Chapter 5 - The Second Trap
The storage facility was empty when they arrived.
Too empty.
Cass immediately noticed.
“Dante.”
“I know.”
Dante raised a hand.
His men stopped.
A speaker crackled overhead.
Victor’s voice filled the warehouse.
“Welcome.”
Cass looked upward.
Victor continued.
“I wondered whether the waitress would come.”
Dante called out, “You seem obsessed with her.”
“She embarrassed me.”
Cass replied, “You brought thirty men to kill one guy and lost. I’d be embarrassed too.”
Marco coughed to hide a laugh.
Victor’s voice sharpened.
“Enjoy your jokes.”
Metal doors slammed shut behind them.
Dante looked toward Marco.
“Open them.”
Marco tried.
“Electronic locks.”
Cass looked around.
“This isn’t about killing us.”
Dante glanced at her.
“How do you know?”
“Because we’d already be dead.”
She spotted a security camera.
“He wants something.”
Victor answered through the speaker.
“Smart girl.”
Cass looked directly at the camera.
“What?”
“Hayes gave you a photograph.”
Dante smiled faintly.
“That photograph worries you?”
“It belongs to me.”
“No,” Cass said. “It belonged to my brother.”
Silence.
Then Victor said, “Daniel should have minded his business.”
Cass’s face hardened.
“You killed him.”
“He forced my hand.”
Dante glanced toward the camera.
“Keep talking, Victor.”
Victor laughed.
“You recording me?”
“No.”
Dante looked at Cass.
“She is.”
Cass slowly raised her phone.
Victor cursed.
Dante smiled.
“Thank you.”
The lights died.
Cass looked at Dante.
“Your turn?”
“No.”
Marco grinned.
“Mine.”
The emergency doors opened.
Moretti men flooded in from outside.
Victor had underestimated them again.
Within minutes, his remaining operation collapsed.
But Victor himself was nowhere inside.
Instead, they found a locked office.
Cass opened it.
Inside were files.
Photographs.
Financial records.
Police payments.
And one handwritten ledger.
Dante opened it.
Marco moved beside him.
“What is it?”
Dante’s face changed.
Cass noticed.
“What?”
Dante turned the ledger around.
One name appeared repeatedly.
Anthony Moretti.
Dante’s cousin.
One of the three people who had known he would be at the Iron Skillet.
Cass whispered, “There’s your traitor.”
Dante closed the ledger.
Marco swore.
Then Cass noticed another file.
DANIEL MILLER.
Her hands trembled slightly as she opened it.
Inside was a photograph of her brother.
Behind it, Daniel had written one sentence.
IF ANYTHING HAPPENS TO ME, CASS KNOWS HOW TO FINISH THIS.
Dante read it.
Then looked at her.
“He knew.”
Cass swallowed.
“Knew what?”
“That you were stronger than everyone thought.”
Cass folded the note carefully.
“No.”
She looked toward the door.
“He knew I was stubborn.”
Dante almost smiled.
“Same thing.”
His phone rang.
Anthony.
Dante answered.
“Cousin.”
Anthony’s voice was frantic.
“Where are you?”
“Working.”
“Victor hit one of our warehouses.”
Dante looked at Cass.
Anthony continued.
“You need to come back immediately.”
Dante’s eyes hardened.
“I will.”
He ended the call.
Cass understood.
“You’re going to pretend you don’t know.”
“Yes.”
“And let Anthony lead us to Victor.”
“Yes.”
“That’s dangerous.”
Dante looked at her.
“So was pouring coffee on a breaker box.”
Cass sighed.
May you like
“Fair point.”
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