Chapter 5 - The Brother Who Refused to Stay Dead
I didn't touch the wine.
Luca noticed.
“You think I'd poison you?”
“I think you kidnapped me.”
“Technically, my men removed you from a burning building.”
“A fire you started.”
He smiled.
“You are exactly as difficult as I imagined.”
“I'm not interested in being anything you imagined.”
That erased the smile.
For a moment, I saw something beneath his charm.
Possession.
Not love.
Possession.
Luca sat opposite me.
The scar across his cheek pulled slightly when he spoke.
“Dante told you I'm insane.”
“He hasn't needed to.”
His laugh was genuine.
I hated that.
“You want answers?”
“I want to leave.”
“After answers.”
He placed a file on the table.
Inside were photographs of the wreckage from his supposed death.
Police reports.
Financial records.
Then a signed document.
An execution order.
The signature at the bottom belonged to Vittorio Moretti.
Dante's father.
Beside it was another signature.
Dante's.
My stomach tightened.
“He signed it,” Luca said.
I stared at the page.
“What was the order?”
“My death.”
I looked closer.
The document authorized “permanent neutralization” of a security threat.
No name appeared on the first page.
Luca slid another page toward me.
His name was there.
“Dante knew?”
“He approved it.”
I refused to react.
Copies could be altered.
Signatures forged.
I had learned that appearances were dangerous.
“What did you do?”
Luca's eyes sharpened.
“Excuse me?”
“People don't usually order their sons murdered without a reason.”
He leaned back.
“There she is.”
“Who?”
“The woman I knew you'd become.”
“You didn't know me.”
“I knew enough.”
“No. You watched me. There's a difference.”
His jaw tightened.
I continued.
“What did you do?”
Luca stood.
“My father chose Dante because Dante obeyed. I questioned him.”
“That doesn't answer me.”
“I was building my own organization.”
“With whose money?”
Silence.
I smiled without humor.
“The missing Moretti money.”
“That empire belonged to me too.”
“So you stole it.”
“I reclaimed it.”
The language of entitled men was remarkably predictable.
“And the people you hurt?”
His eyes cooled.
“Careful.”
There.
The mask slipped.
Dante frightened people because everyone knew what he was capable of.
Luca frightened me because he wanted people to believe he was harmless.
I preferred the monster who admitted he had teeth.
“You said Dante stole me.”
“He did.”
“You cannot steal a person who never belonged to you.”
His face changed.
The door opened.
A guard entered.
“Sir.”
Luca turned.
That was when I moved.
The wine bottle was heavy.
I smashed it against the table and drove the broken edge toward the guard.
He jumped backward.
I ran.
Luca shouted.
I reached the hallway barefoot.
Two doors.
Stairs.
I chose left.
Men followed.
I reached a kitchen, grabbed a knife, and found a service door.
Locked.
“Drop it.”
I turned.
Luca stood ten feet away.
His calm had disappeared.
“You're making this difficult.”
“Good.”
He approached.
“You don't understand what Dante is.”
“I understand exactly what he is.”
“He signed my death warrant.”
“Maybe.”
“And you're defending him?”
“No.”
That stopped Luca.
“I don't need Dante to be innocent for you to be guilty.”
For the first time, Luca looked genuinely angry.
Then gunfire erupted outside.
His head snapped toward the windows.
A guard shouted.
“Moretti!”
Luca cursed.
I almost laughed.
“You'll need to be more specific.”
The windows shattered.
Men flooded the courtyard.
Then I saw him.
Dante.
Black suit.
Blood on his temple.
Fury in every line of his body.
He had come for me.
Luca grabbed my arm.
I drove my elbow backward.
He lost his grip.
The door exploded inward.
Dante entered.
For one second, the brothers stared at each other.
Five years of hatred compressed into silence.
Then Luca smiled.
“You always take my things.”
Dante's voice was terrifyingly quiet.
“She was never yours.”
Luca raised his gun.
Dante raised his.
I stood between them.
“Elena,” Dante said. “Move.”
“No.”
Both men stared at me.
“I am done being the object two Moretti men fight over.”
“Elena—”
“No.”
I looked at Luca.
“You kidnapped me.”
Then Dante.
“You lied to me.”
Neither spoke.
“You want to kill each other? Wait until I'm gone.”
I walked between their guns.
It might have been the stupidest thing I had ever done.
Neither fired.
Outside, police sirens approached.
Luca looked toward the window.
Dante's men had surrounded the estate.
For the first time, Luca appeared uncertain.
Then he smiled.
“You think this ends because you found her?”
Dante's eyes narrowed.
Luca pressed something in his pocket.
A television across the room switched on.
Live footage appeared.
Bianca in her hospital bed.
A man dressed as a doctor entered her room carrying a syringe.
My blood froze.
Luca smiled.
“You have two minutes.”
Dante grabbed his phone.
Luca used the distraction.
He fired at the ceiling.
Glass and plaster exploded.
Men shouted.
When the smoke cleared, Luca had disappeared through a hidden door.
Dante immediately called the hospital.
I stared at the television.
The false doctor approached Bianca.
Then another figure stepped into frame.
Marco.
He struck the attacker before the syringe touched her.
Dante exhaled.
Bianca was safe.
For now.
I looked at him.
“The document.”
“What document?”
“The order to kill Luca.”
Dante's expression changed.
“You saw it.”
“Your signature was on it.”
He looked away.
“Was it real?”
“Yes.”
The answer hurt.
“Did you know your father intended to kill him?”
“Yes.”
I stepped backward.
Dante didn't follow.
Then he said, “But Luca wasn't the target.”
I stared.
“What?”
Dante looked directly at me.
May you like
“The order was changed after I signed it.”
And suddenly the entire story shifted again.
