Chapter 2 - THE MAN MATTEO CALLED UNCLE
Dominic did not run.
That mattered.
He stood beside me beneath the blue light of the surveillance screens and said:
“I was there.”
I stared.
“You told investigators you arrived after the explosion.”
“I lied.”
Everything in the room changed.
The security operator quietly stepped away.
Smart.
I lowered my voice.
“Why?”
Dominic rubbed one hand over his face.
“Elena called me.”
“When?”
“Twenty minutes before dinner ended.”
My chest tightened.
“What did she want?”
“To talk.”
“About what?”
He looked toward monitor four.
“Not here.”
That almost made me laugh.
My wife was dead.
My son was paralyzed.
And suddenly Dominic wanted privacy.
“You have sixty seconds.”
He exhaled.
“Elena thought someone inside the family was leaking your movements.”
I went still.
“What?”
“She’d seen security schedules.”
“How?”
“She went through your office.”
That sounded like Elena.
She hated being excluded from anything that threatened our son.
“She believed someone knew which car you’d be using that night.”
“Who?”
“She didn’t know.”
“Then why call you?”
“Because she didn’t trust the security chief.”
Owen Price.
The man currently responsible for sixty acres of cameras, gates, and armed guards.
I almost turned immediately.
Dominic stopped me.
“Vincent.”
“What?”
“Elena made me promise not to tell you until she had proof.”
“She died.”
“I know.”
“Matteo almost died.”
“I know.”
“Then why did you keep the promise?”
His face hardened.
“Because I thought the threat died with the bomber.”
I stared.
“You thought the bomber died?”
Dominic stopped.
Too late.
“What bomber?”
Silence.
I stepped closer.
“Dominic.”
He looked away.
“There was a body found two days later.”
I had never been told.
“Whose?”
“Unknown male. Burned car outside Pawtucket.”
My blood went cold.
“Police?”
“Local report. Car fire.”
“You connected it?”
“We suspected.”
“We?”
Dominic closed his eyes.
“Your father’s old people.”
There it was.
An investigation conducted around me instead of with me.
Again.
I wanted to hit him.
Instead, I asked:
“Why were you touching Elena?”
His face changed.
“She was furious.”
“At what?”
“I told her to take Matteo and leave the restaurant through the kitchen.”
“Why?”
“Because I saw a vehicle circling twice.”
“And you didn’t tell me?”
“You were in a private room with councilmen and two union people. I thought moving Elena quietly was safer.”
My stomach turned.
He had tried to protect them.
Maybe.
Or staged them.
I did not know.
“What happened?”
“She refused. Said she wasn’t leaving without you.”
Of course she did.
Then Dominic said:
“I grabbed her arm because she was walking toward the front doors.”
Matteo had seen exactly that.
Not a murder.
Not yet.
Then another thought hit.
“If you saw a suspicious vehicle, why did you leave?”
“I went to get the car brought around.”
“The car that exploded?”
“No.”
Dominic’s voice sharpened.
“I ordered the backup SUV.”
I stared.
“Our armored SUV was already outside.”
“Yes.”
“Who canceled the backup?”
He shook his head.
“I don’t know.”
That was when Clara’s voice came through the monitor.
“Matteo, did Uncle Dom go toward Daddy’s car?”
My son nodded.
Then whispered:
“He looked under it.”
Dominic went pale.
I turned.
“You looked under my car?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because I thought something was wrong.”
“And?”
“I saw nothing.”
Then Matteo spoke again.
A sentence that silenced both of us.
“He did.”
Clara leaned closer.
“Who did?”
Matteo’s face crumpled.
“The other man.”
Dominic whispered:
May you like
“What other man?”
My son had never told anyone there were two men near the car that night.
