Chapter 9 - BLOOD ON THE TABLE
Emma hit the floor.
Again.
She was getting disturbingly good at it.
Dante dragged Gabriel behind the table.
“Where?”
Sal pointed.
“Across the street!”
Another shot tore through the window.
Dante returned fire blindly.
“Lights off!”
Emma crawled to Gabriel.
Blood poured from his shoulder.
“He’s alive!”
Gabriel groaned.
“Disappointing, isn’t it?”
Emma pressed a napkin to the wound.
“Save the jokes.”
Mrs. Moretti knelt beside her son.
Her hands shook badly.
Emma signed.
“He’s alive. Shoulder wound.”
The older woman nodded rapidly.
Dante smashed a lamp.
Darkness swallowed the room.
Sal moved toward the rear door.
“I’ll flank.”
Dante grabbed him.
“You’re not leaving my sight.”
Sal stared.
“You think I did this?”
“I don’t know what to think.”
Gabriel coughed.
“That’s new.”
Dante ignored him.
Emma looked at Gabriel.
“Who knew about this dinner?”
“Three people.”
“Who?”
“Me. Sal. Dante.”
Emma’s stomach turned.
Dante stared at Sal.
Sal whispered, “I didn’t tell anyone.”
Gabriel added weakly, “There was a fourth.”
Everyone turned.
“My doctor.”
Emma frowned.
“Your doctor?”
“I needed pain meds.”
Dante’s eyes narrowed.
“Name?”
“Dr. Samuel Levin.”
Sal cursed.
“What?”
Dante asked.
Sal looked at him.
“Levin treated Uncle Matteo last year.”
Silence.
Dante’s uncle again.
The eighty-year-old patriarch nobody wanted to accuse.
Emma looked between them.
“Can someone explain why an eighty-year-old man keeps showing up behind kidnappings, dead lawyers, forged signatures, and cemetery ambushes?”
Gabriel winced.
“Because Uncle Matteo is not a nice person.”
“Apparently.”
Outside, an engine started.
Dante ran to the window.
A dark sedan disappeared down the road.
“Gone.”
Sal reached for his phone.
“No signal.”
Gabriel laughed weakly.
“Jammer.”
Emma looked at Dante.
“Your family has too many toys.”
Mrs. Moretti kept signing.
Emma watched.
“What?”
Dante asked.
“She says Matteo hated Carlo.”
Gabriel closed his eyes.
“Yes.”
Dante turned to him.
“You knew?”
“I suspected.”
“Why?”
“Dad planned to cut him out.”
Dante looked furious.
“Of what?”
“The book.”
Dante frowned.
Gabriel explained.
“The red book wasn’t just names. It had proof Matteo had been stealing from the family for years.”
Sal whispered, “How much?”
“Millions.”
Dante laughed bitterly.
“Money. Of course.”
Gabriel shook his head.
“Not just money.”
He struggled to sit up.
Emma pushed him back.
“Don’t.”
He ignored her.
“Matteo had side deals with people Dad considered enemies.”
Dante stared.
“Who?”
Gabriel hesitated.
Then said, “The Bellini family.”
Dante’s face became ice.
Even Emma knew that name.
The Morettis and Bellinis had hated each other for decades.
Gabriel continued.
“Dad found out. He was going to expose Matteo.”
“And then Dad died.”
“Yes.”
Dante looked at his mother.
She signed.
“I saw Matteo at the house that week.”
Emma translated.
Dante went pale.
“When?”
Mrs. Moretti answered.
“Three nights before Carlo died.”
“Did he meet Dad?”
“Yes.”
“Did they argue?”
“Yes.”
“About what?”
The older woman’s hands slowed.
Emma’s throat tightened.
“She says Matteo told Carlo, ‘If you destroy me, I’ll bury your sons with you.’”
Dante looked away.
Then Gabriel grabbed his wrist.
“Listen to me.”
Dante looked down.
“If Matteo gets the red book, he destroys everybody connected to it.”
“How?”
“He doesn’t need the book itself.”
“What does that mean?”
Gabriel’s face tightened with pain.
“He needs one page.”
“Which page?”
“The last one.”
Dante stared.
“What’s on it?”
Gabriel looked toward their mother.
Mrs. Moretti’s expression told Emma she already knew.
Gabriel whispered, “A list of everyone Carlo paid to protect you.”
Dante’s face darkened.
“Police?”
“Police. Judges. Federal agents.”
Emma whispered, “Federal agents?”
Gabriel nodded.
“And one senator.”
Dante stared.
Gabriel’s voice dropped.
“If Matteo gets that page, he doesn’t just start a family war.”
He looked straight at Dante.
“He starts a national scandal.”
Then Emma’s phone buzzed.
Impossible.
The jammer should have blocked it.
One message appeared.
A photograph.
Lily’s apartment door.
Open.
No guards visible.
Below it:
YOU SHOULD HAVE LEFT YOUR SISTER OUT OF THIS.
Emma stopped breathing.
“Dante.”
He looked at the screen.
Then at Sal.
“Call the apartment.”
May you like
“No signal.”
Emma was already running for the door.
