Chapter 7 - DAMIAN’S DEAD BROTHER WANTED HIS EMPIRE BACK
Alessandro smiled at me.
“Mrs. Russo.”
I did not move.
Bradley did.
Backward.
Wrong direction.
Two men appeared behind him.
No visible weapons.
They did not need them.
“What do you want?” I asked.
Alessandro held up the ledger.
“My life back.”
“Dramatic.”
His smile widened.
“I understand why Damian married you.”
“Do you?”
“He always preferred women who argued.”
I ignored that.
“You killed my father.”
“No.”
“Then who?”
“Bradley knows.”
Bradley looked sick.
I turned.
He shook his head.
“No.”
Alessandro laughed.
“He still hasn’t told you.”
“Told me what?”
Bradley’s voice cracked.
“I gave them Henry’s address.”
My stomach dropped.
“Why?”
“They threatened me.”
“With?”
“Tax fraud. Securities violations. Things I had done.”
There it was.
Bradley had been dirty long before he became rich.
“Did you know they would hurt him?”
“I thought they wanted the drive.”
“You gave them my father.”
“I was twenty-three.”
“So was I.”
That silenced him.
Alessandro continued:
“My men sedated Henry. The heart attack was unintended.”
Unintended.
A word cowards use when violence produces inconvenient consequences.
“You killed him.”
“No.”
“Yes.”
His smile disappeared.
Then Damian’s voice came from the darkness.
“She’s right.”
Alessandro turned.
Damian stepped between shelves.
Alone.
Or appearing alone.
The brothers stared at each other for the first time in eleven years.
“Little brother.”
“Dead brother.”
Neither smiled.
Alessandro looked at me.
“He didn’t tell you I was alive.”
“He didn’t know.”
“Not until seven months ago.”
I turned toward Damian.
Again.
Another secret.
“You knew?”
His eyes stayed on Alessandro.
“For seven months.”
My heart sank.
“You met Bradley because of him.”
“Yes.”
“What else?”
“Later.”
“No.”
Alessandro laughed.
“This is why wives are inconvenient.”
Damian’s eyes sharpened.
“Say that again.”
“Focus.”
I stepped between the emotional stupidity.
“What does Alessandro want?”
Damian answered.
“My legitimate companies.”
“And?”
Alessandro lifted the ledger.
“Recognition.”
As eldest son, he believed he should have inherited Russo control.
Their father had declared him dead after discovering he was stealing from the family.
Alessandro staged the boating accident before their father could hand him to federal prosecutors.
For years, he built a network quietly.
Carlo.
Financial managers.
Bradley.
Anyone ambitious enough to buy.
“Why now?”
“Because Damian married you.”
Of course.
“What does my marriage change?”
Alessandro smiled.
“Your father designed a legal firewall around several Russo businesses after he discovered the theft.”
Dad again.
The firewall required independent co-ownership.
Damian transferred twenty percent to me unknowingly completing it.
Now Alessandro could not seize Russo Maritime without my signature.
“So you forged it.”
“Yes.”
“Why not kill me?”
Damian moved before I could react.
One step.
Alessandro raised a hand.
“Relax.”
Then looked at me.
“Because if Penelope dies, her shares transfer into an independent trust.”
Dad had thought of that too.
I almost smiled.
“So you need me alive.”
“For now.”
Damian’s face became lethal.
I touched his arm.
Not because Alessandro deserved protection.
Because Damian deserved not to become predictable.
Then sirens approached.
Bradley looked confused.
I held up my phone.
“I texted the location to a federal prosecutor before I came.”
Damian stared.
“You did what?”
“I’m not helpless.”
Alessandro smiled.
Then backed toward a service door.
“You think police frighten me?”
“No.”
I looked at the ledger.
“But losing your financial network might.”
His smile vanished.
Because Bradley was holding a second drive.
May you like
And I had just realized what it contained.
A full copy.
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