Chapter 6 - A Debt Written in Blood
The original ledger had never been destroyed.
Elena had hidden it in the safest place she could imagine.
Inside Vincenzo Moretti's mausoleum.
Dante stared at her when she told him over the phone.
Gabriel had taken Sophie but left Elena behind deliberately.
He needed her to retrieve the ledger.
“Why my father's grave?”
“Because Gabriel would never look there.”
“How did you know where it was?”
“The ledger mentioned Vincenzo. I researched him.”
Dante drove to the cemetery.
Elena was waiting.
“You should stay here.”
“My daughter is there.”
“So you're going.”
“Yes.”
Dante nodded.
He didn't argue.
Inside the mausoleum, Elena removed a loose stone behind a memorial plaque.
The ledger was wrapped in plastic.
Dante opened it.
Names.
Payments.
Dates.
Then he found November seventeenth.
T.R. — 200,000. V.M. resolved.
Thomas Rourke.
Dante closed the book.
“Now we end it.”
The exchange location was an abandoned hotel near the waterfront.
Salerno waited inside.
He was older than Dante remembered.
Silver hair.
Expensive coat.
Cold eyes.
Gabriel stood beside him.
Sophie sat in a chair.
She wasn't tied.
She didn't need to be.
Two armed men stood behind her.
When she saw Dante, she jumped up.
“Mister Dante!”
Gabriel grabbed her shoulder.
Bruno growled.
The old dog had followed despite everyone trying to stop him.
Salerno laughed.
“Vincenzo's dog.”
Dante stared.
“You remember him?”
“I remember the puppy.”
Dante's blood chilled.
Salerno had been there.
“You watched my father die.”
“I ordered it.”
Elena inhaled sharply.
Dante's face remained motionless.
“Why?”
“Because your father became sentimental.”
Salerno looked at Sophie.
“Like you.”
Dante's eyes hardened.
“My father discovered what you were doing.”
“He decided he had principles.”
“He had more than you.”
“He had a grave.”
Dante took one step forward.
Guns lifted.
Sophie whimpered.
Dante stopped.
Salerno smiled.
“Give me the ledger.”
Dante held it up.
“Release Sophie.”
“The ledger first.”
“No.”
Gabriel tightened his grip on the child.
Sophie cried.
Bruno's body lowered.
Dante saw it.
So did Elena.
Nobody else did.
“Bruno,” Sophie whispered.
The dog exploded forward.
Gabriel turned instinctively.
That instant was enough.
Elena ran.
Dante moved.
Chaos filled the room.
Tommy's men entered from the rear.
Gabriel lost his grip on Sophie.
Elena grabbed her daughter and dropped behind a concrete pillar.
Bruno hit Gabriel squarely in the chest.
The weapon slid across the floor.
Dante kicked it away.
Salerno tried to flee.
Tommy blocked the exit.
For several seconds, Dante and Salerno simply stared at each other.
Eleven years of unanswered questions stood between them.
“You killed my father.”
Salerno smiled.
“And you'll kill me.”
Dante's hand tightened around his weapon.
Salerno wanted it.
Dante realized that.
He wanted Dante to become exactly what Vincenzo had feared.
A man with nothing except vengeance.
Then Sophie cried behind him.
Not loudly.
Just one frightened sound.
Dante looked toward her.
She was in Elena's arms.
Bruno stood protectively in front of them.
Family.
Dante lowered the gun.
Salerno's smile disappeared.
“No.”
Dante looked at Tommy.
“Police.”
Salerno laughed.
“You think police will touch me?”
Dante held up the ledger.
“Some will.”
Sirens approached.
Not local officers.
Federal agents.
Elena had sent copies years earlier.
Dante's people had spent the last hours making sure those copies reached investigators who weren't connected to Rourke.
Salerno stared.
Dante walked closer.
“My father died trying to expose you.”
He placed the ledger on the table.
“You don't get to turn me into you.”
Salerno was arrested before dawn.
Gabriel wasn't.
In the confusion, he escaped through a service corridor.
When Dante realized it, Elena's relief vanished.
“He'll come back.”
Dante looked at Sophie.
The child had fallen asleep against Bruno.
“Yes,” he said.
“He will.”
And three days later, Gabriel proved him right.
A package arrived at the mansion.
Inside was Sophie's blue button.
Dante reached into his pocket.
The button Sophie had given him was gone.
Gabriel had entered the estate.
Entered Dante's study.
Touched something that belonged to Sophie.
And left without anyone seeing him.
Beneath the button was a note.
You took my family. I'll take yours.
Dante read it twice.
Then looked toward Bruno.
For the first time, the threat wasn't aimed at Sophie.
It was aimed at him.
Because Gabriel Vale had finally understood what Dante himself had only just begun to understand.
Elena and Sophie weren't merely people he was protecting anymore.
They had become the very thing Vincenzo warned him never to have.
May you like
Something he couldn't bear to lose.
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