Chapter 4 - The Price of Protection
The key opened a safe-deposit box registered under a dead woman’s name.
Getting inside legally would have taken days.
Dominic needed twenty minutes.
Riley decided not to ask how.
They entered a private bank vault shortly after midnight.
Inside the box sat a cassette recorder, three envelopes, and a flash drive that looked far newer than everything else.
Riley stared.
“My father hated computers.”
“Then someone else put that here.”
The first envelope was addressed to her.
Riley.
Her hands trembled for the first time since Dominic had met her.
She opened it.
Kiddo, if you are reading this, then I failed to keep the past away from you.
She stopped.
Dominic turned away.
Riley noticed.
“You can hear it.”
“It’s yours.”
“You’re already involved.”
He faced her again.
She continued.
Thomas wrote that twenty-four years earlier, five men had discovered a laundering network moving money through construction contracts, restaurants, unions, and city redevelopment projects.
Lorenzo Castelli had discovered people inside his own organization were participating.
Thomas Hayes had unknowingly processed packages through meat deliveries.
Dr. Valente had treated injured couriers without reporting them.
Carlo Benedetti had falsified municipal inspections.
Victor Crane had been a young political aide.
At first, they were all compromised.
Then Lorenzo wanted out.
Thomas agreed to help him gather evidence.
Crane and Valente did not.
Someone betrayed the group.
Lorenzo was murdered years later.
Carlo died.
Thomas spent the rest of his life waiting.
Riley reached the final lines.
I thought silence would protect you.
I was wrong.
If they ever come for you, find Lorenzo’s son.
But do not trust anyone who tells you the Castelli family is united.
Riley lowered the letter.
Dominic stared at his father’s name.
“My father trusted yours.”
“Apparently more than either trusted us with the truth.”
They examined the flash drive.
Encrypted.
Marco could handle it.
The second envelope contained banking codes.
The third held a list of names.
Judges.
Police officers.
Business owners.
Union representatives.
At the bottom was Salvatore DeLuca.
Dominic’s godfather.
Riley watched him read it.
“You trust him?”
“I did.”
“That isn’t what I asked.”
Dominic folded the page.
“No.”
On the drive back, neither spoke for twenty minutes.
Then Riley asked, “Why did you become this?”
Dominic looked over.
“This?”
“A man who sends people to collect protection money.”
There was no accusation in her tone.
That made the question harder.
“I inherited an organization at nineteen.”
“You could have walked away.”
“And left it to Salvatore?”
“You didn’t know what he was.”
“I knew what everyone was.”
Dominic looked through the window.
“I told myself I could control it. Keep drugs away from schools. Keep trafficking out of our neighborhoods. Stop predators from using businesses under our protection.”
“That’s a beautiful speech.”
“It isn’t supposed to be.”
“Because Tony still walked into my shop.”
Dominic went silent.
Riley continued.
“He still thought your name gave him permission to humiliate me.”
“Yes.”
“And he wasn’t scared you’d punish him.”
“No.”
“Then maybe you didn’t control as much as you thought.”
The words landed harder than the knife had.
Dominic did not defend himself.
That surprised her.
When they reached the estate, Marco was waiting.
“The drive is accessible.”
They gathered in Dominic’s office.
Files appeared across three monitors.
Payments.
Video.
Recorded conversations.
Property transactions.
Then Marco opened a folder dated six months before Thomas Hayes died.
Inside was surveillance footage.
Dr. Valente entering Thomas’s house.
Leaving forty-seven minutes later.
The next morning, Thomas died.
Riley stopped breathing.
Dominic immediately looked at her.
She stared at the screen.
“No.”
“Riley.”
“No.”
She stood.
“My father called me that night.”
Her voice cracked.
“I was busy.”
Dominic said nothing.
“He asked if I could come by for dinner. I had inventory. I told him Sunday.”
She laughed bitterly.
“He said Sunday was fine.”
Dominic rose.
“He couldn’t have known.”
“You don’t know that.”
“Neither do you.”
She turned away.
Dominic stepped closer but didn’t touch her.
“You don’t get to turn someone else’s crime into your punishment.”
Riley closed her eyes.
A tear escaped.
She wiped it away angrily.
“I hate crying.”
“I noticed.”
“You going to tell me it makes me strong?”
“No.”
She looked at him.
“I was going to offer you a handkerchief.”
Despite herself, Riley laughed.
One broken sound.
Dominic handed her one.
She took it.
Their fingers touched.
Neither moved immediately.
Then Marco cleared his throat.
“There’s another file.”
Dominic withdrew his hand.
“What?”
“Audio.”
The recording crackled.
Thomas Hayes’s voice filled the office.
“If anything happens to me, Salvatore DeLuca ordered Lorenzo killed.”
Dominic became perfectly still.
Another voice answered.
Dr. Valente.
“You cannot prove that.”
“I don’t need to. Lorenzo did.”
Then Thomas said something that changed everything.
“The original evidence is still inside Castelli property.”
The recording ended.
Dominic stared at the speaker.
Riley whispered, “Your house?”
“No.”
“How many properties do you own?”
“Too many.”
His phone rang.
Salvatore.
Dominic and Riley exchanged a look.
He answered.
“Uncle Sal.”
Salvatore’s familiar voice sounded warm.
“Dominic, I heard about Tony. Terrible business.”
“Yes.”
“And this butcher woman?”
Dominic watched Riley.
“What about her?”
“The police are searching for her. I’m told she may be staying with you.”
Nobody breathed.
Dominic replied casually.
“Who told you that?”
A pause.
“People talk.”
“They do.”
“You should hand her over before her problems become ours.”
Dominic’s eyes hardened.
“They became ours when someone shot through her window.”
Another pause.
Then Salvatore laughed.
“You always did collect strays.”
Dominic’s gaze stayed on Riley.
“She isn’t a stray.”
“What is she?”
Dominic waited.
He could have said witness.
Problem.
Civilian.
Instead:
“Under my protection.”
Salvatore’s warmth vanished.
“That is unwise.”
“Good night, Uncle.”
Dominic disconnected.
Riley stared at him.
“You just lied to the man who may have killed your father.”
“No.”
“What?”
Dominic slid the phone into his pocket.
“I told him you’re under my protection.”
“That part wasn’t the lie.”
Something shifted between them.
Then every light in the mansion went out.
Marco swore.
The security system died.
Outside, engines approached the gates.
Dominic pulled his pistol.
Riley reached for the knife she had started carrying at her waist.
Dominic looked at her.
“You really brought that into my house?”
“You brought guns into mine.”
Fair.
A red emergency light flickered on.
Marco checked the backup monitor.
His face changed.
“How many?” Dominic asked.
Marco looked up.
“Twenty-seven.”
Riley tightened her grip.
Dominic stepped in front of her.
She immediately moved beside him.
“I’m not hiding behind you.”
“I noticed that too.”
The front gate exploded.
May you like
And Dominic smiled without humor.
“Then stay close.”
