Chapter 12 - His Name on the Page
Dante studied the payment.
Unlike Serena’s signatures, his was real.
He remembered the approval request.
A security retention payment.
Arthur’s office had sent it through with several other routine items.
He had signed all of them between meetings.
“I authorized the expense,” he said.
“I didn’t know where it was going.”
The investigator wrote that down.
It sounded weak because it was weak.
Dante had built a life in which people handled details so he could make decisions.
He had stopped checking who benefited from those details.
Now a man he had paid had opened his home to killers.
When the interview ended, he found Arthur waiting in the hallway.
“Did you know about Hale?”
“No.”
“Did you verify the payment?”
Arthur shook his head.
Dante almost laughed.
“You keep making that face as if being sorry changes what you signed.”
“It doesn’t.”
“Then why are you still here?”
“Because leaving would be easier.”
Dante stared at him.
Arthur looked exhausted.
For once, he wasn’t trying to sound wise.
“I let familiarity replace judgment,” the lawyer said.
“I’ll answer for it.”
“You may lose your license.”
“I know.”
“You may lose more.”
“I know.”
Dante walked away before anger could become something useful only to his enemies.
Elias drove them to a hotel arranged through their new attorney.
No company accounts.
No familiar staff.
Two plain rooms connected by an interior door.
Serena stood between the beds.
“Do you want me in the other room?”
Dante put down his bag.
“What do you want?”
“To stay.”
“Then stay.”
She sat beside the window.
After a while, she said, “I don’t know how to be married to someone who talks to me.”
“I don’t know how to stop solving everything with money or fear.”
“That sounds like a difficult marriage.”
“It already was.”
A tired laugh escaped her.
He sat beside her.
This time, their shoulders touched.
His phone rang.
Elias.
“Hale’s been found.”
“Alive?”
“Yes.
He’s talking.”
Dante straightened.
“What did he say?”
“Carlo has copies of the partnership records.
He’s using them to keep Vincent’s remaining people in line.”
“Where is he?”
“We don’t know.”
A second call came in.
Unknown number.
Dante answered.
Carlo spoke without greeting.
“You took my money and my exit.”
“You burned my warehouses.”
“Then let’s discuss what else you can afford to lose.”
May you like
A photograph arrived.
It showed Elias’s sedan outside the hotel.
