Chapter 6 - THE UNDERWORLD WHISPERS
Two hundred miles away in Boston, the ripples of the diner incident had already begun to spread through the dark underbelly of the city. In a private, smoke-filled backroom of an exclusive social club, Salvatore Rossi—the aging patriarch who had tried to absorb the Marquez territories after Matteo’s disappearance—slapped a tablet down onto a mahogany table. The screen displayed a grainy security camera still-shot pulled from a trucker's dashcam parked outside The Last Light Diner.
The image showed Matteo Marquez standing in the doorway of the diner, unmistakably alive.
“He’s alive,” Salvatore rasped, his voice rattling like dry autumn leaves. “The Black Lion didn't die in that warehouse fire five years ago. He went underground to protect some waitress in a godforsaken highway town.”
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A younger caporegime leaned forward, narrowing his eyes at the screen. “If Matteo is alive, all the territory we carved out belongs to him by right of blood. The families won't stand with us if they find out we lied about his death.”
“Then we don't let them find out from him,” Salvatore said, a cruel, calculating smile spreading across his wrinkled face. “If Matteo wants to play domestic bliss with a small-town girl, we use her to draw him out into the open. Find out everything about this Lena Marquez. Every route she takes, every hour she works. We are going to pay a visit to the Black Lion’s sanctuary.”
