Chapter 9 - THE LAST DINNER AT LAKE GEORGE
Isabella Castiglion served roast chicken.
Mave found this offensive.
“You kidnapped your father-in-law, poisoned him for two years, framed your son for human trafficking, and you made roast chicken?”
Isabella looked across the dining table.
“You expected something else?”
“Honestly? Lobster.”
Leo closed his eyes briefly.
“Mave.”
“What? We may die. I wanted better catering.”
August, seated at the far end of the table under guard, began laughing.
Even weakened, he enjoyed her.
Isabella did not.
She was seventy.
Elegant.
Silver-blonde hair.
Cream silk blouse.
She looked less like a crime boss than a retired university dean.
That was somehow worse.
Ryan Hale stood behind her.
Lillian Shaw stood near the window.
Four armed men occupied the room.
Leo and Mave had entered wearing transmitters.
Federal teams waited beyond the property.
The problem was August.
Isabella had wired his chair with enough explosives to kill everyone near him.
They could not rush the room.
“Sit,” Isabella told Leo.
He did.
Mave sat beside him.
Isabella looked at their hands.
“You always did choose inconvenient women.”
Leo’s expression hardened.
“You tried to kill me three times.”
“Four.”
Mave frowned.
“What was the fourth?”
“The chandelier.”
Leo turned toward her.
“What chandelier?”
Mave looked thoughtful.
“Oh.”
“What?”
“The one in the west dining room.”
“You told me the chain looked loose.”
“It did.”
Leo stared.
“You prevented that too?”
Mave shrugged.
“I dust high places.”
Isabella looked irritated.
“Do you understand why I hired her now?”
Leo almost smiled.
“Worst assassin-placement program in history.”
Mave whispered, “Thank you.”
Isabella slammed one hand against the table.
“Enough.”
Silence returned.
“What do you want?” Leo asked.
“The ledger.”
Mave placed it on the table.
Isabella’s eyes locked onto it.
“And the hidden list.”
“Inside.”
“Good.”
“What else?”
“Your signatures.”
Ryan placed documents beside Leo.
Sale agreements.
Port assets.
Warehouses.
Shipping routes.
Everything Isabella needed to disappear financially.
Leo examined them.
“You think I’ll sign?”
“I think you will if you want Mave and August alive.”
Leo looked toward his grandfather.
August shook his head faintly.
Don’t.
Mave leaned toward Leo.
“Don’t.”
Isabella smiled.
“He will.”
Mave looked at her.
“You really don’t know him.”
“I gave birth to him.”
“And apparently missed several personality updates.”
Isabella’s face tightened.
Mave continued.
“Leo doesn’t respond well to orders.”
“He responds to fear.”
“No.”
Mave looked at Leo.
“He responds to people he loves.”
Silence.
Leo turned toward her.
She had not used that word before.
Neither had he.
Isabella noticed.
A slow smile appeared.
“There it is.”
Leo’s blood went cold.
This was what she wanted.
Proof Mave mattered.
Isabella lifted her gun.
Aimed at Mave.
Leo immediately reached for the pen.
“Stop.”
Mave looked at him.
“Leo.”
“I’ll sign.”
“Don’t.”
“I will.”
Isabella smiled.
Mave grabbed the pen first.
Then snapped it in half.
Everyone stared.
Leo looked furious.
“What are you doing?”
“Making your mother buy better office supplies.”
“Mave.”
She stood.
Isabella raised the gun higher.
“Sit down.”
“No.”
“Mave.”
This time Leo and Isabella said it together.
Mave almost laughed.
Instead, she looked at Ryan.
“You’re going to prison.”
Ryan’s face changed.
“You murdered Peter Vale.”
“I did nothing.”
“Then why are you wearing his watch?”
Ryan froze.
Everyone looked down.
Gold watch.
Engraved edge.
Mave had seen it in security footage from Vale’s office.
Ryan instinctively covered his wrist.
Isabella’s expression shifted.
That told Mave something.
She did not know.
“Ryan killed Vale without your permission.”
Leo understood.
Ryan was not merely serving Isabella.
He was preparing his own exit.
Mave continued.
“And he’s going to sell those ports himself.”
Isabella looked at Ryan.
