Chapter 4 - THE BROTHER WHO SMILED
Valerio wanted one answer.
Instead, the photograph gave him three new reasons to distrust everyone he loved.
Oswaldo had known about the watch.
Veto had known about the watch.
And neither man had told Valerio.
Danica searched the folder containing the security photograph.
“Nothing else.”
Valerio looked toward Ignatio.
“Did Oswaldo mention meeting Veto?”
“No.”
“Think carefully.”
“I am thinking carefully.”
Ignatio sounded offended now.
“He told me two days ago that he was checking old payroll records. That is all.”
A sound came from outside the archive.
Metal against concrete.
Valerio raised one hand.
Everyone went silent.
A second sound.
Closer.
Ignatio drew his pistol.
“Company.”
The first shot shattered the small window in the archive door.
Valerio pushed Danica behind a steel filing cabinet.
“Stay down.”
“Don’t tell me—”
Another shot punched through the wall.
She stayed down.
Three men entered from the casino floor.
The fight was brief and ugly.
Ignatio forced one attacker behind an overturned blackjack table.
Valerio drove another toward the service corridor.
Danica remained low until she saw the third man moving toward Valerio from behind.
“Valerio!”
He turned.
Too late.
Danica grabbed the heavy archive box beside her and shoved it across the floor.
The attacker stepped backward to avoid it.
His heel caught the edge.
Valerio closed the distance.
Seconds later, the man was disarmed.
Valerio looked at Danica.
“You were told to stay down.”
“You’re welcome.”
His jaw tightened.
That was apparently the closest he could come to gratitude while being shot at.
They fled through the renovation area.
Ignatio led them toward an employee exit that opened near the abandoned commuter platform behind the casino.
Cold November air struck Danica’s face.
Then a voice came from the darkness.
“Don’t.”
Valerio stopped.
Veto stepped beneath an old platform lamp.
He held a pistol at his side.
Two men stood behind him.
Valerio aimed immediately.
“So,” Veto said softly. “You found the watch.”
“Drop the gun.”
“Not yet.”
“Then this conversation will be short.”
Veto looked at Danica.
“You were not supposed to be in the coat room.”
She stared at him.
“Oswaldo was dying.”
“I know.”
“You knew?”
Something painful crossed Veto’s face.
“I found out five minutes before you did.”
Valerio’s voice was low.
“You smiled at me.”
Veto looked at him.
“I had Patrick Felicity ten feet away.”
“You stood with him.”
“Yes.”
“You brought his men into my gala.”
“Yes.”
Danica watched Valerio absorb each answer.
Veto was not trying to make himself innocent.
That made his next words more believable.
“I agreed to remove you.”
Silence.
Valerio’s gun remained steady.
Veto continued.
“Six weeks ago, Patrick approached me.”
“And you accepted.”
“Yes.”
Danica saw pain flicker across Valerio’s face before rage covered it.
“Why?”
Veto laughed once without humor.
“Do you really need me to explain what it was like growing up behind you?”
“This is about childhood jealousy?”
“No.”
Veto’s voice sharpened.
“It is about thirty-seven years of being told that you were the responsible son. You were the strong son. You were the son Father trusted.”
“And that justifies selling me to Felicity?”
“No.”
The answer came quietly.
“It explains why I was stupid enough to listen.”
Veto looked at the watch.
“Oswaldo learned about the arrangement. He came to me instead of you.”
“Why?”
“Because he knew I was already inside Patrick’s plan.”
Veto swallowed.
“He showed me the watch. He showed me enough of the Marrow payments to prove Patrick wasn’t helping me take your place.”
Danica understood first.
“He was buying the organization from the inside.”
Veto nodded.
“Piece by piece.”
Valerio’s face hardened.
“And me?”
“Dead tonight.”
“Danica?”
Veto hesitated.
That hesitation answered the question.
Danica felt cold.
“She was supposed to disappear,” Veto admitted.
Valerio moved forward.
Veto lifted his gun.
“Do not make me defend myself from you.”
“You knew they intended to kill her?”
“I found out tonight.”
“You still danced with her.”
“I was trying to get her away from Patrick’s people.”
Danica stared at him.
“You whispered that I had become a problem.”
Veto looked at her.
“I said you had become their problem.”
Her memory shifted.
Music had been loud.
His mouth had been near her ear.
She had heard only fragments.
The reversal unsettled her more than certainty would have.
“So the dance…”
“I was keeping you in the middle of the ballroom where everyone could see you.”
Valerio looked at his brother with something close to hatred.
“You could have warned me.”
“And Patrick would have known.”
“You let Oswaldo die.”
Veto’s face broke.
“Do you think I don’t know that?”
For several seconds, neither brother spoke.
Then Veto reached slowly inside his jacket.
Valerio’s weapon lifted.
Veto removed a folded ledger page.
“Oswaldo gave me this with the watch.”
Danica accepted it.
The paper listed payments from Marrow Holdings.
But the most recent entry was different.
No amount.
No recipient.
Only a name.
OSWALDO RIVERA.
Beside it was a handwritten time.
8:10 P.M.
The exact time he had entered the coat room.
Danica’s stomach tightened.
“He was scheduled.”
Veto nodded.
“He was marked for death before the gala.”
Valerio looked at the witness initials.
I.D.
Ignatio stepped forward.
“That proves nothing.”
Veto’s eyes moved toward him.
Then something in his face changed.
For the first time since appearing beneath the platform light, Veto looked afraid.
Not of Valerio.
Of the man standing beside him.
Ignatio noticed.
“What?”
Veto raised his gun.
Not toward Valerio.
Toward Ignatio.
“You should ask him,” Veto said.
Ignatio stared down the barrel.
“Ask me what?”
May you like
Veto’s voice went flat.
“Why the man who cut Oswaldo’s throat is standing beside my brother.”
