Chapter 6 - The Dead Man’s Last Lie
Dante did not move.
“My father was dead when Michael died.”
Salvatore smiled.
“Exactly.”
Emma looked between them.
“What does that mean?”
“It means,” Dante said slowly, “he’s lying.”
Salvatore’s smile disappeared.
The lasers remained fixed on Dante and Marco.
“Your father created contingency orders before his death.”
“For an accountant he wouldn’t know would become a problem six years later?”
Silence.
Dante leaned forward.
“You taught me to recognize a bad lie, Uncle.”
Something changed in Salvatore’s eyes.
Pride, perhaps.
Or regret.
Dante continued.
“If you wanted me dead, we wouldn’t be talking.”
“No.”
“You want the drive.”
Salvatore looked at Emma.
“Yes.”
Emma stiffened.
Dante smiled.
“She doesn’t have it.”
“I assumed.”
“Then why let us inside?”
“To make you understand something before you destroy everything your father built.”
“You stole from him.”
“I protected what he built.”
“Eighteen million dollars?”
“Eighteen million is pocket change compared with what I kept away from federal investigators.”
Dante paused.
That possibility had not occurred to him.
Salvatore gestured toward a chair.
“Sit.”
“No.”
“Then stand and listen.”
He explained.
Years earlier, Dante’s father had begun moving legitimate holdings away from criminal enterprises, preparing to leave Dante something clean.
Salvatore had managed parts of that transition.
Julian handled security.
Michael Harper handled accounting.
Then money vanished.
Not stolen, Salvatore claimed.
Hidden.
A secret reserve created to protect hundreds of employees if the organization collapsed.
“Michael discovered it,” Salvatore said. “He thought it was theft.”
“Why not tell him the truth?”
“Because your father trusted numbers more than accountants.”
Emma’s face hardened.
“So you murdered my husband because he found your secret savings account?”
“No.”
Salvatore looked genuinely irritated.
“I told Julian to frighten him. Nothing more.”
Emma laughed bitterly.
“Convenient.”
“Michael panicked. He tried to flee. Julian followed him. There was a collision.”
“You expect me to believe that?”
“No. I expect Dante to verify it.”
Dante intended to.
“Where’s Victor?”
Salvatore’s expression changed.
That was the first genuine crack.
“I don’t know.”
Dante noticed.
“You’re afraid of him.”
Salvatore said nothing.
Dante understood.
“Victor wasn’t working for you.”
“He was, initially.”
“Then?”
“He realized Michael had copied records. He began using them to blackmail everyone involved.”
“Including Julian.”
“Yes.”
“Why threaten Emma?”
“To find the original ledger.”
“Why not kill her?”
Salvatore looked at Emma.
“Because I forbade it.”
Dante almost crossed the room.
“You expect gratitude?”
“No.”
A phone rang.
Not Dante’s.
Salvatore answered.
His face changed.
“What?”
He looked at Dante.
“Your penthouse.”
Dante’s blood went cold.
“Lily.”
Emma whispered the name.
Salvatore turned on a television.
A security feed appeared.
Dante’s private floor.
Two guards lay unconscious.
The guest-suite door stood open.
Emma screamed.
They were moving before anyone spoke.
The drive back to Manhattan took forty-one minutes.
Emma called Lily’s babysitter seventeen times.
No answer.
Dante called building security.
Julian answered.
“Dante.”
“Where is Lily?”
Silence.
Then Julian sighed.
“I’m sorry.”
Dante’s hand tightened around the phone.
“If you touch her—”
“I would never hurt that child.”
“You murdered her father.”
Another silence.
“So Salvatore told you.”
“Where is she?”
“Safe.”
Emma grabbed Dante’s arm.
“Let me talk to her.”
Dante put the call on speaker.
“Julian,” Emma said, “please.”
“I need the flash drive.”
“You can have it.”
“Emma—” Dante began.
She silenced him.
“Give me my daughter.”
Julian’s voice softened.
“I’m going to send an address.”
“Let me hear her.”
A rustling sound.
Then—
“Mommy?”
Emma collapsed against the seat.
“Lily. Baby, are you okay?”
“Yes.”
“Did anyone hurt you?”
“No.”
Lily whispered, “Mr. Julian says we’re playing hide-and-seek.”
Emma closed her eyes.
“Listen to me. Mommy is coming.”
“Okay.”
“Stay brave.”
“I am.”
The line went dead.
Emma turned on Dante.
“Give him the drive.”
“We will.”
“No tricks.”
“Emma.”
“No tricks.”
Dante looked at her.
For once, the feared Dante Valenti had no argument.
“Okay.”
The address arrived.
An abandoned printing warehouse in Queens.
Marco examined it.
“Trap.”
“Obviously.”
Salvatore leaned forward.
“There’s something you need to know about Julian.”
Dante looked at him.
“He didn’t betray you for money.”
“Then why?”
Salvatore’s face was grim.
“Because Victor has his son.”
Dante frowned.
“Julian doesn’t have children.”
“Yes,” Salvatore said.
“He does.”
Twenty-seven years earlier, Julian had fathered a boy with a woman who later disappeared into witness protection.
Julian had kept the child secret from everyone.
Including Dante.
Victor found him.
The son was now twenty-six.
A medical resident in Boston.
And three months earlier, Victor had kidnapped him.
Every betrayal since then had been forced.
Dante stared at the phone.
Julian had not kidnapped Lily because he wanted to.
He had kidnapped a five-year-old because someone was holding his own child.
That did not forgive him.
But it changed the battlefield.
Dante looked at Marco.
“Get me everything on that warehouse.”
Then at Salvatore.
“You’re coming.”
Finally at Emma.
“You stay—”
“Don’t.”
Dante stopped.
Emma’s eyes were dry now.
Furious.
Focused.
“My daughter is in that building.”
Dante nodded.
May you like
For the first time, he did not try to protect her by ordering her away.
“Then we bring her home together.”
