Chapter 4 - THE MAN ORION WANTED ON THE FLOOR
Dante stepped in front of me.
Vincent lifted his hands.
“Boss.”
“Why are you here?”
“You sent security with her.”
“I didn’t send you.”
Silence.
Orion’s growl became deeper.
Vincent looked at him.
Fear flashed across his face.
Only for a second.
But Dante saw it.
“Take off the gloves.”
Vincent laughed.
“You’re serious?”
Dante’s voice softened in a way that made everyone more afraid.
“Now.”
Vincent slowly removed one glove.
Orion lunged.
Dante caught his collar before the dog reached him.
Orion snarled so violently that I barely recognized him.
Vincent backed toward the hall.
“It means nothing. That dog hates everybody.”
“No,” I said.
Everyone turned.
I scratched Orion’s neck.
“He doesn’t.”
Vincent’s eyes narrowed.
Two guards searched him.
They found a second phone.
Three SIM cards.
A folding knife.
And a photograph.
Of me.
Leaving my apartment two mornings earlier.
My stomach dropped.
“Why do you have that?”
“Routine security.”
One guard shook his head.
“No surveillance was authorized until this morning.”
Dante’s expression went frighteningly blank.
Vincent glanced toward the exit.
Then ran.
He made three steps.
Orion broke free.
The dog hit him in the back and drove him onto the concrete.
No biting.
No blood.
Just ninety pounds of black muscle pinning him to the floor.
“Good boy,” I whispered.
Orion immediately looked at me.
His entire body relaxed.
Vincent was restrained and taken away.
His phone contained coded messages.
Shipping coordinates.
Pictures of Moretti properties.
Then one message sent shortly after I touched Orion in the restaurant.
THE DOG REACTED TO HER. FIND OUT WHO SHE IS.
I stared at Dante.
“They knew Orion might recognize me.”
“They knew Orion recognized something.”
The flash drive from Dad’s lockbox finally opened.
One folder contained warehouse recordings.
Another contained financial transfers.
Then we found photographs.
Dad.
Matteo.
And a beautiful dark-haired woman standing outside a hospital.
Dante froze.
“That’s Sofia.”
“Who?”
“My wife.”
I looked at him.
“You’re married?”
“Widowed.”
His voice changed.
“She died five years ago.”
I turned the photograph over.
Writing covered the back.
Michael knows the child is alive. Do not tell Dante until we know who betrayed us.
I read it twice.
“What child?”
Dante looked as confused as I felt.
The next encrypted document answered.
A birth certificate.
Mother:
Sofia Moretti.
Father:
Dante Moretti.
Child:
Leonardo Moretti.
I looked at Dante.
His face had gone completely white.
May you like
“My son died at birth.”
According to the document in my father’s secret files, he hadn’t.
