Chapter 6 - THE TRAITOR WHO RAISED ME
I arrived at Pier Fourteen at 11:58 p.m.
Alone.
At least that was what Lucian believed.
Calvin’s teams were positioned three blocks away.
Police were not involved.
Not yet.
There were too many people inside law enforcement who owed Lucian favors, and I was not gambling Mia’s life on a uniform.
I carried the briefcase from the locker.
Copies were already secured elsewhere.
A small transmitter was sewn inside my coat.
Lucian stepped from the warehouse.
He looked exactly as he had at a hundred family dinners.
Tailored suit.
Silver cane.
Calm expression.
The man who taught me to tie a Windsor knot.
The man who taught me how to bury my father.
The man who had poisoned me twelve years earlier.
“Mia.”
“Briefcase.”
“Let me see her.”
He sighed.
“You were always impatient.”
He whistled.
A guard brought Mia forward.
Her hands were tied loosely in front of her.
She looked frightened but unharmed.
When she saw me, her chin trembled.
“Mr. Dominic.”
“I’m here.”
Lucian smiled.
“Remarkable.”
“What?”
“Three days ago, she was nothing to you.”
“She was never nothing.”
His expression changed slightly.
That was something Lucian had never understood.
People had value to him only when they could be used.
I held up the briefcase.
“Release her.”
“Open it.”
I did.
Documents.
Photographs.
Files.
He nodded.
“Bring it.”
I walked forward.
Mia stared at me.
Then at something above me.
Her eyes widened.
The sniper.
“Mr. Dominic—”
Lucian struck his cane against the concrete.
“Quiet.”
Mia closed her mouth.
But she looked toward the warehouse roof again.
That was enough.
I dropped the briefcase.
The shot came.
I moved sideways.
Concrete exploded where my chest had been.
Calvin’s men opened fire toward the roof.
Lucian grabbed Mia.
I charged him.
For sixty-two, he was still fast.
He shoved Mia toward one of his men and pulled a pistol.
I hit his wrist before he could aim.
The gun skidded across the floor.
We crashed into a stack of shipping pallets.
Lucian struck me with the silver cane.
Pain exploded across my shoulder.
“You ungrateful bastard.”
I hit him.
Once.
Hard.
He stumbled.
“You poisoned me.”
“You were weak!”
“You stole Elena.”
“She made you weak.”
“You stole my chance at children.”
“I protected the family.”
“You created Leo to control him.”
“I created an heir!”
The words echoed through the warehouse.
The transmitter captured every one.
Lucian realized too late.
His expression changed.
“You’re recording this.”
“Yes.”
He laughed bitterly.
“I taught you better than I thought.”
Behind him, Mia bit the hand of the man holding her.
He shouted.
She ran.
“Mia!”
Lucian reached for her.
I tackled him again.
Calvin’s men rushed inside.
Within seconds, Lucian’s remaining guards were surrounded.
Mia ran straight into my arms.
I lifted her off the ground.
She buried her face against my neck.
“I didn’t tell him about the locker.”
“I know.”
“I was scared.”
“So was I.”
She pulled back.
“You were?”
“Yes.”
She seemed genuinely shocked.
“But you’re the mafia boss.”
“Terrible secret. Don’t tell anyone.”
Her tiny arms locked around me again.
Lucian sat against a crate, blood at the corner of his mouth.
He looked at us with contempt.
“This is what destroys men like you.”
“What?”
“Attachment.”
I set Mia behind Calvin.
Then faced my uncle.
“No.”
I stepped closer.
“This is the first thing that has made me understand what I’m supposed to protect.”
He laughed.
“Your father thought the same before love made him careless.”
“Don’t talk about him.”
“Your father was going to dismantle everything.”
I froze.
“What?”
Lucian leaned back.
“Antonio wanted out.”
“My father?”
“He wanted to turn the businesses legitimate. Sell the routes. Close the casinos. Cut ties.”
That contradicted everything I knew.
My father had been the most feared Bellini of his generation.
Lucian continued.
“Then your mother died, and he decided the life had cost him enough. He wanted you sent away to school.”
My pulse slowed.
“Did you kill him?”
Lucian smiled.
Not widely.
Just enough.
My world went silent.
My father had supposedly died in a helicopter accident when I was twenty-eight.
The crash that forced me to take over the Bellini organization.
“You killed my father.”
“He abandoned his duty.”
I moved toward him.
Calvin grabbed my arm.
“Boss.”
I wanted to kill Lucian.
Every instinct I possessed demanded it.
Twelve years of lies.
My father.
Elena.
Leo.
Mia.
I could have ended him in seconds.
Lucian knew it.
He smiled.
“Do it.”
Mia whispered behind me.
“Mr. Dominic.”
I looked at her.
She was watching.
The same child Lucian had tried to use.
The child who had already seen enough ugliness.
I lowered my hands.
“No.”
Lucian’s smile disappeared.
“You don’t get to turn me into you.”
Police sirens approached.
Calvin had transmitted Lucian’s confession directly to a federal investigator we trusted.
Lucian’s face changed for the first time.
Real fear.
“You called federal agents?”
“You taught me local loyalty can be purchased.”
He looked almost proud.
“I did teach you well.”
“No.”
I glanced at Mia.
“You taught me everything I never want my son to become.”
Federal agents entered.
Lucian was handcuffed.
As they took him away, he looked back.
“Do you think this ends with me?”
“Tonight it does.”
He smiled.
“You still haven’t found Anna.”
My blood chilled.
Rose had said Anna was hidden inside the warehouse.
She was not there.
Lucian continued.
“She has the one secret that can destroy you completely.”
I looked toward Calvin.
“Search everything.”
For the next four hours, we searched.
Nothing.
At dawn, one of my men found blood on a rear stairwell.
Then a burner phone.
One unsent message was saved as a draft.
DOMINIC BELLINI IS NOT THE ONLY BIOLOGICAL PARENT THEY LIED TO.
May you like
Beneath it was a name.
ELENA ROSSI.
