Chapter 9 - THE FALSE PASSPORT
The passport was fake.
Good fake.
Dangerously good.
Khloe Bennett.
Now Khloe Varga.
Why?
Dante hated the implication instantly.
“Salvatore planned to connect you to me.”
“How?”
“Travel records. accounts. property. Anything.”
“To make me look like your wife?”
“Or courier. partner. mistress.”
Khloe laughed once.
“Your family is very creative.”
“Unfortunately.”
Then the memory card.
It contained photographs.
Not of Khloe and Dante.
Of Jared meeting Salvatore.
Dates.
Locations.
Payments.
One recording.
Jared’s voice:
She won’t sign anything.
Salvatore:
Then stop asking.
Jared:
She checks paperwork.
Salvatore:
Drug her.
Khloe went cold.
Jared:
No.
That surprised her.
Salvatore:
You’ve grown sentimental.
Jared:
I said no.
Not enough to redeem him.
But enough to explain why recruitment failed.
Then Salvatore:
Fine. Use her identity another way.
The false passport.
Accounts.
Travel.
Maybe intended for trafficking transactions.
Khloe felt sick.
Dante turned off the recording.
“You don’t need to hear more.”
She snapped:
“Stop deciding what I need.”
Silence.
He nodded.
“Fair.”
Then they played the rest.
Salvatore instructed Jared to keep Khloe attached emotionally.
If she left, retrieve documents planted at her address.
Jared lost control.
Became violent.
Then Khloe escaped.
Three months of silence.
Salvatore apparently considered her irrelevant.
Until Pietro decided to use Jared to deliver the burner to Dante.
How did Pietro force him?
Debt.
Evidence.
Jared was trapped between both older men.
Still guilty.
Still dangerous.
But also disposable.
Then another file showed travel bookings under Khloe’s false identity.
Vancouver.
Lisbon.
Seattle.
Dates she had been home.
The network had already used her identity in transactions.
That could destroy her financially and legally if uncovered without context.
Dante looked at her.
“We need your lawyer involved immediately.”
“I don’t have one.”
“You do now.”
She glared.
He corrected.
“I will pay for independent counsel of your choosing.”
Better.
Khloe picked a Seattle attorney from a list Paulie found.
Not Varga counsel.
She told the lawyer everything.
The attorney’s advice:
Preserve evidence.
Report identity theft formally.
Freeze credit.
Replace documents.
Document abuse history.
Do not sign anything from Dante.
Khloe smiled at that last one.
“So she already likes me,” Dante said.
Then the attorney found something worse.
A company had been registered eight months earlier.
K.B. Maritime Consulting.
Owner:
Khloe Bennett.
She had never created it.
Bank account:
$460,000 in deposits.
Most withdrawn.
Remaining:
$73,000.
Khloe stared.
“Am I going to jail?”
“No,” the attorney said. “Not if we establish identity theft and you didn’t control the activity.”
Fear.
Real.
Different from Jared.
Then they traced company filings.
Registered agent:
Elias Marino.
The missing waiter.
Again.
Why would Elias help use Khloe’s identity?
Unless he was not helping Salvatore.
Unless he was building evidence.
The company transactions mirrored Salvatore’s network.
Maybe Elias created the shell to trace money.
Then a new message arrived on Dante’s private phone.
Unknown number.
IF YOU WANT ELIAS ALIVE, BRING THE LEDGER TO PIER NINE.
Dante read it.
Khloe saw.
“No.”
He looked at her.
“I didn’t ask.”
“Good.”
Then she added:
“Because that is obviously a trap.”
“Yes.”
“Then why do you look like you’re going?”
Dante stood.
“Because Elias was Marco’s friend.”
Khloe shook her head.
“No.”
“Khloe.”
“You told me rage makes you predictable.”
Silence.
She pointed at the message.
“This is rage with an address.”
Dante stared at her.
Then slowly sat back down.
For the first time, he changed a plan because she told him to.
May you like
And that may have saved his life.
Because twenty minutes later, security footage from Pier Nine showed explosives being placed inside the warehouse where Salvatore had ordered him to meet.
