Chapter 3 - The Debt That Never Belonged to Liam
Norah stared at Tommy as though the restaurant had disappeared around them.
“You’re lying.”
Tommy smiled through blood.
“Ask Russo.”
She turned toward Vincent.
His silence frightened her more than Tommy’s words.
“Did your father know mine?”
“I don’t know.”
“That wasn’t my question.”
Vincent looked at Matteo.
“Find everything on Daniel Hayes.”
Matteo nodded.
Norah stepped backward.
“You knew something.”
“No.”
“But you didn’t say he was lying.”
“Because I don’t promise things I can’t prove.”
The police would arrive soon.
Vincent’s people had already begun managing the aftermath through lawyers, security teams, and carefully selected witnesses.
Norah wanted none of it.
She grabbed her coat.
Vincent stopped her.
“You can’t go home.”
“Watch me.”
“The Vitiellos know your name.”
“My brother is alone.”
“That is exactly why you can’t go.”
She looked up at him.
“You don’t get to give me orders because I warned you.”
“No. I get to tell you five armed men just watched you save my life.”
Norah hated that he was right.
“Where is Liam?”
“Queens.”
“Matteo.”
“I’ll get him.”
Norah caught Matteo’s arm.
“If you scare him—”
“He owes twenty thousand dollars to killers,” Matteo replied. “I promise, Miss Hayes, I’m unlikely to be the scariest part of his evening.”
Vincent took Norah to a secured penthouse overlooking the East River.
It was nothing like she expected.
No gold furniture. No absurd displays of wealth.
Dark wood, books, modern paintings and floor-to-ceiling glass.
“You live here?”
“No.”
“Then where are we?”
“A property nobody connects to me.”
Norah looked toward the windows.
“That sounds comforting and terrifying at the same time.”
Vincent poured water.
Not whiskey.
She noticed.
“You almost got killed tonight and you’re drinking water?”
“I need my judgment.”
“You’re a mafia boss.”
His eyebrow lifted.
“Do you always insult armed men in their own apartments?”
“Only after saving them.”
For the first time, Vincent laughed.
It changed his entire face.
Norah wished she had not noticed.
At 2:13 a.m., Matteo arrived with Liam.
Liam looked terrible.
Twenty-seven, unshaven, exhausted.
When he saw Norah, relief became anger.
“What the hell did you do?”
“I saved someone’s life.”
“You saved Vincent Russo?”
Vincent stood near the window.
Liam went pale.
“Mr. Russo.”
“Sit.”
Liam sat.
Matteo placed a folder on the table.
“The gambling debt is fake.”
Norah frowned.
“What?”
“Liam lost money,” Matteo said. “About six thousand. But the Vitiellos inflated it to twenty thousand and prevented him from paying it off.”
“Why?”
“To keep leverage over Norah.”
Liam lowered his head.
Norah stared at him.
“You knew?”
“Not all of it.”
“How much?”
“They kept telling me not to worry. Said they liked having someone dependable behind the debt.”
Her anger cracked.
“You let me work eighty-hour weeks!”
“I was trying to fix it!”
“With what? More gambling?”
Liam looked ashamed.
Vincent opened Matteo’s folder.
“Your father worked for Russo Maritime.”
Norah turned.
“My father repaired elevators.”
“No. That was his cover.”
Vincent slid an old employee photograph across the table.
Daniel Hayes stood beside Vincent’s father, Salvatore Russo.
Norah recognized him instantly.
“My father was an accountant?”
“Financial investigator,” Matteo said. “Unofficially.”
Vincent continued.
“Twenty years ago, money began disappearing from Russo shipping accounts. My father believed the Vitiellos were bribing someone inside the company. Daniel investigated.”
“What happened?”
“He discovered the theft.”
“And your father killed him?”
Vincent looked at her.
“No.”
Matteo placed another document down.
“Daniel disappeared three days before he was scheduled to testify to a federal grand jury.”
Norah’s eyes filled despite her effort to remain controlled.
“My mother told us there was an accident.”
“There was,” Matteo said quietly. “A burned vehicle was found in New Jersey. The body inside was identified as Daniel Hayes.”
“Then he died.”
“The identification was false.”
Norah stopped breathing.
Vincent turned another page.
“The dental records belonged to another man.”
“Why would anyone do that?”
“Because somebody wanted Daniel officially dead.”
Liam leaned forward.
“Is he alive?”
“We don’t know.”
A phone vibrated.
Matteo answered.
He listened.
His expression changed.
“What?”
Matteo looked at Vincent.
“We found Khloe.”
Norah expected relief.
Instead Matteo said, “She walked into the FBI field office thirty minutes ago.”
Vincent stared at him.
“She surrendered?”
“No.”
Matteo placed the phone down.
“She requested protective custody.”
“Against whom?”
Matteo looked toward Norah.
“Against Richard Davenport.”
Vincent’s eyes narrowed.
Matteo continued.
“She claims her father ordered tonight’s assassination.”
Norah felt the pieces shift again.
“And?”
“She says Richard Davenport didn’t hire the Vitiellos because of Vincent.”
“Then why?”
Matteo pushed a photograph across the table.
It showed a gray-haired man stepping from a car outside Newark Harbor.
Norah recognized the eyes.
Her own eyes.
May you like
Matteo spoke quietly.
“They were trying to prevent Daniel Hayes from coming home.”
