Chapter 6 - Dante Moretti’s Most Dangerous Gamble
Bellini disappeared before Dante returned.
That was expected.
What was not expected was the message waiting inside the estate.
One envelope.
One photograph.
Lucy’s father.
Alive.
The picture was dated three weeks earlier.
Lucy stopped breathing.
“No.”
Dante caught the photograph as it slipped from her fingers.
“My father is dead.”
Enzo looked at the date.
“Apparently not.”
Lucy grabbed the accompanying note.
French.
She translated.
“Bring the ledgers. Midnight. Come alone.”
Dante shook his head.
“No.”
Lucy looked at him.
“That’s my father.”
“It’s bait.”
“I know.”
“And?”
“I’m going.”
“No.”
“You don’t own me.”
Dante’s eyes flashed.
“Correct.”
Lucy stopped.
He continued.
“But I am responsible for what happens because of my organization.”
“You didn’t create Bellini.”
“My family did.”
“That isn’t the same thing.”
“It is to me.”
Lucy studied him.
For months she had believed Dante Moretti was simply another powerful man who allowed weaker people to carry the consequences of his decisions.
She had been wrong.
Not completely.
But enough.
“What’s your plan?” she asked.
Dante smiled slightly.
“Finally.”
At midnight, Lucy entered Bellini’s abandoned warehouse carrying the ledger.
Dante was nowhere visible.
Bellini stood beside an older man.
Lucy stopped.
“Dad?”
Charles Warren looked twenty years older than she remembered.
But alive.
“Lucy.”
Her knees nearly failed.
Bellini grabbed Charles’s shoulder.
“Ledger.”
Lucy held it up.
“Let him go.”
“First the book.”
“No.”
Bellini laughed.
“You learned confidence.”
“I learned languages.”
“Same useless talent as your father.”
Charles looked at her.
“Don’t give it to him.”
Bellini snapped, “Quiet.”
Lucy’s eyes moved toward the warehouse windows.
Then she began speaking Spanish.
Bellini frowned.
“What are you doing?”
She continued.
French.
Then Russian.
Bellini’s expression changed.
“Stop.”
Lucy switched to Italian.
Bellini grabbed her arm.
“What are you saying?”
Lucy smiled.
“Giving directions.”
A door opened behind him.
Dante entered.
Enzo beside him.
Bellini released Lucy.
Dante’s expression was almost relaxed.
“Your mistake, Carlo, was assuming only one person could understand her.”
Bellini looked toward the shadows.
Levanov stepped forward.
Then two French associates Bellini had cheated.
Then a Spanish shipping broker.
Every person Lucy had contacted through Dante’s network.
Every person Bellini had betrayed.
Bellini stared.
“You set me up.”
Lucy moved beside her father.
“No.”
She looked at Dante.
“We translated you.”
Bellini’s own allies abandoned him within minutes.
His accounts were exposed.
His network collapsed.
And before dawn, law enforcement received enough financial evidence to keep him occupied for a very long time.
Dante never needed to fire a shot.
That pleased Lucy more than she expected.
As sunrise colored the warehouse windows, Charles Warren looked at Dante.
“You’re Moretti’s son.”
“Yes.”
Charles studied him.
“Your Italian is terrible.”
Lucy covered her mouth.
Enzo turned away, laughing.
Dante stared at Charles.
Then at Lucy.
May you like
“Now I know where she gets it.”
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