Chapter 7 - THE NIGHT AT BELLUNO'S WAS A TRAP
Talia returned to Belluno’s after closing.
The broken window had been boarded up.
Her old apron still hung beside the kitchen.
Anthony Russo nearly dropped his keys when she stepped from the shadows.
“Talia?”
“You fired me.”
His face tightened.
“I know.”
“Why?”
“You know why.”
“No. I know what I thought.”
Dante appeared behind her.
Anthony’s fear doubled.
“Mr. Marchelli.”
Dante shut the door.
“Tell her.”
Anthony looked from him to Talia.
“I got a call before your shift.”
Talia went still.
“What call?”
“A man offered me twenty thousand dollars to schedule you in the private dining room.”
“Who?”
“I never got a name.”
“And Gavin Rusk?”
Anthony swallowed.
“He made the reservation fifteen minutes later.”
Talia remembered Gavin’s hand around her wrist.
The smirk.
The deliberate pressure.
“He was told to provoke me.”
Anthony nodded.
“I realized something was wrong after he grabbed you.”
“So you fired me.”
“I was trying to get you out of the building before whoever arranged it tried something worse.”
Talia stared at him.
“You could’ve told me.”
“I have a wife. Two daughters.”
His voice broke.
“They sent me photographs of them leaving school.”
Her anger weakened.
Dante asked, “Where did the money come from?”
Anthony handed him a deposit slip.
Cross Meridian Hospitality.
Talia felt the pieces locking together.
Gavin had been bait.
The restaurant had been stage one.
The shooter had been stage two.
Whoever built this plan wanted her frightened enough to stay with Dante and angry enough to distrust him.
“Why?” she whispered.
Dante looked toward the kitchen.
“Because they need something only the two of us can find.”
Anthony suddenly remembered something.
“There’s more.”
He disappeared into his office and returned with an envelope.
“This was delivered for you this morning.”
Talia opened it.
Inside was a ticket to the Cross Meridian Foundation Gala.
Tomorrow night.
And a handwritten message.
COME ALONE IF YOU WANT TO SEE YOUR FATHER.
Talia’s pulse jumped.
Dante took the card.
She snatched it back.
“It says alone.”
“So naturally we’re ignoring that.”
Talia looked at him.
“You’re not invited.”
Dante adjusted his cuffs.
“I own thirty percent of the hotel hosting the gala.”
That was when Talia realized something else.
Dante had not simply found her at Belluno’s by accident.
Anthony reluctantly admitted the final secret.
“Mr. Marchelli asked me to call him the day you applied for the waitress job.”
Talia turned toward Dante.
May you like
He had known she was at Belluno’s before the night Gavin grabbed her.
He had been watching her long before she ever noticed him.
