his father's final words.
Never love anything they can take from you.
Perhaps Vincenzo hadn't been warning his son against love.
Perhaps he had been confessing his own fear.
Gabriel continued.
“Salerno paid a cop to arrange the shooting.”
“T.R.?”
Gabriel laughed.
“You thought Russo?”
Dante didn't answer.
“T.R. was Thomas Rourke.”
Dante knew the name.
Deputy Commissioner Thomas Rourke.
A respected Boston law enforcement official.
A man who had attended Vincenzo's funeral.
Dante felt something cold settle inside him.
“Where's Salerno?”
Gabriel smiled.
“Closer than you think.”
The warehouse lights died.
Gunfire erupted.
Dante dropped.
Tommy's men returned fire.
When emergency lights flickered on, Gabriel was gone.
But he had left something behind.
Sophie's stuffed rabbit.
Dante stared at it.
Impossible.
Sophie had brought that rabbit to the clinic.
He grabbed his phone.
Called Elena.
No answer.
Again.
Nothing.
He called the estate.
Tommy's voice came over the radio from outside.
“Boss?”
“Call home.”
Tommy did.
His face changed.
Nobody answered from the staff wing.
Dante's heart stopped.
They raced back.
The mansion was locked.
No forced entry.
One guard unconscious.
Another missing.
Dante ran upstairs.
“Sophie!”
Empty.
“Elena!”
Nothing.
Then he heard scratching.
Bruno.
The wounded dog was supposed to remain at the clinic overnight.
Instead, somehow, Elena had brought him home.
He stood at the back service door, growling and clawing.
Dante opened it.
Bruno limped outside.
“Bruno!”
The dog ignored him.
He followed a scent through the garden.
Past the roses.
To a small gate.
There, caught on an iron spike, was a strip of Sophie's pink dress.
Dante picked it up.
Tommy swore.
Then Dante's phone rang.
Unknown number.
He answered.
Gabriel's voice.
“You wanted Salerno.”
Dante said nothing.
“Bring the original ledger.”
“I don't have it.”
“Elena does.”
Dante's eyes narrowed.
“She told me it was destroyed.”
“She lied.”
“Where?”
Gabriel laughed.
“Ask her.”
“You have her.”
“No.”
Dante heard something then.
A child's cry.
Sophie.
Every muscle in his body tightened.
“Touch her and—”
“There he is,” Gabriel said. “The monster everyone warned me about.”
Dante's voice became terrifyingly quiet.
“Put Sophie on.”
A pause.
Then:
“Mister Dante?”
His eyes closed.
“Sophie.”
“Bruno got hurt.”
“I know.”
“Are you coming?”
“Yes.”
“Promise?”
Dante remembered Elena's warning.
For Sophie, I'll try was a promise.
This time he didn't say he'd try.
“I promise.”
The line went dead.
Dante lowered the phone.
Bruno stood beside him despite his wound.
“You're staying.”
Bruno growled.
Dante looked down.
For the first time that night, something almost human touched his expression.
“Fine.”
He turned to Tommy.
“Get the cars.”
“Where?”
Dante looked at the strip of pink fabric.
“To bring my family home.”
The word escaped before he could stop it.
Family.
Tommy heard it.
Dante heard it.
Bruno seemed to hear it too.
And somewhere across Boston, Sophie was waiting for a man who had spent eleven years believing love made people weak.
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Tonight, Dante Moretti was going to discover just how dangerous love could make a man.
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