Chapter 5 - The Man Who Was Supposed to Be DeadDaniel Bennett was alive.
Dante learned it at 2:13 the following morning.
His security chief entered the library carrying a surveillance photograph taken six weeks earlier at a freight terminal in New Jersey.
The man in the picture was thinner.
His beard was longer.
A scar crossed his left cheek.
But Rosa identified him instantly.
Her knees almost gave out.
“Daniel.”
Dante caught her elbow.
She pulled away.
Not angrily.
Instinctively.
“Where?”
“Port Newark.”
“When?”
“Forty-three days ago.”
Rosa stared at the photograph.
Four years of abandonment rearranged themselves inside her.
Anger.
Grief.
Hope.
All at once.
“He’s alive.”
“Yes.”
“Then he chose not to come back.”
“We don’t know that.”
“He had four years.”
Dante remained quiet.
Rosa turned on him.
“You defended him.”
“No. I said we don’t know.”
“That’s defending him.”
“That’s refusing to invent an answer because it hurts less than uncertainty.”
She hated him for being right.
Sophia entered in dinosaur pajamas.
Everyone immediately stopped talking.
She climbed onto Rosa’s lap.
“Mommy sad?”
“I’m okay.”
Sophia looked at Dante.
“Fix it.”
Dante almost laughed at the impossible confidence children placed in adults.
“I’m trying.”
The freight terminal became their only lead.
Dante went personally.
Rosa insisted on coming.
“No.”
“He’s Sophia’s father.”
“Which is exactly why you stay here.”
“You don’t get to order me around because you own a frightening number of black suits.”
Dante stared.
Rosa folded her arms.
“I’m coming.”
Marina, sitting nearby, hid a smile.
Dante finally said, “You stay in the car.”
“Fine.”
“You do exactly what I tell you.”
“Within reason.”
“That wasn’t the agreement.”
“It is now.”
He muttered something in Italian.
Rosa smiled sweetly.
At Port Newark, they found the warehouse from Carmela’s records.
It had supposedly been abandoned for three years.
It was not abandoned.
Dante’s men found fresh tire marks.
Food wrappers.
A mattress.
And blood.
Then Rosa saw the wall.
Dozens of photographs covered it.
Victor Falcone.
Shipping manifests.
Carmela.
Dante.
Rosa herself.
And Sophia.
Every stage of Sophia’s life had been documented from a distance.
Her first daycare.
Her second birthday.
A playground.
Rosa’s apartment.
Rosa touched one photograph with trembling fingers.
“He watched us.”
Dante looked at the dates.
“No.”
“What?”
“These were taken by different cameras.”
He pointed toward markings in the corners.
“Somebody else was watching you.”
A sound came from behind the warehouse.
Dante reached for his weapon.
Rosa ignored his order and followed.
A man ran between shipping containers.
Dante’s guards pursued him.
He turned.
Rosa saw his face.
“Daniel!”
The man stopped.
Everything stopped.
Daniel stared at her.
“Rosa?”
She walked toward him.
He looked as though he had seen a ghost.
Then she slapped him.
Hard.
Dante said nothing.
Daniel accepted it.
Rosa hit him again.
Four years of fear were in the second slap.
“You were alive.”
“I can explain.”
“Four years!”
“I was protecting you.”
“By letting me think you abandoned us?”
His eyes filled.
“Us?”
Rosa’s anger faltered.
Daniel looked toward the photograph in Dante’s hand.
Sophia.
His face collapsed.
“Is that—”
“Yes.”
Daniel staggered backward.
“A girl?”
“Her name is Sophia.”
He covered his mouth.
Dante watched carefully.
The grief appeared genuine.
Daniel had known Rosa was pregnant.
He had not known whether the child survived.
Then Daniel saw Dante.
His expression hardened.
“You shouldn’t have brought her.”
“I didn’t have much choice.”
“You never do, do you, Falcone?”
Rosa stepped between them.
“Enough. Who is trying to kill us?”
Daniel looked toward the warehouse entrance.
“Victor.”
Dante’s jaw tightened.
“Why?”
“Because Carmela discovered what he was doing.”
“We know that.”
“No.”
Daniel shook his head.
“You know about money. Weapons. Routes.”
He looked directly at Dante.
“You don’t know why Carmela died.”
Dante became very still.
Daniel continued.
“The ambush wasn’t meant for you.”
Dante’s blood chilled.
“What?”
“Victor didn’t miss.”
Daniel swallowed.
“He ordered Carmela killed.”
Rosa looked at Dante.
Every trace of emotion disappeared from his face.
That was somehow more frightening than rage.
“Proof.”
Daniel reached inside his jacket.
Dante’s men raised their weapons.
Slowly, Daniel removed a flash drive.
“Everything.”
A gunshot cracked across the terminal.
Daniel jerked.
Blood appeared across his shoulder.
Dante dragged Rosa behind a container as his guards returned fire.
More shots followed.
Daniel collapsed.
Rosa crawled toward him.
“Daniel!”
“Stay down!”
Dante covered her.
Daniel shoved the flash drive toward Rosa.
“Take it.”
She grabbed it.
He whispered something.
“What?”
“Carmela knew.”
Another shot struck metal.
Daniel’s breathing became shallow.
“Knew what?”
His eyes moved toward Dante.
“That Victor had help.”
Dante crouched beside him.
“From whom?”
Daniel looked terrified.
May you like
“Someone living in your house.”
Then he lost consciousness.
Related Stories