“Is that true?”
“No.”
Mave smiled.
“Check page six.”
Ryan moved.
Too late.
Isabella snatched the contract.
Her eyes scanned.
The receiving entity was not one of her companies.
It belonged to Ryan.
“You son of a—”
Ryan fired first.
Chaos erupted.
His bullet struck Isabella’s shoulder.
Leo overturned the table.
Mave dropped.
August’s guard fired.
Carmine—hidden among the kitchen staff after federal agents smuggled him inside—hit the guard with a serving tray.
“Finally,” he shouted. “Subtlety!”
Mave stared.
“That was your plan?”
“It worked!”
Giani entered through the terrace doors with federal agents.
Ryan grabbed Mave.
Gun against her neck.
Leo froze.
Everything stopped.
Ryan backed toward the hall.
“Drop it, Leo.”
Leo lowered his weapon.
Mave felt Ryan shaking.
He was panicking.
Panicking men were dangerous.
She looked at Leo.
His face was terrifyingly calm.
“Let her go.”
Ryan laughed.
“You’ll give me safe passage.”
“Yes.”
Mave knew he was lying.
Ryan knew too.
“You think I’m stupid?”
Carmine muttered, “Do you want an answer?”
Ryan swung the gun toward him.
Mave moved.
She slammed her heel backward onto Ryan’s foot.
Then drove her head into his chin.
Pain exploded through her skull.
Ryan stumbled.
Leo crossed the distance in two seconds.
He hit Ryan once.
Then again.
Then Mave shouted:
“Leo!”
He stopped.
Barely.
Ryan collapsed.
Federal agents restrained him.
Isabella remained on the floor, bleeding but alive.
August was freed from the explosive chair.
The device turned out to be real.
So had the threat.
By dawn, it was over.
Isabella was in federal custody.
Ryan was arrested for murder, conspiracy, fraud, and enough additional charges that Carmine began counting them on his fingers before running out.
Lillian Shaw cooperated immediately.
Raffaele surrendered.
August survived.
The original ledger and Renato’s evidence cleared Leo of involvement in the trafficking network.
But the records also exposed crimes Leo himself had committed later as head of the Castiglion organization.
Extortion.
Bribery.
Illegal gambling.
Protection rackets.
Not trafficking.
Not murder of civilians.
But crimes.
Mave found him alone on the dock after sunrise.
Lake George was perfectly still.
“You could run,” she said.
Leo looked at her.
“Yes.”
“You won’t.”
“No.”
Federal prosecutors had offered terms.
Full cooperation.
Asset forfeitures.
Dismantling criminal operations.
Potential prison time.
Not decades.
But years were possible.
Mave’s throat tightened.
“You’re going to cooperate.”
“Yes.”
“Even if they charge you.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
Leo looked toward the water.
“Because my father tried to clean up what he inherited and died before he finished.”
Then he looked at her.
“And because if I ask you to stay near me after all this, I want to know the danger comes from my past—not from choices I continue making.”
Mave’s eyes filled.
“I never asked you to become someone else.”
“No.”
Leo stepped closer.
“You made me want to.”
She started crying.
“This is extremely inconvenient.”
“I know.”
“I hate crying.”
“I know.”
“Your family is exhausting.”
“I definitely know.”
She laughed through the tears.
Leo touched her face.
“Last night you said something.”
Mave frowned.
“What?”
“You said I love you.”
“No, I said you respond to people you love.”
“Semantic cowardice.”
“That’s rich coming from the man who called jealousy a security risk.”
Leo smiled.
Then became serious.
“I love you.”
No dramatic music.
No gunfire.
No black cars.
Just the truth.
Mave whispered, “You have terrible timing.”
“I have been told.”
She kissed him.
Then pulled away.
“I love you too.”
Leo closed his eyes briefly.
For the first time in years, something inside him became quiet.
Then Carmine shouted from the house:
“Boss! Your mother says she wants a lawyer!”
Leo yelled back:
“She has one!”
Carmine paused.
“The one she shot or the one we arrested?”
Mave covered her face.
Leo sighed.
“Long day.”
“They all are.”
May you like
And for the first time, the words felt less like a warning.
More like a promise.
