Chapter 8 - THE DOCKS
The Boston shipping yards were a graveyard of rusted metal and sea fog. Dawn was just beginning to bruise the horizon purple and gray.
Dante didn't bring an army. He said Julian would kill them both if he saw a motorcade. It was just me and Dante, walking through the freezing mist, the gravel crunching beneath our feet.
At the end of Pier 4, standing beneath a flickering halogen spotlight, was Julian.
He was holding Leo over the edge of the dock. The dark, freezing water churned twenty feet below.
Kneeling on the wet wood beside him, tied to a pylon, was a woman. Her hair was matted, her face bruised and hollowed out from starvation, but I knew that posture anywhere.
"Mom!" I screamed, breaking into a run.
"Ah, ah!" Julian called out, shifting his grip on Leo's blanket. The baby was crying, a thin, exhausted wail that shredded my heart. "Not another step, little bird."
I stopped, gasping for air. Dante stopped beside me, his hands empty and raised.
"Julian," Dante said. His voice was remarkably calm. "Let the boy go. Let Rosa go. You won."
"I won a long time ago, Dante," Julian smiled, the dragon tattoo on his neck stretching. "When I ordered the hit on Gabriel, I won. You took father's empire from me. I just took your future."
Rosa lifted her head. Her eyes found mine. They were filled with desperate, agonizing love.
"Lena," she croaked. "Run. Don't give it to him."
"Shut up, old woman," Julian snapped. He looked at me. "Toss the locket, Alina. Or the Rosselli bloodline ends in the Atlantic."
I gripped the silver teardrop. The key to twenty million dollars. The reason my life had been a lie, the reason my mother had been tortured, the reason Gabriel was dead.
I looked at Dante. He didn't nod. He didn't give me a signal. He was staring at Leo, his eyes filled with absolute surrender. The mafia boss was willing to lose his empire to save a child.
"Take it," I yelled, ripping the chain from my neck.
I wound my arm back and threw the heavy silver locket as hard as I could.
But I didn't throw it at Julian.
I threw it sharply to the left, straight toward the edge of the pier, aiming for the dark water.
Julian’s eyes widened in sheer panic. Twenty million dollars, his entire revenge, was flying toward the ocean.
Greed is a reflex.
Julian let go of Leo to lunge for the silver metal.
As Julian dove, Dante exploded into motion.
He didn't go for his brother. Dante dove forward, sliding across the wet, splintered wood, his arms outstretched.
Leo fell.
Dante caught the bundle of blankets mere inches before they slipped over the edge of the pier.
May you like
At the same time, Julian’s fingers grazed the locket. He tipped too far forward. With a scream of fury, Julian tumbled over the edge, plummeting into the freezing black water below.
I didn't watch him fall. I was already on my knees, tearing at the thick ropes binding my mother.
