Chapter 5 - What Leo Heard
Thomas Vale had supposedly died three years earlier.
The same week as Dante’s wife.
According to Dante, Vale had been a security contractor who worked for the Valenti family.
Then money disappeared.
Information leaked.
And Dante’s wife, Elena, died when her car went off an icy road.
Vale vanished.
A burned vehicle was found two days later.
Everyone assumed he was inside.
Everyone was wrong.
Back at the estate, Dante stood in his study.
“I should have known.”
“You believed he was dead,” I said.
“I should have confirmed it.”
“You can blame yourself later.”
He looked at me.
“Excuse me?”
“Leo needs you now.”
Nobody talked to Dante Valenti that way.
I was learning that quickly.
But he listened.
We went upstairs.
Leo was awake.
Dante sat beside him.
“Buddy.”
Leo looked at him.
“I need you to tell me something.”
Worry appeared on the boy’s face.
“Am I in trouble?”
“No.”
Dante took his hand.
“Never.”
Leo looked at me.
I nodded.
Dante continued.
“The man who took you. Did he say anything about Mommy?”
Leo’s lower lip trembled.
“He said you killed her.”
Dante stopped breathing.
“What?”
“He said Mommy was running away from you.”
“No.”
“He said you made her car crash.”
Dante closed his eyes.
“That’s not true.”
Leo started crying.
Dante pulled him close.
“I loved your mother.”
“Then why did she die?”
Dante had no immediate answer.
I sat beside them.
“Sometimes bad people lie because they know the truth won’t give them what they want.”
Leo looked at me.
“What did he want?”
Dante answered.
“Me.”
A phone rang downstairs.
Marco entered moments later.
“We got something.”
In the security room, he displayed a photograph.
Thomas Vale.
Alive.
Older.
Standing outside the school Leo attended.
Taken two weeks earlier.
Dante stared at the screen.
“He’s been watching him.”
Marco nodded.
“Longer than that.”
He opened another image.
Thomas outside the estate.
Then another.
Thomas near Dante’s office.
I noticed something.
“Go back.”
Marco did.
“The car.”
“What?”
“The silver sedan.”
It appeared behind Thomas in three photographs.
Marco zoomed in.
“Plate is registered to Bell Holdings.”
Dante’s expression darkened.
“Sebastian.”
“But Leo said Sebastian wasn’t the man,” I reminded him.
“Maybe Sebastian wasn’t the kidnapper.”
Marco finished the thought.
“But he could still be helping him.”
Dante called Sebastian.
No answer.
Then Marco’s phone rang.
He listened.
His face changed.
“Boss.”
“What?”
“Sebastian Bell was found unconscious in his garage.”
Dante stared at him.
“Alive?”
“Yes.”
“Then Vale stole the car.”
Marco nodded.
A guard rushed into the room.
“Mr. Valenti.”
“What?”
“We found something at the south gate.”
He handed Dante an envelope.
Inside was a photograph.
Me leaving Sal’s Diner.
Written beneath it:
SHE SAVED YOUR SON ONCE.
LET’S SEE IF SHE CAN DO IT AGAIN.
Dante looked at me.
“You’re leaving Chicago.”
“No.”
“That wasn’t a question.”
“Leo trusts me.”
“And Vale knows who you are.”
“Which means running makes me easier to isolate.”
Dante stopped.
Marco looked impressed.
“She has a point.”
Dante turned slowly.
Marco cleared his throat.
“I’ll be outside.”
I folded my arms.
“You want to protect me?”
“Yes.”
“Then stop treating me like luggage.”
Dante stepped closer.
“I buried my wife because I underestimated Thomas Vale.”
His voice was quieter now.
“I will not make that mistake with you.”
For once, I had no sarcastic answer.
Then Leo screamed upstairs.
We ran.
His room was empty.
The balcony door stood open.
Dante’s face went white.
“Leo!”
A guard shouted from outside.
“Boss!”
We rushed onto the balcony.
Leo was standing in the garden below.
Safe.
Beside him was one of Dante’s guards.
The guard held a phone.
“He said someone told him Miss Vance was outside.”
Dante’s expression turned murderous.
I looked at the guard.
“Who told him?”
The man hesitated.
Dante saw it.
“Answer her.”
“Marco.”
Silence.
Behind us, a voice said:
“That’s impossible.”
Marco stood in the doorway.
And suddenly everyone understood.
May you like
Someone inside the estate was using Marco’s name.
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