Chapter 6 - THE DEAD UNCLE
Vincent had attended Anthony Moretti’s funeral.
Closed casket.
Car accident.
Body badly burned.
Charles Bellamy had handled every document.
Now Vincent understood why.
Anthony called again thirty minutes later.
“No police.”
Vincent almost laughed.
“You kidnapped Grace.”
“I removed a problem.”
“If you touch her—”
“You still sound exactly like your father.”
Vincent’s jaw tightened.
“Where is Sofia?”
Silence.
That silence told Vincent more than an answer would have.
“She’s alive.”
Anthony sighed.
“You always were too quick when emotion got involved.”
“Where is she?”
“Bring me the phone.”
Vincent looked at Dominic, whose arm was being wrapped in the back seat.
“And if I don’t?”
“Grace Carter becomes a very sad lesson for her daughter.”
The line disconnected.
Dominic looked at Vincent.
“Anthony is alive?”
Vincent stared through the windshield.
“He built half the old operation with my father.”
“He hated you.”
“He hated what I changed.”
Vincent had pushed Anthony out years before the supposed accident.
Anthony wanted the Moretti family to remain what it had always been.
Fear.
Cash.
Violence.
Control.
Vincent wanted legitimacy.
At least as much as a man born into that world could manage.
Dominic leaned back.
“So this is revenge?”
“No.”
Vincent thought of the trust.
The stolen money.
Sofia.
“This is a takeover.”
Back at the mansion, they found one guard unconscious and another bleeding in the pantry.
Emily sat with Rafael’s wife, wrapped in a blanket.
The second she saw Vincent, she ran toward him.
“He took Mom because of me.”
Vincent crouched.
“No.”
“I played the phone.”
“And you saved me from signing those papers.”
“But Mom—”
“I’m bringing her home.”
Emily looked into his eyes.
“Promise?”
Vincent had learned long ago not to make promises he couldn’t control.
He made one anyway.
“I promise.”
Dominic entered behind him.
Emily looked at his bandage.
“You got shot.”
“Tiny bit.”
“That’s not funny.”
“No, ma’am.”
For one brief second, Dominic smiled.
Then Emily’s expression changed.
“What?”
She pointed at his coat.
“There’s blood on the inside.”
Dominic frowned.
“It’s my arm.”
“No.”
Emily stepped closer.
She touched a dark stain near the lower pocket.
“This is old.”
Dominic pulled the lining aside.
Something stiff was sewn beneath it.
Vincent cut the thread.
A folded piece of paper fell out.
Dominic stared.
“I’ve had this coat for years.”
Vincent unfolded the note.
Sofia’s handwriting.
DOMINIC—
IF YOU FIND THIS, YOUR FATHER LIED TO YOU TOO.
ASK WHO ACTUALLY DIED IN ANTHONY’S CAR.
Dominic went completely still.
“My father?”
Vincent looked at him.
Dominic’s father had disappeared six months before Anthony’s supposed accident.
The family had always believed he fled because of gambling debts.
Dominic backed into a chair.
“No.”
Vincent looked at the old note again.
Anthony hadn’t died in the car.
May you like
Someone else had.
And Sofia knew who.
