Chapter 7 - The Truth That Broke the Mafia King
Roman wanted to call Serrano immediately.
Alina stopped him.
"He wants you angry."
"He has Belle."
"And if you go charging in, he'll have you too."
Roman stared at her.
"You're asking me to wait?"
"I'm asking you to think."
"She's tied to a chair because of me."
"Because of all of us."
Roman turned away.
Alina followed.
"Stop carrying every bad thing like you personally invented evil."
He looked back.
"People around me get hurt."
"People around everybody get hurt."
"My statistics are worse."
Despite everything, she nearly smiled.
Roman didn't.
He looked exhausted.
Not physically.
Somewhere deeper.
The truth about his father had cut through whatever armor remained.
Salvatore had not ordered Thomas Hale's death.
But he had ordered fear.
Threats.
Coercion.
The kind of command that allowed murder to grow inside it.
Roman understood that.
So did Alina.
At eleven, Henderson arrived carrying an old evidence box.
He placed it on the table.
"I kept one thing from Thomas."
Alina groaned.
"Please tell me we're running out of secrets."
"We are."
"That's not reassuring."
Henderson removed a cassette tape.
Roman stared.
"What is that?"
"Something people used before your generation decided physical buttons were offensive."
Alina almost laughed.
Henderson inserted it into an old recorder.
A man's voice emerged.
Salvatore Vescari.
Roman sat.
The recording had been made twelve years earlier.
Salvatore sounded furious.
Thomas, listen to me. I don't care what Gabriel told you. Nobody touches your wife or daughter.
A pause.
You want to leave? Fine.
You leave.
But you give me every copy of the books first.
Thomas's voice answered.
I don't trust you.
You shouldn't.
Salvatore sounded almost amused.
But I gave you my word about your family.
Thomas replied.
Your word built half this city's graves.
Silence.
Then Salvatore said something Roman clearly had never expected.
That's why I'm trying not to dig another one.
The tape clicked.
Henderson stopped it.
Roman stared.
"Where did you get that?"
"Thomas recorded every conversation near the end."
"Why wasn't it on the drive?"
"He gave me the physical tape."
Roman leaned forward.
"He was going to let him leave."
Henderson nodded.
"Probably."
Roman covered his face.
Alina understood the contradiction.
For years Roman had believed his father was a monster.
Now he had learned there had been one moment—perhaps only one—when Salvatore had tried to be better.
And Gabriel had destroyed it.
Henderson continued.
"Thomas called Salvatore after he discovered Gabriel's theft."
Roman looked up.
"That's why Gabriel killed him."
"Yes."
"If Thomas reached my father—"
"Gabriel was finished."
Roman stood.
"So he staged the crash first."
"And blamed Serrano?"
"Partly."
Henderson nodded.
"Then later partnered with Serrano when it became useful."
Alina looked at the photograph of Belle.
"Can we use this?"
Roman frowned.
"The tape?"
"Against Gabriel."
Henderson understood.
"Make him think Serrano has proof his story is collapsing."
Roman slowly smiled.
It was the first dangerous smile Alina had ever been glad to see.
At 11:47, Roman called Gabriel.
His cousin answered immediately.
"You finally ready to behave?"
Roman played twelve seconds of Salvatore's recording.
Silence.
Then Gabriel whispered, "Where did you get that?"
Roman ended the call.
Thirty seconds later, a message arrived.
DON'T GO TO SERRANO.
Roman looked at Alina.
She nodded.
Another message.
HE'LL KILL HER.
Then:
MEET ME FIRST.
Marcus traced the phone.
An abandoned parking structure six blocks from Belle's.
Roman left with three men.
Alina went too.
Nobody argued anymore.
Gabriel stood alone on the top level.
Rain blew sideways across the concrete.
Roman approached.
Gabriel looked twenty years older than he had two days earlier.
"You found Lane."
"Yes."
Gabriel laughed bitterly.
"That coward."
"You killed Thomas."
Gabriel's face hardened.
"He was going to destroy us."
"No."
"Don't be naive."
"You were stealing."
Gabriel looked away.
"From our family."
"Our fathers had enough money for ten lifetimes."
"That makes it yours?"
Gabriel snapped.
"You think you're morally superior because you shut down a few gambling rooms and put VESCARI HOLDINGS on buildings?"
Roman stopped ten feet away.
"No."
Gabriel laughed.
"You judge me."
"I judge you for murdering a man who trusted us."
"He betrayed us."
"He saved my life."
"And there it is."
Gabriel's eyes filled with anger.
"Thomas always mattered more to you than your own family."
Roman stared.
"What are you talking about?"
"Our fathers compared us."
Gabriel's voice broke.
"Salvatore loved you. My father treated me like an employee."
"This is about jealousy?"
"It's about everything!"
Gabriel stepped closer.
"You were the heir. The miracle son. The prince who survived the warehouse fire."
Roman's face showed disbelief.
"And Thomas became some saint because he dragged you outside."
"He was a good man."
"He laundered millions."
"He tried to make it right."
"And suddenly we're supposed to forgive him?"
Alina spoke.
"No."
