Chapter 4 - WHAT RENZO HAD BEEN PROTECTING
Alessio refused to answer in front of Sophia.
Vittorio drove her and Teresa to a condominium owned by a retired aunt in Boca Raton, then returned to the estate. By then, Isabella had packed a suitcase and disappeared.
Her wedding photograph was still on the bedroom dresser.
Her jewelry was gone.
Alessio waited in the kitchen with Renzo’s notebook and two untouched cups of coffee.
“I started meeting Renzo because he saw Marco using Gabriel’s old contacts,” Alessio said. “I thought Isabella was helping Marco steal from the company. Renzo thought it was worse.”
“How much worse?”
“He heard Marco asking where you sat in the sedan.”
Vittorio looked toward the driveway.
The car was gone, but a pale rectangle of clean gravel remained where it had idled.
“You let Renzo keep watching.”
“He wanted proof before he moved Sophia. I told him to stop. He said if he ran without evidence, Marco would find them.”
“And you still didn’t tell me.”
Alessio gave a tired laugh. “The last time I warned you about Marco, you said I was jealous because Father chose you.”
Vittorio remembered. He had said it at Christmas dinner, loudly enough for Isabella and half the family to hear.
Alessio continued. “You made loyalty mean agreement. Renzo knew you’d confront Marco before we knew who else was involved.”
“He was right.”
“Yes.”
A notification sounded on Renzo’s recovered phone. The device had automatically backed up photographs to a shared storage account.
The latest image showed a white delivery van parked beside Warehouse 14 at the marina. Marco stood near the loading entrance.
Behind him was one of Alessio’s security men.
Vittorio enlarged the image.
“Your man.”
“Former man,” Alessio said. “I fired Dean Morris three months ago.”
“For what?”
“Selling schedules.”
The metadata on the photograph showed it had been taken the previous evening. Renzo had known where Marco was preparing the trap before Sophia recorded the conversation.
He had stayed anyway.
Not because he was careless.
Because someone had promised to move Sophia that morning.
Alessio’s expression tightened.
“I arranged a car for Renzo and his daughter at six-thirty.”
“The false sedan arrived before seven.”
“Someone intercepted the plan.”
Vittorio looked again at the photograph of Dean outside the warehouse.
The attempt on his life had not merely penetrated his household.
It had grown from the secret investigation meant to protect him.
“Tell me about Gabriel,” Vittorio said.
Alessio pushed his coffee aside.
“Not here.”
May you like
“You’ve had six years.”
“And when you hear it, we may not leave this room as brothers.”
