Chapter 6 - THE NIGHT THE KING LOST EVERYTHING
Carlo took everything from Aloyio in one night.
Accounts were frozen.
Safe houses raided.
Captains defected.
Three loyal crews disappeared.
By sunrise, the man who had ruled half the waterfront had one SUV, four loyal soldiers, and Martina.
“Congratulations,” she said as they drove through Pennsylvania. “You’re almost as broke as I am.”
Aloyio glanced at her.
“Almost?”
“I still have forty-seven dollars.”
“I have twelve.”
“Then I’m buying breakfast.”
It was absurd.
After everything, Martina laughed.
Aloyio did too.
Just once.
Quietly.
It changed his entire face.
They hid at an old lakeside cabin once owned by Dante’s grandmother.
Vincenzo survived the gunshot.
Martina hated that she was relieved.
Her father spent two days recovering on a sofa while Aloyio slept in a chair near the door.
Nobody trusted anybody.
Except perhaps Sophia.
She arrived on the third morning carrying groceries.
“You found us?”
Sophia rolled her eyes.
“You people drive black SUVs everywhere. You’re not subtle.”
Even Dante laughed.
For a few hours they resembled something almost normal.
Then Vincenzo ruined it.
“Carlo will kill everyone Aloyio cares about until he surrenders.”
Aloyio looked at him.
“He already started.”
One of Dante’s cousins had disappeared.
So had Enzo’s wife.
Carlo was collecting hostages.
Martina looked at the map.
“He wants you emotional.”
“I am emotional.”
“No. You’re angry. Different problem.”
Aloyio almost smiled.
“What do you suggest?”
“We make him believe he won.”
The plan was dangerous.
Which meant everyone hated it.
That was how Martina knew it might work.
Aloyio would publicly surrender.
Carlo would gather his captains at the Tuscono estate to witness the transfer of power.
Meanwhile, Martina would use Vincenzo’s Black Rook files to expose Carlo’s manipulation to every organization he had betrayed.
“Evidence won’t matter,” Vincenzo said.
“It matters if it proves Carlo stole from them.”
That changed things.
Money was a language criminals respected.
The encrypted files contained records showing Carlo had diverted more than eighty million dollars during the manufactured wars.
Suddenly revenge had an accounting department.
The night before the surrender, Martina found Aloyio sitting on the cabin dock.
“You should sleep.”
“So should you.”
She sat beside him.
The lake was black beneath the moon.
For once there were no bodyguards, no guns visible, no people screaming.
“Did you really spend three years looking for me?” she asked.
“Yes.”
“Why?”
Aloyio stared across the water.
“Your father saved my life once.”
Martina waited.
“When I was nineteen, I made a mistake. My father wanted me punished publicly. Vincenzo convinced him humiliation would weaken the family.”
“That sounds like Dad.”
“He told me something afterward.”
“What?”
“That fear can make people obey you, but it can never make them choose you.”
Martina looked at him.
“Did you listen?”
“No.”
“At least you’re self-aware.”
He laughed softly.
Then his expression changed.
“I don’t want you at the estate tomorrow.”
“You know how well orders work on me.”
“I’m serious.”
“So am I.”
“If something happens—”
She turned toward him.
“Don’t.”
“Don’t what?”
“Turn me into another person you need to protect because you’re afraid to lose them.”
His eyes held hers.
“What if I am afraid?”
For once Martina had no clever answer.
Aloyio lifted a hand slowly, giving her every opportunity to move away.
She didn’t.
His fingers touched her cheek.
Their kiss was nothing like the violence surrounding their lives.
Slow.
Careful.
Almost uncertain.
When they separated, Martina rested her forehead against his.
“This complicates things.”
“Yes.”
“I hate complications.”
“I noticed.”
She kissed him again anyway.
The next afternoon Aloyio entered his family estate unarmed.
Carlo waited in the ballroom with forty men.
Martina watched through hidden surveillance from a van two miles away.
Aloyio placed his signet ring on the table.
Carlo smiled.
“Your father would be ashamed.”
“My father was ashamed of everything.”
Carlo laughed.
Then Aloyio said the phrase Martina had been waiting for.
“Maybe you were right.”
Signal.
Martina hit Enter.
Every Black Rook ledger went out simultaneously.
To rival families.
Federal prosecutors.
Journalists.
Financial-crimes investigators.
And every captain inside Carlo’s ballroom.
Phones began buzzing.
Carlo’s smile disappeared.
“What did you do?”
Aloyio leaned back.
“I surrendered.”
He looked around.
“Just not to you.”
Chaos erupted.
Several captains turned on Carlo.
Others fled.
Police sirens approached in the distance.
Martina smiled.
Then her van door opened.
She turned.
Vincenzo stood behind her.
Gun in hand.
“Dad?”
His face was broken with regret.
“I’m sorry, sweetheart.”
He took her phone.
Then he injected something into her neck.
Martina’s body went numb.
May you like
As darkness swallowed her, she heard her father whisper:
“I can’t let you save Aloyio.”
