Chapter 3 - The Dead Man Comes Home
Dante’s estate looked less like a home and more like somewhere governments held secret meetings.
Stone walls.
Security cameras.
Iron gates.
Men with radios.
A private doctor stitched Dante’s forehead while I sat across the room wrapped in a blanket.
Marco entered carrying a tablet.
“We recovered traffic footage.”
Dante looked up.
“And?”
“Someone accessed your garage forty-three minutes before you left Bellini’s.”
“Rourke?”
“Face was covered.”
“Vanessa?”
“Still at the restaurant.”
I spoke.
“Check Bellini’s cameras.”
Marco looked at me.
“They’ll show Vanessa and Rourke together.”
Dante nodded.
“Do it.”
Marco left.
I stood.
“I should go.”
Dante glanced toward me.
“No.”
“There are twenty armed men outside.”
“That’s why you shouldn’t go.”
“I have an apartment.”
“Which Vanessa can find.”
“My landlord can barely find it.”
Dante almost smiled.
Then his phone rang.
He answered.
“Moretti.”
Silence.
His expression changed.
He put the call on speaker.
Vanessa’s voice filled the room.
“Dante?”
“Yes.”
A pause.
A very long pause.
“Oh my God.”
Dante watched me.
Vanessa continued.
“They told me there was an accident.”
“There was.”
“Are you hurt?”
“A little.”
“I’m coming home.”
“No.”
Another pause.
“Dante?”
“Stay where you are.”
“But—”
“I’ll call you tomorrow.”
He ended the call.
I stared at him.
“She sounded terrified.”
“She was.”
“Because you crashed?”
“No.”
Dante placed the phone on the table.
“Because I answered.”
---
The next morning, Marco brought photographs.
One showed Evan Rourke entering Bellini’s.
Another showed Vanessa leaving separately.
Then Marco displayed something else.
A bank transfer.
Two hundred thousand dollars.
From a company controlled by Rourke.
To a mechanic named Peter Shaw.
Dante studied it.
“Find Shaw.”
“We already did.”
“And?”
“Gone.”
I leaned forward.
“Gone where?”
Marco looked at me.
“We don’t know.”
Dante stood.
“You’re staying here.”
“Where are you going?”
“To see my wife.”
I stepped between him and the door.
“You can barely walk.”
Marco looked away, apparently deciding he wanted no part of this conversation.
Dante stared down at me.
“Move.”
“No.”
“Cara.”
“You have stitches in your head.”
“I’ve worked through worse.”
“That is not impressive.”
His mouth twitched.
“Do you argue with everyone?”
“Mostly people making stupid decisions.”
Marco coughed.
Dante looked at him.
“Something funny?”
“No, boss.”
Dante returned his attention to me.
“I’m not going there for revenge.”
“What are you going there for?”
“The truth.”
I studied him.
“Then I’m coming.”
“No.”
“Vanessa might deny everything.”
“She will.”
“I heard her.”
Dante’s expression sharpened.
“That is precisely why you’re not going.”
“Because?”
“You’re the witness.”
I understood.
“If she’s willing to kill you…”
“She may be willing to kill you.”
Silence.
Dante stepped closer.
“You saved me once, Cara. You don’t owe me twice.”
I looked at the bandage across his forehead.
“This isn’t about owing you.”
“Then what is it?”
I thought about Vanessa laughing.
By midnight, I’ll be a grieving widow.
“I want her to know someone heard her.”
---
Vanessa arrived before we could leave.
She entered the main hall wearing black.
She had already dressed for mourning.
When she saw Dante standing beside the staircase, she stopped.
“My God.”
She rushed toward him.
“Dante!”
He stepped back.
Vanessa froze.
Then she noticed me.
Her face changed.
Only for a second.
But Dante saw it.
“So,” he said quietly.
“You remember Cara.”
Vanessa’s eyes met mine.
“The waitress.”
Dante nodded.
“The waitress who saved my life.”
Silence swallowed the room.
Then Dante asked the question none of us expected.
“Why, Vanessa?”
Her expression remained perfectly composed.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Dante held up the bank records.
She didn’t even look.
“I loved you.”
Vanessa laughed.
“No, Dante.”
Her voice turned cold.
“You loved control.”
“And Rourke?”
For the first time, she flinched.
Dante noticed.
“So it was him.”
Vanessa’s eyes shifted toward the front door.
Marco stepped in front of it.
“Going somewhere?”
She looked trapped.
Then smiled.
“You think Evan did this for me?”
Dante frowned.
Vanessa looked directly at her husband.
“You still don’t understand.”
“Understand what?”
“Evan wasn’t trying to help me inherit your empire.”
She stepped closer.
“He was trying to take it.”
May you like
And suddenly, the murder plot became much bigger than a cheating wife.
---
