Chapter 2 - THE BROTHER WHO LIED ABOUT WHERE HE’D BEEN
Tessa forgot the food.
Forgot Brett.
Forgot the cameras.
“Why was Dany at your warehouse?”
Salvatore lifted one hand.
Wait.
Then he walked toward the frosted-glass door.
He opened it.
Brett almost fell backward.
Carla stood three feet away pretending to polish a wineglass.
Owen stared at the floor.
Salvatore looked directly at Brett.
Then pointed toward the hallway.
Brett swallowed.
“Mr. Marquetti, is everything all right?”
Salvatore said nothing.
He didn’t need to.
Tessa had never seen Brett move so quickly.
Within seconds, the corridor emptied.
Salvatore closed the door again.
Then signed:
“Your manager knew your brother’s name before tonight.”
Tessa’s stomach twisted.
“Brett isn’t my manager. He’s senior floor staff.”
Salvatore’s eyes narrowed.
That seemed to matter.
He took out his phone and showed her a security image.
Dany.
Seventeen years old.
Black hoodie.
Backpack.
Standing beside a loading dock.
And beside him—
Brett.
Tessa gripped the phone.
“No.”
The timestamp was three nights earlier.
11:42 p.m.
Dany had texted her at eleven saying he was home.
“What were they doing?”
Salvatore signed:
“I don’t know. My security found them near a restricted office.”
“Did you talk to Dany?”
“No.”
“Why?”
“He ran.”
Tessa looked at the image again.
Dany hated running.
Because of a childhood injury to his left ankle, he avoided it whenever possible.
“If he ran, he was scared.”
Salvatore nodded.
He swiped to another image.
Brett entering the same warehouse alone two weeks earlier.
Then another.
Carla.
Then Bellavita’s general manager, Mr. Carlisle.
Tessa stared.
“What does a restaurant have to do with your warehouse?”
Salvatore’s expression hardened.
He typed something on his phone and handed it to her.
Bellavita is one of my companies.
Her head snapped up.
“You own this restaurant?”
He nodded.
Nobody had ever told the staff.
Then another message appeared.
And someone has been stealing from me through it.
Tessa felt cold.
“How much?”
He typed:
Enough that people have already been hurt.
Before she could respond, her phone buzzed.
Dany.
She answered immediately.
“Where are you?”
Silence.
Then her brother’s shaky voice.
“Tess?”
She closed her eyes in relief.
“Dany, tell me where you are.”
“I can’t.”
“What do you mean you can’t?”
A sound behind him.
Metal scraping.
He whispered:
“They know I saw the ledger.”
Tessa looked at Salvatore.
His face changed.
“What ledger?”
Dany breathed hard.
“The one with Mr. Marquetti’s real name in it.”
Salvatore froze.
Tessa stared.
Then Dany said:
May you like
“Tess, Salvatore Marquetti isn’t who everyone thinks he is.”
The line went dead.
