Chapter 9 - EVERYTHING BURNS
They reached the center in twelve minutes.
Flames climbed from the second floor.
Firefighters crowded the street.
Teenagers stood wrapped in blankets on the sidewalk.
Sera ran toward them.
"Eli!"
A firefighter stopped her.
"You can't go inside."
"My brother—"
"Sera!"
She turned.
Eli emerged through smoke carrying a coughing fourteen-year-old boy.
Sera nearly collapsed.
She reached him.
"Everyone out?"
"Everyone."
Marco scanned the crowd.
Then he saw the sedan.
Black.
No plates.
Across the street.
Watching.
He moved.
The sedan accelerated.
Marco memorized the damaged rear bumper.
Sera saw his face.
"You know them?"
"No."
But Eli did.
He stared after the vehicle.
"Viktor Salvi."
Marco turned.
"Who?"
"Moretti's financial lieutenant. He disappeared before the arrests."
Sera understood.
The ledger had destroyed Moretti.
But one man had escaped.
And he blamed them.
The fire wasn't an attack.
It was an invitation.
That night, Sera made a decision.
"I'm ending it."
Marco looked across the kitchen.
"Define ending."
"Finding Salvi."
"No."
She raised an eyebrow.
Marco corrected himself.
"We find Salvi."
"Better."
Eli had information.
During his years with Moretti, Salvi kept emergency money at a private social club in River North.
Marco arranged a meeting.
Sera insisted on attending.
The club was crowded when they arrived.
Not criminals.
Businessmen.
Lawyers.
People who would never imagine a war could begin beside their dessert.
Salvi appeared at nine.
He saw Marco.
Then Sera.
He smiled.
"There's the famous waitress."
Sera remained standing.
"You burned a building full of kids."
"No one died."
"That supposed to impress me?"
"It was a message."
"Then here's mine."
Sera placed a phone on the table.
Salvi glanced at it.
A recording played.
His own voice.
Ordering the arson.
His smile vanished.
Eli had obtained it from a former Moretti associate.
Sera leaned closer.
"Federal investigators already have copies."
Salvi's eyes moved around the restaurant.
"You think that protects you?"
"No."
She smiled faintly.
"But it makes killing me pointless."
Salvi stood.
"So what now?"
"Now you leave."
He laughed.
"You don't order me."
"I just did."
His hand moved.
Marco started forward.
Sera was faster.
Salvi grabbed her wrist.
Exactly as Marco's associate had months earlier.
Sera looked down at his hand.
Then up.
"Bad choice."
She turned.
Leveraged the thumb.
Shifted her weight.
Salvi hit the floor.
Hard.
The restaurant erupted.
People backed away.
Phones appeared.
Sera pinned him beside a white-clothed table while Marco stood above them.
It looked almost exactly like the photograph that would circulate across Chicago by morning.
The former waitress.
The feared businessman on the floor.
The mafia boss watching her.
But this time Marco didn't interfere.
Salvi gasped.
"You think you've won?"
Sera leaned closer.
"No."
She released him.
Police entered seconds later.
"I think I'm finished playing."
Salvi was arrested.
By sunrise, the recording had been authenticated.
The immediate threat ended.
Sera returned to Marco's house exhausted.
She found him in the kitchen.
"What?"
He looked suspiciously nervous.
Marco Cavallo.
Nervous.
That alone was terrifying.
"Sit."
"No."
"Sera."
"Whenever you tell me to sit, something awful happens."
"Fair."
He reached into his pocket.
Sera froze.
"Marco."
He took out a small velvet box.
Her eyes widened.
"No."
His face fell.
She laughed.
"I mean don't kneel."
"I wasn't going to."
"You absolutely were."
"I had considered it."
"Don't."
"Why?"
"Because I don't need you beneath me."
Something softened in his expression.
He opened the box.
A simple diamond ring.
Elegant.
Not enormous.
He had learned.
"Sera Voss."
She stared at him.
"I had a speech."
"What happened?"
"I forgot it."
She laughed.
Marco took a breath.
"You walked into my life because I thought I needed someone who could see danger before it moved."
He stepped closer.
"I was wrong."
"About hiring me?"
"About what I needed."
Her eyes filled.
"You made me see things after they moved too."
"That doesn't make any sense."
"I told you I forgot the speech."
She laughed through tears.
Marco smiled.
"Marry me."
Sera looked at the ring.
Then at him.
"One condition."
"Of course."
"No buying the wedding venue."
"Define buying."
"Marco."
"Fine."
She kissed him before giving the answer.
When she finally pulled away, Marco whispered, "Was that yes?"
Sera smiled.
"Maybe."
His face fell.
She laughed again.
"Yes."
For once, Marco Cavallo had absolutely nothing to say.
May you like
But outside the kitchen window, across the dark street, a man lowered a camera.
And walked away.
