Chapter 5
After Bianca left, Dante took me back to my room.
He didn't mention the engagement again, and neither did I. As we passed the second-floor window, I saw the De Luca car pulling away from the estate while Dante's second-in-command stood on the steps, shaking hands with one of their men.
Eight months ago, when the Morettis were still standing, these two families wouldn't have sat down together to discuss the future like this.
Now they were building an alliance.
Once the door closed behind me, I pulled the blanket from my legs and stood.
Everything I'd seen in Dante's study earlier was still clear in my mind: three accounts, several port contacts, and the safe hidden behind the painting.
It wasn't enough to bring down Russo.
It was enough to confirm one thing.
Staying here was more useful than escaping.
I took an old makeup case from the back of my closet, twisted apart an empty lipstick tube, and shook a SIM card from the base.
Luca had given it to me years ago.
He'd just taken me to one of the Moretti safe houses for the first time, and when my father found out, he'd spent half an hour tearing into him. Luca hadn't cared. He'd simply told me that if things ever went bad, I couldn't exactly call home and ask where I was supposed to run.
I'd kept the card ever since.
Eight months ago, Dante's men had taken my phone and cash.
No one had bothered checking an empty lipstick tube.
That night, I avoided the staff and patrols and took the service stairs down to the old greenhouse on the east side of the estate. Most of the property was covered by signal interference, but the greenhouse sat far enough from the main house that a phone could sometimes reach the outside world.
I slid the SIM card into an old phone.
The screen came to life.
One bar.
The Morettis had once kept several emergency lines, though most of them were probably dead after the family fell. I tried the numbers I could remember and got nothing, until there was only one left—the line for the north-side safe house.
Someone picked up on the third ring.
They didn't ask who was calling.
A few seconds passed before a man's voice said, "Wrong number."
My fingers slowly tightened around the phone.
An old Moretti verification phrase.
I looked at my reflection in the greenhouse glass.
"Then tell Luca the north door still sticks in winter."
Silence.
A long moment later, I heard a sharp intake of breath.
"Elena?"
I knew the voice.
"Matteo."
A chair scraped hard across the floor on the other end.
Matteo Rinaldi had once managed the Morettis' northern transport routes for my father. The night our family fell, he'd still been standing behind him. After that, he'd disappeared with everyone else.
"Jesus Christ. We thought you were dead."
"I'm alive."
He went quiet, then lowered his voice.
"You're with Russo."
It wasn't a question.
I glanced toward the dark silhouette of the main house beyond the greenhouse.
"Yes."
There was a lot inside the silence that followed.
The Morettis had fallen eight months ago. I'd disappeared with them, and now I was suddenly calling through an old emergency line from inside Dante Russo's estate.
If I were Matteo, I wouldn't trust this call either.
So I didn't ask him to.
Instead, I gave him one of the names I'd memorized in Dante's study.
"Know him?"
A pause.
"Used to handle port business for your father. Works for Russo now."
He knew.
That answer was enough.
The survivors hadn't scattered completely.
They were still watching Russo.
"The shipments that disappeared on the north route. That was you."
Matteo didn't confirm it.
"How do you know about them?"
"Because Dante's men discuss them in front of me."
Silence again.
I could almost picture his expression.
Everyone knew Dante had taken Marco Moretti's daughter. They knew I'd been badly injured afterward. What they didn't know was that the people inside the Russo estate had grown so used to seeing me in a wheelchair that they'd started treating me like a piece of furniture incapable of becoming a threat.
"They don't know you can contact anyone outside," Matteo said.
"There are a lot of things they don't know."
Headlights suddenly swept across the trees beyond the greenhouse.
I stepped back against the wall and watched a patrol car move along the perimeter road, waiting until the light slid off the glass before speaking again.
"How many are still alive?"
"I'm not giving you that over the phone."
I smiled.
At least he hadn't gotten stupid.
"Then don't."
By now, Matteo had recovered from the shock of hearing my voice.
"Tell me which side of the estate you're on. We still have people we can move. If we can find a way in and out, we can get you out of there."
I looked toward the lights on the second floor of the main house.
Six months ago, I'd nearly killed myself trying to escape that place.
The fall had shattered both my legs and convinced Dante that I would never be capable of leaving him again.
Now the Morettis were finally offering to rescue me.
"No."
A few seconds passed.
"Elena."
"I'm not leaving."
Matteo's voice hardened. "Dante Russo killed your father and has kept you there for eight months. It took us months to pull together the men and routes we still have. If there's a chance to get you out—"
"That's exactly why I can't leave."
He stopped.
I didn't explain my father. I didn't explain the last eight months.
None of it would change what came next.
My eyes stayed on the window of Dante's study in the distance.
"Russo took our warehouses, our routes, our businesses, and now they're building an alliance with De Luca. You can keep hitting trucks out there, but sooner or later Dante will find you."
Matteo said nothing.
"But he'll open files in front of me. He'll let his men discuss routes while I'm sitting beside him. He'll push me right past the door to his study and still believe I can't make it down a flight of stairs."
Wind moved through the trees outside, their shadows sliding across the greenhouse glass.
I looked at my reflection.
My wheelchair was still upstairs.
And I was standing inside the Russo estate, giving the first order to a family that was supposed to be dead.
"Don't come for me."
Matteo stayed silent.
"From now on, stop hitting Russo shipments. Don't let anyone know you're still alive. Wait until I contact you again."
The line remained quiet for a long moment.
"What are you trying to do?"
I tightened my grip on the phone.
"Taking everything back."