Chapter 5 - HARBOR NINE
Matteo had not entered Harbor Nine in fifteen years.
The abandoned depot stood along the river like a rusted skeleton. Broken windows looked down on black water. The old loading cranes had not moved since before Sofia died.
It was the kind of place where the city forgot to look.
Which was exactly why Rafael chose it.
Tessa wanted to send a tactical team.
Matteo refused.
“Elena and Lila are staying with your people,” he said.
“They are,” Tessa answered. “But you are not going alone.”
“The message said alone.”
“Rafael is already trying to kill you. I don’t care what the message said.”
Matteo looked at her.
“That may be the first intelligent thing anyone has said to me today.”
They approached shortly after midnight.
Tessa stayed hidden with two trusted operatives. Matteo entered through the front doors alone, hands visible, no visible weapon.
The warehouse smelled of oil, cold steel, and river water.
“Rafael,” Matteo called.
His voice echoed through the empty space.
A light came on above the old loading platform.
Rafael stood there, holding a gun.
Camille sat in the chair beside him, wrists bound behind her back.
Her face was swollen. There was blood at the corner of her mouth.
Matteo’s chest tightened despite himself.
“Are you hurt?” he asked.
Camille laughed weakly.
“You still ask that?”
Rafael pressed the gun against her shoulder.
“She’s fine.”
“Let her go.”
“Not yet.”
Matteo stepped forward.
“You tried to kill me.”
“Yes.”
“You ordered men to take a child.”
“I needed leverage.”
“You murdered Sofia.”
Rafael froze.
Camille looked at him.
Then at Matteo.
“You didn’t know?” she whispered.
Matteo’s voice became very quiet.
“Tell me.”
Rafael smiled without humor.
“You want the truth now? After all these years?”
“Yes.”
“Sofia was never supposed to die.”
The warehouse seemed to shrink around them.
Rafael continued.
“The bomb was meant for your father’s car. He was going to testify against us. He wanted out of the business. He wanted to hand documents to federal agents.”
Matteo’s hands curled into fists.
“My father died of a heart attack.”
“After Sofia died,” Rafael said. “He gave up. You know that.”
Matteo did know.
His father had become a ghost after Sofia’s funeral. Six months later, he was gone.
“You killed her,” Matteo said.
“I built the device,” Rafael replied. “But someone changed the schedule. Sofia took the car instead of your father.”
Camille began to cry silently.
“You told me it was an accident,” she said.
Rafael looked at her with contempt.
“I told you what you needed to hear.”
Matteo stared at Camille.
“You knew about the bomb under my car.”
“Yes,” she whispered.
“Did you place it?”
“No.”
“Lila saw you.”
“I put a lunchbox under the car,” Camille said. “But it was empty.”
Matteo’s face hardened.
“Why?”
“Because Rafael told me to. He said it would scare you. He said you were becoming paranoid, and he wanted you to look unstable in front of your men.”
Rafael laughed.
“She was supposed to be the distraction.”
Camille looked at Matteo, devastated.
“I didn’t know there was a real device. I didn’t know he planned to kill you.”
“You lied to me.”
“I know.”
“You helped him.”
“I know.”
“But when you found out?” Matteo asked.
Camille swallowed.
“I tried to stop him.”
Rafael shoved the chair violently. Camille cried out.
“She tried to run,” he said. “She contacted Tessa. She thought she could save herself.”
Matteo’s eyes narrowed.
“Tessa never got a message.”
“No,” Camille said. “He intercepted it.”
Rafael smiled.
“I have people everywhere.”
That was the problem.
Matteo had spent years building an empire through secrecy and loyalty bought with money.
Rafael had spent those same years poisoning it from inside.
“You want me dead because you think I’m weak?” Matteo asked.
“I want you dead because you forgot what we are,” Rafael replied. “You started believing you could be legitimate. You started caring about weddings and children and clean businesses.”
“And you think that makes me weak?”
“I think it makes you predictable.”
Rafael lifted the gun toward Camille’s head.
“Now put your phone on the floor. Call Tessa. Tell her the girl is coming here.”
Matteo looked at Camille.
Then at Rafael.
“You really think I’d bring Lila into this?”
“I think you’d do anything to save the people you pretend to love.”
Matteo smiled.
It was not a warm smile.
“No, Rafael.”
His cousin frowned.
“I would do anything to protect them.”
The lights went out.
Gunfire cracked through the darkness.
Tessa’s team moved from the shadows.
Rafael fired blindly, dragging Camille’s chair toward a side exit. Matteo ran through the chaos, reaching Camille as a bullet shattered glass above them.
He cut her restraints.
“Can you walk?”
“Yes.”
“Then move.”
They reached the loading bay just as Rafael disappeared through a steel door.
Matteo pursued him alone.
Outside, the river wind screamed between empty cargo containers.
Rafael stood at the edge of the dock, gun raised.
“You always were sentimental,” he said.
“And you always confused cruelty with strength.”
Rafael fired.
Matteo moved.
The bullet struck metal.
Then Tessa’s voice came through a loudspeaker from somewhere behind them.
“Drop the weapon, Rafael.”
Rafael looked around, trapped.
For one moment, Matteo thought he would surrender.
Instead, Rafael smiled.
“You still don’t understand,” he said. “There’s someone bigger than me.”
Then he stepped backward into the river.
The black water swallowed him.
May you like
And before Matteo could reach the edge, Rafael was gone.
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