Chapter 3 - Family Business
Anthony Castellano arrived at eleven.
He walked into my office smiling.
“Cousin.”
Marco locked the door behind him.
Anthony’s smile disappeared.
“What’s this?”
I slid a photograph across the desk.
The SUV.
Anthony glanced at it.
“So?”
“It belongs to you.”
“My company owns forty vehicles.”
“This one watched Emma Carter get beaten.”
His face changed for half a second.
Enough.
“You know her?” I asked.
“The maid?”
I stood.
Anthony immediately corrected himself.
“Emma.”
“Better.”
He stepped backward.
“Dominic, I had nothing to do with that.”
“Then explain your vehicle.”
“I can’t.”
“Try.”
“I employ hundreds of people.”
Marco placed another photograph down.
Anton Varek entering Anthony’s warehouse two days earlier.
Anthony went pale.
I leaned closer.
“Try harder.”
He looked at Marco.
Then at me.
“Kolov was squeezing us.”
“Us?”
“The family.”
“You mean you.”
Anthony’s jaw tightened.
“I lost money.”
“How much?”
“Eight million.”
Marco whistled.
I ignored him.
“And your solution?”
“I needed Kolov gone.”
“So you hired Anton to attack someone wearing my crest.”
“No!”
His voice cracked.
“I told Anton to frighten her.”
My hands curled.
Anthony saw it.
“Nothing serious. Take her phone. Push her around. Make sure she heard Kolov’s name.”
“Push her around?”
“I swear.”
“She has three fractured ribs.”
“I didn’t order that.”
“Her mouth required twelve stitches.”
“Dominic—”
“She could have died.”
Anthony’s eyes dropped.
“I didn’t know Anton would go that far.”
I walked around the desk.
He backed into the wall.
“You selected a woman who weighs maybe one hundred fifteen pounds because you thought she was disposable.”
“No.”
“You selected her because nobody would care.”
“That’s not what I—”
“Why Emma?”
Anthony remained silent.
“WHY HER?”
“She leaves alone.”
The answer nearly made me hit him.
Marco moved closer.
Anthony hurried on.
“She walks to the subway. No guards. No family connections. I thought she was safe.”
“Safe?”
“I mean safe for the plan.”
I stared at him.
He finally understood what he had admitted.
Emma had been chosen because she was invisible.
My phone rang.
Lucia.
I answered.
“What?”
“Dominic, come upstairs.”
“Why?”
“Emma’s brother is here.”
I closed my eyes.
Danny.
Marco had brought him.
“I’m busy.”
“Come upstairs.”
Something in Lucia’s voice changed my mind.
I looked at Marco.
“Watch him.”
Anthony called after me.
“Dominic, we’re family.”
I stopped at the doorway.
“So is Emma now.”
His face emptied.
I walked out.
Danny Carter sat in a wheelchair beside Emma’s bed.
He was nineteen, thin, angry, and trying desperately not to cry.
Emma was crying enough for both of them.
“You promised you wouldn’t tell him,” she said when she saw me.
“I didn’t.”
Danny looked at me.
“Your guy did.”
“Marco.”
“Big guy. Terrible liar.”
“That’s Marco.”
Danny rolled closer.
“Are you Dominic Castellano?”
“Yes.”
“My sister says you’re dangerous.”
Emma groaned.
“Danny.”
“What? You did.”
I almost smiled.
Danny didn’t.
“Are you going to kill the guys who did this?”
Emma looked at me.
So did Lucia.
I could have lied.
Instead I said, “I’m going to make sure they can’t hurt her again.”
“That’s not what I asked.”
“You’re nineteen.”
“I’m not five.”
“Danny.”
Emma reached for him.
He looked at her injuries.
His anger disappeared.
“You always tell me you’re okay.”
Emma squeezed his hand.
“I usually am.”
“No, you’re not.”
He wiped his eyes.
“You work all the time because of me.”
“Don’t.”
“Because of Mom. Because of the bills. Because I can’t—”
“Danny.”
Her voice sharpened.
“You are not a bill.”
He looked down.
Emma lifted his chin.
“You’re my brother.”
I watched from the doorway.
Then I understood something Anthony never had.
Emma wasn’t invisible.
She was the center of someone else’s entire world.
Marco appeared behind me.
“Boss.”
“What?”
“Anton Varek just called.”
I turned.
“He wants to talk.”
“Where?”
“He says he’ll only talk to you.”
“Why?”
Marco’s expression hardened.
May you like
“Because Anthony wasn’t the only person who paid him.”
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