Chapter 6 - THE TRAITOR IN DOMINIC’S HOUSE
Rocco sealed the property.
Nobody left.
Nobody entered.
The attack lasted less than ninety seconds.
Long enough to prove the safe house wasn’t safe.
Dominic’s wound truly was superficial.
I hated that he had been right.
I cleaned it while he sat at the kitchen table.
“Stop moving.”
“I’m not.”
“You are.”
“I’m breathing.”
“Do it less aggressively.”
Lily sat across from us holding Mr. Buttons.
She watched every movement.
“Mommy fixes people.”
Dominic looked at her.
“I noticed.”
“She gets bossy.”
“I noticed that too.”
I tightened the bandage slightly more than necessary.
He looked at me.
“Accident?”
“Absolutely.”
Lily giggled.
Then Rocco entered.
“Found how they got in.”
Dominic stood.
I pushed him back down.
He looked offended.
Rocco continued as though this happened regularly.
“Security code.”
“Whose?”
“Matteo’s.”
Dominic went still.
I knew Matteo Moretti by reputation.
Dominic’s younger cousin.
Almost a brother.
He ran several Moretti legitimate businesses and, according to newspapers, had been beside Dominic for fifteen years.
“Where is he?” Dominic asked.
“On his way.”
“You called him?”
“You said lock everyone down.”
Dominic’s face turned unreadable.
Matteo arrived forty minutes later.
Tall.
Forty.
Expensive coat.
Completely confused when men removed his phone and weapon at the door.
“What the hell is this?”
Dominic waited in the library.
Matteo entered.
Saw his shoulder.
“Who shot you?”
“Your security code opened my gate.”
Matteo stopped.
“No.”
“Only yours.”
“Then someone copied it.”
“Who has access?”
“No one.”
“Think.”
Matteo paced.
“I use it at three properties.”
“Who’s seen you enter it?”
“Staff. Drivers.”
“Bellini?”
Matteo stopped.
“Probably.”
Dominic’s eyes narrowed.
“When?”
“Last month. Warehouse office.”
Rocco stepped closer.
“Camera?”
Matteo looked at him.
“Bellini asked us to review a loading issue. He stood behind me while I opened the control room.”
Dominic exhaled.
Not relief exactly.
But close.
Matteo stared.
“You thought I sold you out.”
“I considered it.”
“After fifteen years?”
“Yes.”
Matteo looked hurt.
Then angry.
“Good.”
That surprised everyone.
He pointed at Dominic.
“If you stopped considering people because you love them, your father taught you nothing.”
Dominic’s face changed.
Matteo sat.
“Now can we find Bellini?”
I liked him immediately.
The investigation inside Dominic’s organization moved fast.
Bellini had accessed transportation logs.
Properties.
Financial accounts.
Staff schedules.
He knew Dominic’s routines better than almost anyone.
And he had spent eleven years becoming indispensable.
“Why?” I asked.
Dominic stood beside the library fireplace.
“Money.”
“Eight million?”
“More.”
Matteo shook his head.
“Power.”
Dominic looked at him.
“Bellini never wanted your chair.”
“No. He wanted to decide who sat in it.”
That was worse.
Rocco entered carrying Bellini’s old personnel file.
“Found a connection to Pierce.”
My stomach tightened.
“What?”
“Bellini’s daughter.”
“Doctor Pierce knows her?”
“Was engaged to her.”
Dominic frowned.
“When?”
“Seven years ago.”
The engagement ended after Bellini’s daughter died from an overdose.
Pierce had been questioned because he prescribed medication.
No charges.
Bellini apparently stayed in contact with him afterward.
I stared.
“Why?”
“Blackmail?” Matteo suggested.
“Or loyalty,” Dominic said.
Rocco nodded.
“Pierce owed Bellini.”
“And Rebecca?” I asked.
“Pierce’s half sister.”
The network suddenly made sense.
Bellini inside Moretti.
Pierce inside St. Catherine’s.
Rebecca near children and families.
Caruso funding all of them.
Adam found the money.
Enzo found the betrayal.
Both died.
I felt sick.
Then Rocco placed another file down.
“Pierce administered something to Enzo shortly before cardiac arrest.”
I stared.
“No.”
“Hospital pharmacy logs show an override.”
My hands turned cold.
“He killed him.”
“Looks that way.”
I sat.
“I was ten feet away.”
Dominic came closer.
“Claire.”
“I was ten feet away while he murdered someone.”
“You were treating three trauma patients.”