Gabriel noticed her.
She stepped from behind Marcus.
Roman turned.
"I told you to wait."
"You said beside you."
Even Gabriel laughed.
Alina looked at him.
"My father wasn't innocent."
Gabriel's amusement faded.
"He did illegal things. He hurt people indirectly. He lied to his family."
She moved closer.
"But then he tried to stop."
Gabriel said nothing.
"That's the difference between you."
"What?"
"He regretted what he'd become."
Alina's voice hardened.
"You only regret getting caught."
Gabriel's face twisted.
He pulled a gun.
Roman moved in front of Alina.
Marcus raised his weapon.
"Drop it."
Gabriel laughed.
"Nobody shoots."
Rain hammered the concrete.
Roman stared at his cousin.
"You don't want to do this."
"You still think you know me."
"No."
Roman's voice was sad.
"I think I finally don't."
Gabriel's hand trembled.
Then his shoulders collapsed.
He lowered the weapon.
Marcus took it.
Roman approached.
"Where's Belle?"
Gabriel stared toward the city.
"Serrano moved her."
"Where?"
"Meatpacking warehouse on Halsted."
Roman's expression sharpened.
"How many men?"
"Twenty."
"Entrances?"
"Four."
"Why are you helping?"
Gabriel laughed quietly.
"Because Serrano plans to kill me too."
Roman said nothing.
Gabriel looked at him.
"Once he gets Thomas's files, everyone who knows they exist becomes unnecessary."
Alina thought of Carl's brother.
Frederick Lane.
Thomas.
A pattern.
Gabriel continued.
"He wants you there at midnight. But he's not waiting."
Roman checked his watch.
11:54.
"He moved the timetable."
Gabriel nodded.
"Belle dies at midnight whether you arrive or not."
Roman turned.
Everyone ran.
The warehouse stood beside the river.
Roman's vehicles stopped two blocks away.
Police couldn't be trusted.
Not yet.
Henderson had contacted one federal investigator he trusted, but response time was uncertain.
Roman's people entered through two sides.
Alina remained in the vehicle.
For approximately ninety seconds.
Then gunfire sounded.
She opened the door.
Marcus's backup guard grabbed her arm.
"Absolutely not."
"Belle is inside."
"Roman will kill me."
"Belle might die."
The guard cursed.
Alina pulled free.
She moved along the warehouse wall.
A side door stood open.
Inside, shadows moved between hanging plastic curtains.
She heard Belle shouting.
"You tie me to a chair in my own diner uniform and don't even offer coffee? Your mother raised animals!"
Alina nearly cried with relief.
Belle was alive.
She peeked around a corner.
Two men guarded her.
Alina looked around.
Industrial freezer.
Metal carts.
Fire alarm.
She smiled.
Five minutes later, sprinklers exploded overhead.
One guard cursed.
The other looked up.
Alina pushed a rolling steel cart down the sloped floor.
It slammed into one man's knees.
Belle kicked the other.
"About time!"
Alina ran to her.
"You okay?"
"I'm sixty-three and tied to furniture. How do you think?"
Alina cut the restraints with a kitchen knife she found nearby.
Then Roman appeared.
Wet.
Furious.
Alive.
He saw Alina.
His expression became more furious.
"I swear to God—"
"Later."
Belle pointed behind him.
"Serrano!"
Victor Serrano stood on a catwalk.
A gun in his hand.
Roman turned.
Serrano fired.
Gabriel stepped from nowhere.
The bullet struck him in the shoulder.
He fell.
Roman fired back.
Serrano disappeared behind machinery.
Chaos followed.
Federal sirens approached outside.
Henderson had succeeded.
Serrano's remaining men scattered.
Roman knelt beside Gabriel.
Blood spread across his coat.
Gabriel stared up.
"You owe me."
Roman pressed a hand over the wound.
"No."
Gabriel laughed weakly.
"Fair."
Paramedics arrived minutes later.
Serrano escaped through a river entrance.
But Belle survived.
Gabriel survived.
And federal agents recovered enough weapons and records from the warehouse to start asking questions Serrano could no longer buy away.
As Gabriel was loaded into an ambulance, he grabbed Roman's sleeve.
"He's going after her."
Roman looked down.
"Who?"
"Serrano."
Gabriel's eyes found Alina.
"He doesn't care about the drive anymore."
"Why?"
"Because Thomas hid one last thing."
Alina stepped closer.
"What?"
Gabriel struggled to breathe.
"A recording."
"What recording?"
Gabriel smiled faintly.
"The one that proves Victor Serrano personally ordered your uncle David's murder."
Alina froze.
"Where is it?"
Gabriel's eyes closed.
Roman shook him.
"Gabriel."
Paramedics pulled Roman away.
Before the ambulance doors shut, Gabriel opened his eyes one last time.
"Beneath the place Thomas trusted most."
The doors closed.
Alina and Roman stared at each other.
They both understood at the same moment.
Belle's Diner.
May you like
And somewhere beneath the cracked floors where Alina had spent years serving coffee, her father had hidden the one piece of evidence powerful enough to destroy Victor Serrano forever.
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