Chapter 5 - THE MAN WHO OPENED THE GATE
Anthony Rizzo knew every alarm code in Dominic’s life.
Every safe house.
Every garage.
Every hospital protocol.
Every route Marco used.
That explained how the bombers knew exactly which SUV carried Dominic and Leo.
But it did not explain Grace.
“Why remove me?” she asked.
Dominic looked at Marco.
Marco answered.
“Because you saw Vanessa recognize the boy.”
Grace shook her head.
“That isn’t enough.”
She was right.
A corrupt security chief did not risk exposing himself over a nurse’s facial observation.
Dominic’s gaze sharpened.
“What else did you see?”
Grace replayed the emergency department in her mind.
Dominic bleeding.
Leo gasping.
Vanessa arriving.
Her father Carlo beside her.
The chain.
The cross.
Then—
“The coat.”
Everyone looked at her.
“What coat?” Lucia asked.
“Carlo Bellini.”
Grace stood carefully.
“He had soot on his cuff.”
Dominic became very still.
“Soot?”
“I thought he had come from the explosion scene.”
Marco shook his head.
“Bellini told police he was at a Midtown fundraiser when the blast happened.”
“He wasn’t.”
Grace remembered the smell too.
Smoke.
Fuel.
And something chemical she had noticed while leaning past him.
Hospital work trained you to remember odors.
“His sleeve smelled like burned plastic.”
Marco reached for his phone.
Dominic stopped him.
“Evidence first.”
Again.
Control.
The old Dominic might have sent men.
This Dominic wanted facts.
Grace was beginning to understand why his enemies found him frightening.
Marco obtained event footage from the fundraiser.
Carlo Bellini arrived twenty-three minutes after the explosion.
No images showed him earlier.
Then traffic cameras caught his sedan leaving Queens less than six minutes before Dominic’s convoy entered the intersection where the bomb detonated.
Not proof of planting it.
Enough to destroy an alibi.
Grace sat down.
Her ribs didn’t hurt.
Her body did not carry Dominic’s wounds.
Still, exhaustion settled over her.
Dominic noticed.
“Go home.”
She laughed.
“To which job?”
“What?”
“I’m scheduled here until seven. Then I’m supposed to work at Bellamy’s restaurant.”
“You’re not going.”
Her expression hardened.
“You are not my boss.”
“No. I’m the patient telling his nurse she looks ready to collapse.”
That was different.
Grace looked away.
“My mother has chemotherapy Tuesday.”
“I know.”
“How?”
Dominic immediately regretted answering too quickly.
Grace stared.
“You investigated me.”
“After the attack.”
“You had no right.”
“I had men trying to kill my son.”
“And that gave you permission to open my life?”
“No.”
The answer stopped her.
He did not defend it.
“I’m sorry.”
Marco stared at the floor like apologies from Dominic Moretti were classified information.
Grace crossed her arms.
“Don’t do it again.”
“I won’t.”
That mattered more than she wanted it to.
Then Marco’s phone rang.
He answered.
His face changed.
“What?”
He looked toward Grace.
“Your brother.”
Her stomach dropped.
“Nathan?”
“His rehabilitation center just called your mother.”
Grace stood so quickly the room tilted.
“What happened?”
“He’s okay.”
“Then why—”
“A man visited him.”
Grace went cold.
“What man?”
Nathan had lost both legs eighteen months earlier after a Bellini Freight truck crossed an intersection against the light and crushed his car.
The company paid almost nothing, claiming the driver suffered a medical emergency.
Grace had never connected Bellini Freight to Vanessa’s family.
Until now.
“What did he want?” she asked.
Marco’s voice became quiet.
“He asked Nathan where you were.”
Dominic’s expression changed.
Grace grabbed her phone.
Then Marco added:
“Nathan recognized him from the civil hearing after his accident.”
“Who?”
“Carlo Bellini.”
Grace stared.
Her brother’s accident had never been random.
May you like
And suddenly the danger was no longer something she had entered by caring for Dominic.
The Bellinis had been inside her family’s life long before she ever walked into his hospital room.
