Chapter 4 - Marco Bellini Came to Collect His Bride
Marco Bellini entered Moretti Motors like he owned the building.
He brought six men.
Dante waited with Luca and four guards near the center of the garage.
Elena remained in the upstairs office.
At least, that was where Dante had ordered her to stay.
She lasted thirty seconds.
Then she moved to the staircase where she could hear everything.
Marco smiled when he saw Dante.
“Moretti.”
“Bellini.”
“I hear you’ve been collecting things that don’t belong to you.”
Dante’s expression remained calm.
“I collect cars.”
“I’m not here about cars.”
“Then you’re wasting my time.”
Marco looked around.
“Where is she?”
Dante said nothing.
Marco’s smile faded.
“Elena Russo.”
“What about her?”
“She’s here.”
Dante stepped closer.
“You sound confident.”
“I have photographs.”
Elena’s stomach dropped.
Marco continued.
“Train station footage from seven months ago. A delivery truck. Camera outside a laundromat. Took time to connect the boy in the cap to Elena.”
Dante’s eyes hardened.
“What do you want?”
“My fiancée.”
“She isn’t your fiancée.”
“She disappeared before the announcement.”
“Sounds like she made her position clear.”
Marco’s jaw tightened.
“This is family business.”
Dante laughed once.
“You walked into my garage with six armed men. It became my business.”
Marco’s gaze moved toward the staircase.
Elena stepped into view.
His face changed instantly.
“Elena.”
She descended slowly.
Dante turned sharply.
“I told you to stay upstairs.”
“I’m done hiding.”
Marco smiled.
“There she is.”
Elena reached the bottom.
Marco looked her over.
Short hair.
Work clothes.
Grease beneath her fingernails.
“What did you do to yourself?”
Elena’s expression became cold.
“I became someone you couldn’t own.”
Marco’s smile vanished.
“Come home.”
“No.”
“Your father is sick with worry.”
“My father sold me.”
“He arranged a marriage.”
“To a man I refused.”
Marco took one step forward.
Dante moved between them.
Marco stopped.
“This doesn’t concern you.”
Dante said, “You came into my house.”
“She belongs to me.”
The entire garage went still.
Elena’s voice cut through the silence.
“No, I don’t.”
Marco looked past Dante.
“Your father signed the agreement.”
“I didn’t.”
“Elena.”
“No.”
His voice hardened.
“You have embarrassed two families.”
“Good.”
Marco blinked.
She stepped around Dante.
For seven months she had survived by shrinking.
Lowering her voice.
Avoiding attention.
Making herself small.
Now she stood straight.
“You want the truth, Marco?”
“Careful.”
“I spent seven months pretending to be a man because being anybody was better than becoming your wife.”
Marco’s face reddened.
“You think this is funny?”
“No.”
“You destroyed alliances worth millions.”
“That’s what this was always about.”
“You don’t understand business.”
“I understand being traded.”
Marco stepped forward.
Dante caught him by the chest.
“Enough.”
Marco looked down at Dante’s hand.
“You’re touching me.”
“You noticed.”
“Move.”
“No.”
Marco smiled slowly.
“So the rumors are true.”
Dante’s eyes narrowed.
“What rumors?”
“That Moretti has become strangely attached to his little mechanic.”
Elena’s heartbeat stumbled.
Marco looked directly at her.
“Did he know?”
“No.”
“He does now.”
Marco laughed.
“How humiliating.”
Dante’s voice dropped.
“You’re leaving.”
Marco ignored him.
“Elena, you have until tomorrow night.”
“For what?”
“To come home willingly.”
“And if I don’t?”
Marco’s face went flat.
“Then your father loses everything.”
Elena stared at him.
Marco continued.
“The Russo shipping contracts. The properties. The loans. Everything.”
“You threatened him?”
“I reminded him what happens when agreements are broken.”
Dante asked, “Are you threatening her family inside my garage?”
Marco finally looked at him.
“I’m explaining consequences.”
Dante’s smile was terrifyingly calm.
“Then let me explain one.”
He pointed toward the door.
“You don’t contact Elena. You don’t follow her. You don’t touch her family.”
Marco laughed.
“And why would I listen?”
“Because tomorrow morning, Luca is sending federal investigators financial records connecting three of your shell companies to stolen pension money.”
For the first time, Marco’s confidence cracked.
Elena looked at Dante.
Marco’s voice lowered.
“You’re bluffing.”
Dante looked at Luca.
Luca held up a folder.
“No.”
Marco’s eyes narrowed.
Dante continued.
“I’ve had those records for two years. I kept them because unstable men are useful until they become inconvenient.”
“You release those files and we go to war.”
“No.”
Dante stepped closer.
“You go to prison.”
Marco stared at him.
Then at Elena.
“This isn’t finished.”
Elena answered, “It is for me.”
Marco turned and left.
His men followed.
The garage doors closed behind them.
Elena slowly faced Dante.
“You had evidence against him?”
“For years.”
“Why didn’t you use it?”
“It wasn’t my problem.”
“And now?”
Dante looked at her.
“Now he made it my problem.”
She studied him.
“You told me to leave.”
“I changed my mind.”
“Because Marco came here?”
Dante hesitated.
“No.”
Elena waited.
Dante exhaled.
“Because I knew the second you walked toward that door that I was going to spend the rest of the night wondering whether you were safe.”
The garage had become painfully quiet.
Tony pretended to inspect a tire fifty feet away.
Elena whispered, “Dante…”
He looked at her.
“I’m still angry.”
“I know.”
“I still hate that you lied.”
“I know.”
“And I have absolutely no idea what we’re supposed to do about the kitchen.”
Despite everything, Elena smiled.
“Maybe start by admitting you kissed a woman.”
Dante stared at her.
Then muttered, “That part is somehow not making this easier.”
For the first time in seven months, Elena laughed using her real voice.
May you like
And Dante looked at her like he wanted to hear it again.
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