Chapter 4 - The Dead Man in the White Suit
Serafina forgot how to breathe.
The elderly man standing inside the warehouse was Cesare D’Agostino.
Her grandfather.
The man whose burned body had supposedly been identified beside her father after the massacre in Palermo.
Gabriel immediately moved between them.
Serafina caught his arm.
“No.”
Gabriel looked at her.
She stepped around him.
“Grandfather?”
Cesare’s eyes softened.
“Little star.”
Only one person had called her that.
Serafina’s knees almost weakened.
Then memory overpowered emotion.
“Where have you been?”
Cesare did not answer immediately.
That was enough.
Her shock became anger.
“Ten years.”
“I was protecting you.”
“By letting me believe everyone was dead?”
“I needed the world to believe the D’Agostino line ended.”
Serafina laughed once, without humor.
“You succeeded.”
Cesare looked at Gabriel.
“And you must be Rossi.”
Gabriel’s expression was cold.
“The man who threw your granddaughter into the street.”
Cesare’s eyes sharpened.
Gabriel did not hide from it.
“Yes.”
“I appreciate honesty.”
“I’m not asking you to.”
Serafina stepped between them.
“This is not about Gabriel.”
“Everything is about Gabriel now,” Cesare said, looking at her stomach.
Serafina instinctively covered it.
His face changed.
“My great-grandchild.”
“You have no claim to my baby.”
Cesare looked wounded.
“Serafina—”
“Where were you?”
Her voice cracked.
“When I was nineteen and woke screaming because I watched my father die? Where were you when I built a fake identity because I believed every D’Agostino enemy was hunting me?”
Cesare lowered his gaze.
“I was hunting them.”
“And did you find them?”
“Yes.”
“Who ordered the coup?”
Cesare looked toward Costello.
Then Gabriel.
Finally back to Serafina.
“Lorenzo’s father.”
Gabriel stiffened.
Cesare explained.
Antonio Moretti had served the Rossi family while secretly building alliances in Sicily. He feared a future partnership between the Rossis and D’Agostinos would create an organization too powerful for him to challenge.
So he orchestrated the massacre.
But Salvatore D’Agostino had discovered the plot.
Before dying, he sent Serafina to America.
Cesare survived and disappeared to identify every conspirator.
Antonio died six years later.
His son Lorenzo inherited the ambition.
Gabriel clenched his fists.
“I made him consigliere.”
“You made your enemy your closest adviser,” Cesare said.
Gabriel looked toward Serafina.
“And I let him turn me against the person trying to save me.”
She said nothing.
A phone rang.
Gabriel answered.
Lorenzo.
Again.
This time Luca screamed in the background.
Gabriel’s face became stone.
“Touch him again and—”
“You’re running out of threats.”
Lorenzo sounded amused.
“I want Serafina.”
“No.”
Gabriel answered before anyone else.
Lorenzo laughed.
“You don’t get to decide.”
Serafina took the phone.
“What do you want from me?”
“Your father’s ledger.”
Cesare’s expression changed.
Serafina noticed.
“What ledger?”
Lorenzo continued.
“Ask Grandfather.”
Serafina looked at Cesare.
The old man remained silent.
“What is he talking about?”
Cesare finally answered.
“Your father kept records.”
“Of what?”
“Everything.”
Politicians.
Judges.
Bank accounts.
Shipping routes.
Hidden assets.
And most importantly, the names of every person involved in the coup.
The ledger could destroy criminal and legitimate empires on two continents.
Lorenzo wanted it.
“I don’t have it,” Serafina said.
“Yes, you do.”
“I would know.”
“Would you?”
Lorenzo laughed.
“Your mother gave you a leather journal before you escaped Palermo.”
Serafina stopped breathing.
Her journal.
The same journal she had packed when Gabriel expelled her.
The one currently inside her motel room.
Lorenzo knew.
Gabriel saw the answer in her face.
“Where is it?”
She did not respond.
But Lorenzo did.
“Room 17. Astoria Motor Lodge.”
Serafina’s blood chilled.
He had been watching her.
A gunshot sounded through the phone.
Luca groaned.
“You have two hours.”
The line died.
Gabriel turned toward his men.
“Get to the motel.”
Serafina grabbed his wrist.
“No.”
“He wants that journal.”
“Exactly.”
She looked at Cesare.
“Is the ledger inside it?”
Cesare nodded slowly.
“Your father designed the pages himself. Heat reveals the hidden writing.”
Serafina almost laughed at the absurdity.
For ten years she had carried enough information to start wars.
Gabriel spoke quietly.
“I’ll get Luca.”
“We’ll get Luca.”
“No.”
Serafina’s expression hardened.
“You lost the right to order me around.”
“You’re pregnant.”
“I noticed.”
“Lorenzo wants you.”
“And that makes me the only person he’ll expose himself to meet.”
Gabriel stepped closer.
“I already threw you into danger once.”
“You did.”
Pain crossed his face.
“I won’t do it again.”
Serafina studied him.
There was no arrogance now.
Only fear.
Not fear of losing power.
Fear of losing her.
Before she could answer, Costello approached.
“I’ll provide men.”
Gabriel stared at his longtime enemy.
“Why?”
Costello shrugged.
“Because apparently I’ve spent three months fighting the wrong man.”
Cesare smiled.
“Then perhaps tonight we stop fighting each other.”
Serafina looked at the three powerful men surrounding her.
A Rossi.
A Costello.
A D’Agostino.
Men who would normally have killed one another over a room.
Now all three waited for her decision.
She understood something her father had once tried to teach her.
Power was not the ability to make people fear you.
It was the ability to make enemies stand on the same side of the room.
Serafina straightened.
“We give Lorenzo exactly what he wants.”
Gabriel frowned.
“The ledger?”
“No.”
May you like
Her gaze turned cold.
“Me.”
