Chapter 5 - The Table of Traitors
The Vitale estate stood behind iron gates in Long Island.
At eleven fifty-eight, Luca and I entered through the front door.
He wore a fresh black suit over his bandages. No one looking at him would have known he had nearly died hours earlier.
I carried my grandmother’s ledger inside a leather bag.
The main dining hall held twelve captains seated around a polished table.
Marco Bellini stood at the head.
Hector sat against the wall with his hands tied. A bruise darkened one eye, but he was alive.
Gabriel was nowhere in sight.
Bellini smiled when he saw Luca.
“The dead return.”
Luca stopped at the opposite end of the table.
“You look comfortable in my chair.”
“I kept it warm.”
The captains watched without moving.
Bellini gestured toward me.
“And the waitress. Rosa Carbone’s final mistake.”
I set the bag on the table.
“Funny. She described you the same way.”
His smile vanished.
Luca looked at the assembled men.
“Marco arranged the attack on my convoy. He murdered eight of our own soldiers and blamed the Romano family.”
Bellini sighed.
“A wounded man’s paranoia.”
I opened the ledger.
“Account numbers. Payment dates. Names.”
One of the captains, Enzo Marino, leaned forward.
Bellini’s hand moved toward his jacket.
Luca said quietly, “Don’t.”
Every captain at the table reached for a weapon.
Not at Luca.
At one another.
The room balanced on a breath.
Bellini looked toward Hector.
“Give me the ledger, or he dies.”
“You kill him,” I said, “and you prove you’re afraid of a book.”
“I am afraid of nothing.”
“Then let them read it.”
Bellini stepped closer.
“You sound exactly like Rosa.”
“She frightened you too.”
His jaw tightened.
“She should have stayed silent.”
Luca’s expression changed.
“You ordered her death?”
Bellini laughed.
“Heart medication is such delicate business. A pill goes missing, another is replaced—”
I lunged across the table.
Luca caught me around the waist before I reached him.
“Let me go!”
Bellini smiled.
“There she is. Rosa’s temper.”
I struggled against Luca’s grip.
“You killed her.”
“And no one noticed. Just as no one noticed Luca’s mother. Just as no one would have noticed him dying in that diner.”
Luca released me slowly.
Bellini realized too late that he had confessed before every captain in the room.
Enzo opened the ledger and turned several pages.
“These are my accounts.”
Another captain stood.
“You sold my brother’s location.”
Bellini backed away.
“You believe a waitress over me?”
A voice answered from the balcony.
“No. They believe you.”
Gabriel appeared above us with two loyal guards. He had recorded the entire confession on his phone.
Bellini grabbed Hector and pressed a gun beneath his chin.
“Everyone lowers their weapon.”
Hector’s eyes met mine.
He gave the smallest shake of his head.
Don’t do anything foolish.
I looked at the dining table.
A silver serving tray sat within reach.
I shoved it hard across the polished surface.
It struck a crystal glass, sending red wine into Bellini’s eyes.
Hector dropped his weight.
The gun fired into the ceiling.
Luca crossed the room in three strides and slammed Bellini against the wall.
His hand closed around Bellini’s throat.
Bellini laughed through the pressure.
“Do it. Become your father.”
Luca’s other hand drew a knife from Bellini’s belt.
The room fell silent.
I remembered my grandmother’s recording.
Revenge will be Marco’s last weapon.
“Luca,” I said.
He did not look at me.
Bellini whispered, “She doesn’t understand men like us.”
“I understand you perfectly,” I replied. “You want him angry enough to destroy the evidence and start a war.”
Luca’s grip tightened.
“Luca.”
His breathing was uneven. Blood began seeping through the bandage beneath his shirt.
I stepped closer.
“If you kill him now, he controls what happens next.”
Bellini smiled.
Then Luca released him.
Bellini fell to his knees, coughing.
Luca took the gun from the floor and placed it on the table.
“You will answer for every name in that book,” he said.
Bellini spat blood at his shoes.
“To whom? The law?”
Luca looked at the captains.
“To all of us.”
Enzo closed the ledger.
“No execution,” he said. “Not yet.”
The other captains agreed.
Bellini’s confidence finally cracked.
He had expected death.
He had not expected humiliation, interrogation and the collapse of everything he had built.
Gabriel untied Hector.
Hector rubbed his wrists.
“Can we leave now?”
I looked at Luca’s shirt.
The stain was spreading.
“He needs a doctor.”
Luca swayed.
I caught him before he fell.
He looked down at me, a faint smile touching his lips.
“You keep doing that.”
“You keep getting shot.”
Then his eyes closed.
May you like
This time, I did not slap him.
I simply held on.
