Chapter 5 - THE NIGHT MATTEO CAME FOR THE CHILD HE COULDN’T CONTROL
Detective Elena Reyes hated me.
That was one reason I trusted her.
She entered St. Jude’s basement wearing a dark coat and the expression of someone disappointed I was still alive.
“Romano.”
“Reyes.”
She looked at Gabriel.
Then Clara.
Then Lily asleep beneath Father Michael’s coat.
Her face softened for exactly one second.
Then hardened again.
“You called me because?”
I placed the copied SD card on the table.
“Because your next five years of work are in there.”
She did not touch it.
“What’s the price?”
“None.”
That made her suspicious.
“Try again.”
“No price.”
“You want immunity?”
“I want Clara, Lily, and Gabriel protected.”
“And you?”
“Whatever the evidence buys.”
Reyes stared at me.
“Your lawyer would strangle you.”
“He can take a number.”
Nico coughed to hide a laugh.
Reyes looked at him.
“You too?”
He shrugged.
“Apparently we’re having a moral crisis.”
She ignored him.
Within two hours, federal agents had copies of the files.
Financial investigators began tracing accounts.
Chicago police reopened the report on Gabriel’s disappearance.
And my attorneys informed me of exactly how bad the situation could become if I cooperated fully.
Years of illegal gambling.
Extortion.
Unreported cash businesses.
Protection arrangements.
I was not Matteo.
That did not make me innocent.
“You could lose everything,” attorney Samuel Orsini said.
We were standing inside the church sacristy.
“I know.”
“Properties.”
“I know.”
“Companies.”
“Some.”
“Freedom.”
I looked toward the basement door.
“Maybe.”
Samuel lowered his voice.
“This is about the Bennett woman.”
“No.”
He stared.
“It started long before Clara.”
Then:
“I just stopped pretending after her daughter walked barefoot into Chicago because of me.”
He had no answer to that.
The plan was simple.
At least conceptually.
Not tactically.
Federal agents would use Gabriel’s evidence to move against Matteo and Santoro.
I would provide financial records.
Nico would testify about route irregularities.
Gabriel would remain protected.
Clara and Lily would be moved somewhere Matteo could not easily reach.
Clara objected to that last part.
“I’m not going into a cage with nicer curtains.”
Reyes nodded.
“Good.”
I looked at her.
She continued:
“We can arrange a protected apartment. You choose whether to accept.”
Clara looked surprised.
Choice.
Again.
She accepted.
Not my property.
Not my guards alone.
A federal safe location.
That mattered.
For forty-eight hours, nothing happened.
Then everything did.
Three Romano captains disappeared.
Two accounts emptied.
Santoro’s men crossed into Chicago.
Matteo’s old loyalists began choosing sides.
My phone rang constantly.
For the first time in two decades, I did not order retaliations.
That confused everyone.
Fear works best when everybody knows what response to expect.
I stopped giving them the expected one.
On the third night, Lily was eating cereal at the protected apartment when she asked Clara:
“Can Mister Alessandro come?”
Clara looked at me through a secure video call.
I was at a federal office giving another statement.
“No.”
Lily’s face fell.
Clara added:
“He has work.”
Fair.
Then Lily whispered:
“Bad work?”
I almost laughed.
Reyes did.
Clara said:
“He’s trying to fix some bad work.”
Better.
Then Lily looked at me through the screen.
“You still have boo-boo?”
My shoulder.
The old bullet wound.
“No.”
“Nightmare?”
My chest tightened.
Kids remember everything adults hope they forget.
“Sometimes.”
She nodded.
“Poppy helps.”
Poppy had been repaired by a seamstress from the church.
New stitches.
Still missing one eye.
“She’s with you.”
Lily held up the rabbit.
“She can help you later.”
I looked away.
That night, the protected apartment’s power went out.
Not the building.
Only their unit.
Federal agents immediately moved.
Backup lights came on.
Clara grabbed Lily.
Then smoke appeared beneath the front door.
Not fire.
Smoke canister.
Distraction.
Someone hit the rear stairwell.
Agents intercepted one man.
Another escaped.
The captured man was Anthony Bell.
The guard who disabled my cameras.
The man who had followed Lily at the gas station.
He had one instruction on his phone.
Take the girl. Clara will follow.
Matteo.
Still using children as leverage.
I arrived twenty-three minutes later despite Reyes telling me not to.
Clara was furious.
Not because I came.
Because I entered with men.
“I said no army.”
“They stayed outside.”
“That is still an army.”
Fair.
Lily ran toward me.
I stopped.
Waited.
She reached me anyway.
Wrapped arms around my leg.
I rested one hand on her hair.
“You okay?”
She nodded.
“Smoke stinks.”
“Yes.”
“Anthony bad.”
“Yes.”
Reyes stepped into the room.
“We have him cooperating already.”
Nico smiled.
“Loyalty has a short shelf life.”
Anthony told investigators everything.
