Chapter 6 - The Man Inside the Gates
Dante locked the estate down.
No one entered.
No one left.
Every phone was collected.
Every security credential was checked.
Within forty minutes, they found it.
A duplicate access badge.
Marco’s name.
But the photograph belonged to someone else.
Dante stared at the screen.
“Paul Mercer.”
His head of night security.
The same man who had been stationed near Leo’s wing.
Paul was brought into the study.
He looked calm.
Too calm.
Dante placed the badge on the desk.
“Explain.”
Paul stared at it.
“Never seen it.”
“You used it twelve minutes ago.”
“No.”
Marco dropped a photograph beside it.
Paul entering the south corridor.
His face changed.
Dante leaned forward.
“Where is Vale?”
“I don’t know.”
Dante said nothing.
That silence was worse than shouting.
Paul finally cracked.
“He paid me.”
“How much?”
“Two hundred thousand.”
“You helped him take my son for two hundred thousand dollars?”
“I gave him the route. I didn’t know he’d hurt the kid.”
Dante stood.
Paul immediately stepped backward.
“You knew enough.”
“Boss—”
“Where is Vale?”
“I swear I don’t know.”
I noticed Paul looking toward the window.
Not Dante.
The window.
“Why do you keep looking outside?”
Everyone turned toward me.
Paul’s face went blank.
I pointed.
“You’ve checked that window four times.”
Dante moved closer.
“What’s outside?”
“Nothing.”
Marco pulled back the curtain.
Across the lawn stood the old guesthouse.
Dante looked at Paul.
“Search it.”
Paul suddenly panicked.
“No!”
That was enough.
The guesthouse was empty.
But beneath a loose floorboard, they found phones, photographs, maps, and copies of security schedules.
And a recording device.
Marco played the latest file.
Thomas Vale’s voice filled the room.
“Midnight tomorrow. Old Lakeside Terminal. Dante comes alone.”
Then another sentence.
“Or the waitress disappears next.”
Dante stopped the recording.
“You’re leaving tonight.”
I stared at him.
“Still no.”
“Willa.”
“Vale wants you angry.”
“He threatened you.”
“He threatened me because he knows you care.”
The words came out before I could stop them.
Silence.
Dante looked at me.
I looked away.
Leo entered with his crutches.
“Daddy?”
Dante’s entire posture changed.
Leo looked at me.
“Are you leaving?”
“No.”
Dante opened his mouth.
I pointed at him.
“Don’t.”
To my surprise, Leo giggled.
Dante stared at both of us.
Then he shook his head.
“I’ve lost control of my own house.”
“Probably good for you,” I said.
The next evening, Dante went to Lakeside Terminal.
But not alone.
Police were quietly notified through a lawyer Dante trusted.
Marco’s men stayed out of sight.
I remained with Leo inside a secure vehicle several blocks away.
“No heroics,” Dante told me before leaving.
“Same to you.”
His eyes held mine.
“Willa.”
“What?”
“Thank you.”
“For what?”
“For hearing him.”
Then he left.
At the terminal, Thomas Vale finally appeared.
Dante later told me the conversation.
“You should have died with her,” Vale said.
Dante answered, “You took my son.”
“I wanted you to understand loss.”
“He’s six.”
“He’s a Valenti.”
“He’s a child.”
Thomas smiled.
“That distinction never mattered to your family.”
Dante kept him talking.
Long enough for investigators to close the exits.
Long enough for Thomas to realize he had nowhere to go.
He tried to run.
He didn’t get far.
No revenge execution.
No alley disappearance.
Dante did something Thomas never expected.
He handed him over alive.
Because Leo was waiting.
When Dante returned to the vehicle, his son threw himself into his arms.
“Daddy!”
Dante held him tightly.
Then he looked at me.
“It’s finished.”
I searched his face.
“Really?”
“Vale is in custody. Paul confessed. We have records, payments, messages, everything.”
Leo looked between us.
“So nobody’s chasing me?”
“No.”
“Willa?”
“Yes?”
“Does that mean you go home?”
The question hurt more than I expected.
I smiled.
“Eventually.”
Leo looked at his father.
“No.”
Dante raised an eyebrow.
“No?”
“She stays.”
May you like
For once, Chicago’s most feared man had absolutely no answer.
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