Chapter 6 - A Deal With the Devil
Serena read the bank transfer six times.
Each time, the numbers remained unchanged.
$50,000.
Deposited into an account Anthony had never told her existed.
Victor stood across his office.
“He was paid forty-eight hours before you applied here.”
“No.”
“Serena—”
“He didn’t know I was applying.”
“Are you sure?”
She tried to remember.
The online listing.
The agency.
The desperate phone call with her lawyer.
Anthony had called the previous evening to mock her job search.
Had she mentioned the Rinaldi estate?
No.
She had been careful.
But Lucia might have.
Children repeated things.
“I don’t know.”
Victor came around the desk.
“We need to assume Anthony is involved.”
“In what?”
“That’s what I intend to find out.”
Serena looked at him.
“No.”
His brow tightened.
“No?”
“You are not sending men after Lucia’s father.”
“If he’s working with a man threatening my children—”
“I said no.”
Victor’s face hardened.
“He accepted fifty thousand dollars from Gabriel Moretti.”
“We don’t know why.”
“I can think of very few innocent reasons.”
“Then we go to the police.”
Victor’s silence said enough.
Serena laughed without humor.
“Right. Of course.”
“The police cannot handle Gabriel.”
“They handle criminals every day.”
“Not this one.”
“Why?”
Victor turned toward the windows.
“Because Gabriel used to work inside my organization.”
That surprised her.
“Your brother-in-law?”
“He was more than that. He knew routes. Safe houses. accounts. Names.”
“Then after Adriana died?”
“He blamed me and disappeared.”
“You said there was an explosion.”
“There was.”
Victor poured water rather than wine.
“He contacted me three months after Adriana’s death. Said he had proof someone inside my organization ordered the bombing.”
“Who?”
“He refused to say until I met him alone.”
“Did you?”
“Yes.”
“What happened?”
“The warehouse exploded before I reached him.”
Victor’s jaw tightened.
“I found enough remains for the authorities to declare him dead.”
“But not enough to identify him?”
“Dental records were supposedly enough.”
“Supposedly?”
Victor looked at her.
“The dentist who provided them disappeared six months later.”
Serena shivered.
“So someone wanted you to believe Gabriel was dead.”
“Possibly.”
“And now he’s back.”
“Yes.”
“Why threaten the children?”
Victor had no answer.
That frightened her most.
That evening Serena insisted on calling Anthony herself.
Victor refused at first.
She won by reminding him Lucia was her daughter, not a piece on his chessboard.
Anthony answered after four rings.
“Well, well. The suddenly employed mother.”
“Where did you get fifty thousand dollars?”
Silence.
Serena looked at Victor.
He leaned against the desk, listening through the speaker.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Anthony said.
“Wrong answer.”
“Serena—”
“Who is Gabriel Moretti?”
The line went dead.
Victor straightened.
Serena stared at the phone.
“Call again.”
Anthony did not answer.
Victor picked up his own phone.
“Enzo. Locate him.”
Serena’s heart raced.
“Victor.”
“I’m locating him, not killing him.”
“That is not as reassuring as you think.”
Ten minutes later Enzo called back.
Anthony’s phone was moving toward LaGuardia Airport.
“He’s running,” Victor said.
Serena grabbed her coat.
“I’m coming.”
“No.”
“He’s Lucia’s father.”
“That is precisely why you’re staying.”
“He might tell me things he won’t tell you.”
Victor stared.
Then cursed softly.
Twenty-five minutes later they were inside a black armored SUV with two vehicles following.
Serena hated every second of it.
They intercepted Anthony at a private parking garage near the airport.
He looked shocked when Serena stepped from Victor’s car.
“Are you insane?”
She crossed the distance and slapped him.
Victor raised an eyebrow.
Serena shook her aching hand.
“That was for selling information about our daughter.”
“I didn’t sell Lucia!”
“You took fifty thousand dollars!”
Anthony glanced nervously at Victor.
“I didn’t know who the guy was.”
“You accepted fifty thousand dollars from a stranger?”
“He said he wanted information about Serena’s new employer.”
Victor moved forward.
Anthony stepped back.
“Mr. Rinaldi, I swear—”
“What information?”
“Her application. Her work schedule. Whether she brought Lucia.”
Serena felt sick.
“You told him Lucia was there?”
Anthony looked at her.
“I needed the money.”
“You sold access to our child because you needed gambling money?”
“It wasn’t like that.”
“What was it like?”
“He promised nobody would get hurt!”
Victor grabbed Anthony by the collar.
Serena stepped between them.
“Victor!”
Anthony’s face turned white.
“I didn’t know!”
Victor spoke quietly.
“Men like Gabriel Moretti do not pay fifty thousand dollars for harmless information.”
“I swear to God.”
Victor released him.
“Where did you meet?”
“A hotel.”
“When?”
“Three weeks ago.”
“What did he want?”
Anthony swallowed.
“At first, only information.”
“At first?”
Serena’s blood chilled.
Anthony avoided her eyes.
“What else?”
“He wanted me to file for emergency custody.”
Serena stared.
“You already did.”
Anthony looked ashamed.
“That’s why?”
“He said if I got Lucia away from you, he’d pay another hundred thousand.”
Victor went motionless.
“Why would Gabriel care where Lucia lived?”
“I don’t know.”
“Think carefully.”
Anthony wiped sweat from his forehead.
“He asked questions about Serena’s mother.”
Serena frowned.
“My mother?”
“Her family. Maiden name. Where they came from.”
Victor looked toward Serena.
“What was your mother’s maiden name?”
“Moretti.”
Silence.
Even Anthony looked confused.
Victor’s expression changed.
“Your mother was a Moretti?”
“Yes. It’s a common Italian name.”
“Her first name?”
“Elena.”
Victor took one step backward.
“Where was she born?”
“Brooklyn. Why?”
His face had gone pale.
“Victor?”
Instead of answering, he pulled out his phone.
“Enzo. I need everything on Elena Moretti Valente. Immediately.”
Anthony glanced toward the garage exit.
A sharp crack echoed.
Victor tackled Serena to the concrete.
A bullet shattered the windshield behind them.
Security men drew weapons.
Anthony screamed.
Victor covered Serena with his body.
More shots.
Then tires screeched somewhere below.
Enzo shouted into the radio.
“Shooter moving!”
Serena looked toward Anthony.
He lay behind a concrete barrier.
Blood covered his shoulder.
He was alive.
Barely.
Victor lifted Serena.
“We’re leaving.”
“Anthony!”
“My men have him.”
“Victor!”
“He’ll get medical care.”
The SUV accelerated away.
Serena’s hands shook.
“What does my mother have to do with this?”
Victor stared straight ahead.
When his phone finally rang, he answered immediately.
Enzo spoke.
“I found her.”
“And?”
“She wasn’t just a Moretti.”
Victor closed his eyes.
“Say it.”
“Elena Moretti Valente was Carlo Moretti’s younger sister.”
Serena had heard that name.
Everyone had.
Carlo Moretti.
Former patriarch of one of New York’s most powerful crime families.
Victor slowly turned toward Serena.
“Your mother was Adriana’s aunt.”
Serena stared at him.
“That’s impossible.”
“It means Gabriel is your cousin.”
Her mouth went dry.
“And Lucia?”
“Is Moretti blood.”
May you like
Victor’s next words chilled her.
“And suddenly I know exactly why Gabriel wants her.”