“I should have—”
“No.”
His voice was sharp enough that I looked up.
“You do not get to rewrite a murderer’s choice as your failure.”
Silence.
My eyes burned.
“That is what you told me about Adam.”
I realized he was right.
Annoying man.
“Yes.”
“Then apply it to yourself.”
I looked away.
Later that night, after Lily finally slept, Dominic and I sat in the kitchen.
No guards inside.
No advisers.
Just us.
“I want out,” he said.
I looked at him.
“Out of what?”
“This.”
He gestured vaguely toward everything.
“Your family?”
“No.”
“The business?”
“The part everyone means when they whisper my name.”
I waited.
“My father believed fear was inheritance.”
Dominic stared at the table.
“He left me legitimate companies mixed with things that were not.”
“You kept them.”
“Yes.”
No excuse.
I respected that.
“Why?”
“At first because I was twenty-nine and angry. Then because power makes itself sound necessary.”
“That’s dangerously self-aware.”
“I’ve had a bad week.”
I almost smiled.
He continued.
“For years I told myself I controlled violence by controlling the men capable of it.”
“And now?”
“I think violence simply learned my address.”
My thoughts went upstairs to Lily.
He saw that.
“Exactly.”
“Can you leave?”
“Not cleanly.”
“What does that mean?”
“It means people will test weakness.”
“Caruso.”
“Yes.”
“Bellini.”
“If he survives Caruso.”
I disliked how calmly he said that.
“Dominic.”
His eyes met mine.
“I am not asking permission to kill anyone.”
“Good.”
“I’m telling you why tomorrow matters.”
“What happens tomorrow?”
“We give Bellini what he wants.”
I sat straighter.
“The evidence?”
“A copy.”
“No.”
He blinked.
“What?”
“You’re not using yourself as bait.”
“I wasn’t planning—”
“You have a gunshot wound.”
“Graze.”
“Stop calling it that.”
His mouth twitched.
I continued.
“What does Bellini think we have?”
“Adam’s full ledger.”
“He doesn’t know we copied it to police?”
“No.”
“Then tell him I have it.”
Dominic’s expression became completely still.
“No.”
“Why?”
“Because I said no.”
I stared.
“Interesting.”
He immediately heard it.
“That came out badly.”
“Very.”
“Claire.”
“You just gave a speech about leaving a world built on control.”
“I am trying to keep you alive.”
“And I am capable of deciding what risks I accept.”
His jaw tightened.
“Not with Lily depending on you.”
That hit.
I hated that too.
“You’re right about Lily.”
He relaxed slightly.
“But that doesn’t make you right about everything else.”
I stood.
“I will not go somewhere dangerous. I will not carry evidence. I will not play hero.”
“Good.”
“But Bellini has watched me for months. Pierce knows me. They think I’m frightened and uninformed.”
“You are frightened.”
“Correct.”
I looked him directly in the eyes.
“But I am no longer uninformed.”
We created a plan with NYPD and federal investigators before sunrise.
No cinematic warehouse shootout.
No mafia revenge.
A controlled exchange in a monitored parking structure connected to a hotel Bellini believed Dominic owned off the books.
I would never enter the exchange area.
My voice would.
A recorded call.
I told Bellini Adam had left me a second ledger.
He believed me.
Of course he did.
Men like him always underestimated widows.
At 11:14 a.m., Bellini responded.
“Bring it yourself.”
I said:
“No.”
Silence.
Then:
“Mrs. Donovan, you don’t understand your position.”
I looked through the glass at Dominic.
He watched me.
I answered:
“I understand it better than you think.”
Bellini’s voice hardened.
“Your husband thought that too.”
My lungs stopped.
Dominic’s face became lethal.
I gripped the phone.
“You killed Adam?”
Bellini laughed softly.
“No.”
Then came the sentence that changed everything.
“Your doctor did.”
Pierce.
I closed my eyes.
Bellini continued:
“And if Moretti keeps protecting you, we’ll finish what Adam started with his daughter.”
Dominic moved.
Rocco blocked him physically.
I whispered:
“You stay away from Lily.”
Bellini laughed.
“She already knows Rebecca.”
The line disconnected.
I looked at Dominic.
Then upstairs.
We had left Lily with Matteo and two officers.
I called immediately.
No answer.
Again.
Nothing.
Dominic was already running.
We reached the bedroom.
Empty.
The window was open.
May you like
Mr. Buttons lay on the floor.
And beside him was a pink hair clip Lily had worn that morning.
