Chapter 14 - The Price of a Brother's Loyalty|
Someone seized my arm in the darkness.
I screamed, twisting instinctively, and felt the steel case slip from my fingers. A man dragged me toward the side door while another shouted from the shadows.
“Get the case!”
Salvatore's voice cut through the warehouse.
“Lena!”
I drove my heel into the attacker's foot and pulled free. He stumbled, and I ran toward the sound of Salvatore's voice just as emergency lights flickered on.
Rocco and the officers had secured the main entrance, but two masked men had entered through a rear loading bay. One was already fleeing with the case.
Salvatore started after him.
“Don't!” I shouted. “Let the police handle it!”
He stopped, every muscle taut with fury.
The thief escaped into the night, but he left behind a torn glove and a phone. The responding officers collected both as evidence.
I was shaken, but unharmed.
Salvatore approached me slowly.
“Are you hurt?”
“No.”
“Look at me.”
“I said I'm fine.”
He studied my face as if he needed proof. Then he pulled me into an embrace so sudden that I forgot to breathe.
For several seconds, he held me without speaking.
When he finally let go, his expression was hard again.
“Someone knew exactly where we were.”
“Someone knew because the information was leaked.”
“Carmine.”
“Maybe. But we can't decide that without evidence.”
Salvatore looked as if he wanted to argue, but he didn't.
The police took possession of the remaining documents. We were permitted to review copies after the evidence was cataloged, and the serial-number plates were sent for independent examination.
Meanwhile, Rocco traced the stolen phone to a prepaid account activated through a company linked to Carmine's security business. It was suspicious, but not conclusive.
The next morning, Carmine arrived at the mansion voluntarily.
He looked at Salvatore, then at me.
“I heard about the warehouse.”
“Who told you?” Salvatore asked.
“Someone sent me a photograph.”
“Who?”
Carmine shook his head.
“I don't know.”
Salvatore threw the photograph onto the desk. It showed the warehouse entrance moments before the attack.
“Your company was connected to the device. Your security vehicles were used at Voss's house. Your associates have been threatening Lena. Explain.”
Carmine stared at the image.
“I didn't order any of that.”
“Then help us find who did.”
“I've been trying to.”
Salvatore laughed without humor.
“For eight years?”
Carmine's shoulders slumped.
“I was twenty-eight when the attack happened. I thought I could protect the family by keeping the business together. I thought if I told you what I knew, you'd tear the whole organization apart.”
“What did you know?”
Carmine looked toward Isabella, who had arrived that morning under medical supervision.
She stepped forward.
“Tell him.”
Carmine closed his eyes.
“I saw Enzo at the hospital. I knew he was alive. He told me the attack had been meant to scare you, not kill you. He said the shooter had acted too early.”
Salvatore went completely still.
“Someone shot me, and you knew the person who ordered it was still alive?”
“I was afraid.”
“So was Lena's father. So was Isabella. Yet they risked everything to keep the evidence safe.”
Carmine's eyes filled with tears.
“I thought Enzo would kill you if I betrayed him.”
“You betrayed me by protecting him.”
Carmine reached into his coat and placed a small key on the desk.
“There's a private archive beneath the old family office. Enzo used it to store contracts, payments, and recordings. I can get us inside.”
Salvatore stared at the key.
“Why should I trust you now?”
“You shouldn't,” Carmine whispered. “But you should hear the recording.”
He slid a folded note across the desk.
On it was a date and a time.
The date was the night of the harbor ambush.
The time was eleven minutes before the first shot.
May you like
And beneath it, in Carmine's handwriting, were the words:
I heard who gave the order.
