Chapter 7 - ELEVEN MINUTES
Marco stumbled from the shadows.
Blood spread across his shirt.
“Marco!”
“I’m good!” he shouted.
He wasn’t.
The bullet had hit high in his shoulder.
Dante collided with Javier.
The gun flew.
Leo dove behind a stack of pallets.
Javier punched Dante in the ribs.
Dante answered with an elbow.
Bone cracked.
Javier fell.
Dante grabbed him by the jacket and slammed him into a steel support beam.
“Two years,” Dante growled.
Punch.
“My son cried for his mother every night.”
Punch.
“I buried an empty half of myself.”
Punch.
“And you stood beside me.”
Javier spat blood.
“You think I wanted it?”
Dante hit him again.
“Tell me what happened.”
Javier laughed through broken lips.
“You’ll kill me.”
“Eventually.”
Javier’s smile faded.
“Your father ordered me to get the ledger.”
“I know.”
“Elena wouldn’t give it up.”
Dante’s fist tightened.
“What did you do?”
“I followed her.”
“To the car?”
“Yes.”
“You cut the brakes.”
Javier looked away.
Dante grabbed his throat.
“SAY IT.”
“Yes!”
The word echoed through the building.
Leo heard it.
Marco heard it.
Dante almost stopped functioning.
Javier continued desperately.
“I was supposed to scare her. She was supposed to hit a barrier at low speed. That was the plan.”
“My wife died.”
“The line ruptured completely. I didn’t mean—”
Dante punched him.
Javier collapsed.
Dante pulled him up again.
“You killed her.”
“She didn’t die in the crash.”
Dante froze.
“What?”
Javier saw it land.
And hated himself for what came next.
“She was alive.”
Dante’s voice disappeared.
“For how long?”
Javier said nothing.
Dante put the gun under his chin.
“How long?”
“Eleven minutes.”
The number entered Dante’s body like a knife.
Javier whispered, “I got there first.”
“You called an ambulance.”
“No.”
Dante stared.
“I called Salvatore.”
Marco went pale.
Javier kept talking.
“He told me to ask where the ledger was.”
“You questioned my dying wife?”
“I panicked.”
“She was bleeding in a car and you questioned her?”
“I PANICKED!”
Dante hit him so hard Javier fell sideways.
Leo stepped from behind the pallets.
“Dad.”
Dante stopped.
His son was crying.
Not loudly.
That made it worse.
Javier wiped blood from his mouth.
“She wouldn’t tell me.”
Dante turned back.
“So you waited.”
Javier’s eyes filled with something close to shame.
“I waited.”
“Eleven minutes.”
“Yes.”
“Then?”
“I called 911.”
Dante looked ready to kill him.
Marco shouted, “Dante!”
Too late.
Javier kicked the fallen gun toward himself.
Leo saw it first.
“He’s got—”
Javier fired.
Marco shoved Leo down.
Dante fired back.
Javier jerked sideways.
The overhead light shattered.
Darkness swallowed the building.
Dante heard running.
Then a metal door slammed.
“He’s getting out!”
Dante chased him into the rain.
A black SUV tore away from the loading dock.
Dante fired twice.
The rear window shattered.
The SUV disappeared.
Marco came outside holding his shoulder.
Leo was behind him.
Dante turned.
“Why didn’t you stay down?”
Leo looked at him.
“Because you didn’t.”
Dante had no answer.
Marco leaned against the wall.
“We need to go.”
Dante nodded.
Then Leo reached into his sock.
He pulled out something tiny.
A memory card.
Dante stared.
Leo held it up.
“I switched them before he took me.”
Marco laughed despite the blood.
Dante crouched in front of his son.
“You did what?”
“Mom used to hide birthday money in my socks.”
Dante almost broke down right there.
Instead, he hugged him.
Hard.
Leo whispered into his shoulder.
“There’s another recording.”
Dante pulled back.
“How do you know?”
“I listened to part of it.”
“What did she say?”
May you like
Leo’s expression changed.
“She said Grandpa was never the real boss.”
