Chapter 5 - The First Move
Rocco knew he couldn't stay in the chair if he was going to fight Gino.
But he also knew that the moment he stood up,
the life he had found here would change forever.
"I need a phone,"
Rocco said,
looking at Elara.
"I thought you said you didn't have one,"
she replied,
confused.
"I don't,"
he said,
"but I need to make a call to a man who owes me a very different kind of debt."
She handed him her old flip phone,
and he dialed a number he had memorized years ago.
It wasn't a Boston number.
It was a number for a man in Chicago who dealt in information and untraceable ghosts.
"It's the Ghost,"
Rocco said when the line picked up.
There was a long silence on the other end.
"I thought you were dead,
Rocco,"
the voice replied.
"Not yet,"
Rocco said,
glancing at Elara who was busy kneading dough at the far end of the room.
"I need everything you have on the Vesper Group's activities in West Virginia."
"I want the names of the local fixers,
the bank accounts,
and the leverage they're using on the sheriff."
"That’s a big ask,"
the voice said.
"It’ll cost you."
"Put it on my tab,"
Rocco said,
"and tell nobody I called."
He hung up and handed the phone back to Elara.
"Who was that?"
she asked,
suspicion creeping into her voice.
"An old friend,"
Rocco said.
"Elara,
I need you to trust me for a few more days."
"I'm going to get you the money to pay off your debts."
She shook her head,
tears welling in her eyes.
"It’s not just the money,
Rocco."
"Thorne’s men,
they’re dangerous."
"They’ve already hurt people."
Rocco looked at his hands,
the hands that had signed death warrants and held the power of life and death.
"I know dangerous people,
Elara."
"In fact,
I used to be the most dangerous person in every room I entered."
She looked at him then,
really looked at him,
and for a moment,
the disguise of the broken man in the wheelchair slipped.
She saw the steel in his eyes,
the predatory grace in his posture.
"Who are you really?"
she whispered.
"I'm the man Ray Kesler sent to protect you,"
he said,
May you like
and for the first time in his life,
the words felt like the truth.