Matteo had ordered Lily watched for weeks.
Not because of Poppy originally.
Because he feared Clara knew where Gabriel was.
When Lily ran away, Matteo thought fate had handed him leverage.
Anthony was supposed to collect her.
The gas-station attempt failed.
Then Poppy disappeared.
Matteo panicked.
He ordered the estate fire.
Now he had escalated to direct kidnapping.
Reyes said:
“He’s running out of options.”
I knew men like Matteo.
Running out of options made them dangerous.
Then Anthony gave us the worst detail.
“Matteo knows Gabriel is at St. Jude’s.”
Clara stood.
“What?”
“How?”
Anthony looked at me.
“One of Father Michael’s volunteers works for Ferraro.”
My stomach dropped.
Gabriel had been moved already.
Good.
But Matteo did not know that.
Reyes saw the opportunity.
“No.”
I knew what she meant.
“We use the church.”
“No.”
“Empty.”
“No civilians.”
“Yes.”
She stared.
“You don’t dictate operations.”
“I dictate whether I participate.”
That mattered because Matteo wanted me.
Anthony confirmed it.
Matteo planned to lure me to St. Jude’s using Gabriel.
Kill me.
Frame Santoro if necessary.
Then tell the captains Romano leadership had collapsed and offer “stability.”
Reyes said:
“If we let him believe Gabriel is still there, he moves.”
Clara looked at me.
“You’re going.”
I did not answer.
“That means yes.”
“Probably.”
“No.”
I almost said:
You don’t decide.
Then remembered every lesson from the past three days.
Instead:
“I need to.”
Her eyes filled with anger.
“Why?”
“Because if Matteo runs, he keeps reaching for you.”
“Agents can handle him.”
“Yes.”
“Then let them.”
I looked at Lily.
She was putting Poppy into my old coat pocket.
“What are you doing?”
“For nightmare.”
She patted the pocket.
“Bring back.”
My throat closed.
Clara watched.
Then whispered:
“Don’t make promises you can’t keep.”
I nodded.
Good rule.
I crouched.
“I’m going to try very hard to bring Poppy back.”
Lily considered.
“Okay.”
Then:
“You too.”
I smiled faintly.
“Yes.”
The church operation happened the next night.
No dramatic army.
No gang war.
Federal agents positioned outside.
I entered the basement alone enough for Matteo to believe what he saw.
He emerged from behind a support column.
Gray suit.
Romano ring.
Gun lowered at his side.
“Alessandro.”
“Matteo.”
He looked around.
“Where’s Gabriel?”
“Gone.”
His expression changed.
“You lied.”
“No.”
“I finally stopped believing you.”
He laughed.
“Because of a housekeeper?”
“Because of evidence.”
“Same thing.”
“No.”
He stepped closer.
“You were born for this.”
“I was trained for it.”
“Difference?”
“Yes.”
His face hardened.
“You think surrendering the family makes you good?”
“No.”
That mattered.
“I think admitting what I am is the first honest thing I’ve done.”
Matteo raised the gun.
“Then die honest.”
Before he fired, another voice came from the stairwell.
Reyes.
“Drop it.”
Matteo spun.
Agents moved.
One shot cracked.
Then another.
I hit the floor.
Matteo’s gun skidded away.
He had been shot in the leg.
Alive.
Furious.
Handcuffed.
He stared at me while agents lifted him.
“You destroyed everything.”
I looked at the ring on his hand.
“No.”
Then:
“We did.”
That included me.
I was done pretending otherwise.
Back at the apartment, Lily was asleep when I returned.
Clara opened the door.
Her eyes went immediately to my coat pocket.
Poppy.
I took the rabbit out.
Held it toward her.
“Promise kept.”
She looked at me.
Then at the rabbit.
Then suddenly slapped my chest.
Not hard.
“Do not do that again.”
“What?”
“Make me wonder if I have to explain another dead man to my daughter.”
The words stunned me.
Another dead man.
Lily’s father had died in a construction accident before she was born.
Clara had already survived that.
I looked at her.
“You were worried.”
She glared.
“Don’t enjoy it.”
“I’m not.”
For once, I wasn’t.
I stepped back.
Then said:
“You’re free.”
Her anger vanished.
“What?”
“The original order. Employment. Estate housing. Any obligation tied to me.”
She stared.
“I’ll arrange severance through independent counsel. Enough time to relocate however you choose.”
“Why?”
“Because I need you to know staying near me will never be the price of safety.”
Her eyes filled.
“What about Lily?”
“She chooses whether she sees me.”
“And if she wants to?”
I swallowed.
“Then I hope you let her.”
Clara looked at me for a long time.
Then:
“We’re leaving the estate.”
Pain.
Expected.
Still painful.
I nodded.
“Okay.”
“And Alessandro?”
“Yes?”
“That doesn’t mean we’re disappearing.”
My heart shifted.
Small.
May you like
Dangerous.
Hope.
