Chapter 4 - The Mafia Boss Chose Molly Over His Own BloodBy sunrise, Gerardo had proof.
Passports.
Immigration records.
Photographs.
Hotel receipts.
Even a newspaper photograph showing a twenty-three-year-old Gerardo Romani standing beside a Sicilian politician during the week James Warner died.
Molly examined everything.
“You kept hotel receipts for seventeen years?”
“My accountants have emotional attachments to paperwork.”
“You were really in Palermo.”
“Yes.”
That eliminated Gerardo.
It did not eliminate his family.
At eight that morning, Gerardo received another message.
Warner Estate Holdings had finally been traced.
The controlling trust belonged to Vittorio Romani.
Molly read the name twice.
Then she sat very still.
Gerardo stood at the window.
“My uncle has been looking for you.”
“For seventeen years.”
“Yes.”
“And you never knew.”
“No.”
“That doesn’t say much for your empire.”
“No.”
She looked at him.
Again, he refused to defend himself.
It was becoming irritating.
“Stop agreeing with me.”
“I’ll try to be less reasonable.”
She almost smiled.
Then someone knocked.
One of Gerardo’s men entered.
“Boss.”
“What?”
“We found something else.”
He placed a photograph on the table.
Molly’s apartment building.
Taken from across the street.
Timestamped six months earlier.
Then another.
Molly leaving the diner.
Another.
Molly at a laundromat.
Another.
Molly carrying groceries.
Her skin crawled.
“Where did these come from?”
“A private investigator.”
“Who hired him?”
The man looked at Gerardo.
“Vittorio.”
Gerardo’s face became terrifyingly calm.
“Bring my uncle to the warehouse.”
Molly stood.
“I’m coming.”
“No.”
“You promised choices.”
“This isn’t a choice.”
“Then apparently your promises expire quickly.”
Gerardo turned toward her.
“Vittorio is dangerous.”
“So are you.”
“That is exactly why I know what he is capable of.”
“And he spent seventeen years hunting me.”
“Molly—”
“I’m coming.”
Gerardo stared at her.
Then he nodded once.
“Fine.”
His lieutenant looked shocked.
“Boss—”
“She comes.”
Two hours later, Molly entered an abandoned warehouse beside the East River.
Vittorio Romani was waiting.
He was seventy-one.
Elegant.
Silver-haired.
He wore a camel coat and carried a cane he clearly did not need.
The silver lion gleamed on his tie pin.
When he saw Molly, his expression became almost affectionate.
“Evelyn’s girl.”
Molly stopped.
Gerardo moved slightly in front of her.
She stepped around him.
Vittorio smiled.
“You have your mother’s eyes.”
“You killed my father.”
“No hello?”
Gerardo’s voice turned cold.
“Answer her.”
Vittorio looked amused.
“You brought a waitress to family business.”
“She is the family business.”
The smile disappeared.
Molly took out her mother’s letter.
“You spent seventeen years sending fake collection notices.”
Vittorio glanced at the paper.
“Your mother was stubborn.”
“She died.”
“I know.”
Molly’s stomach twisted.
“You knew?”
“I knew everything about Evelyn.”
Gerardo took one step forward.
“Careful.”
Vittorio chuckled.
“You always did become sentimental at inconvenient moments.”
Gerardo’s jaw tightened.
“Did you order James Warner’s death?”
Vittorio sighed.
“Your father ordered it.”
Molly felt the old wound reopen.
“And you?”
“I solved the problem.”
Gerardo’s eyes darkened.
“What does that mean?”
Vittorio looked at Molly.
“James was supposed to be frightened.”
“By burning my house?”
“The fire wasn’t the original plan.”
Molly’s pulse hammered.
“Then whose plan was it?”
Vittorio’s gaze shifted toward Gerardo.
“Ask your mother.”
Gerardo froze.
“My mother died when I was twelve.”
Vittorio smiled.
“No, nephew.”
The warehouse went silent.
“She disappeared when you were twelve.”
Gerardo stared at him.
Molly saw something break through his composure.
A childhood wound.
Old and buried.
“What are you talking about?”
“Salvatore told you she died because death was cleaner than abandonment.”
Gerardo moved so fast Molly barely saw it.
He grabbed Vittorio by the throat.
His men reached for weapons.
“Where is she?”
Vittorio laughed despite the hand around his neck.
“Still impulsive.”
“Where?”
Molly touched Gerardo’s arm.
“Gerardo.”
His head turned.
“Don’t kill the only man answering questions.”
Slowly, Gerardo released his uncle.
Vittorio adjusted his collar.
Then he looked at Molly with new interest.
“You control him.”
“No.”
“You do.”
“I don’t want control.”
“Everyone wants control.”
Molly shook her head.
“That’s why people like you never understand people like me.”
His smile faded.
She stepped closer.
“You think everyone has a price because you sold yourself so long ago you forgot what it feels like to belong to yourself.”
Vittorio’s eyes became cold.
Gerardo looked at her with unmistakable admiration.
“Where is the ledger?” Vittorio asked.
“I don’t know.”
“You expect me to believe Evelyn never told you?”
“She didn’t.”
“She left clues.”
“Maybe.”
Vittorio’s expression sharpened.
Molly had said too much.
Gerardo noticed.
“Meeting’s over.”
Vittorio laughed.
“You think you can dismiss me?”
“Yes.”
“You control Manhattan because I allowed you to inherit it.”
Gerardo stepped forward.
“No. I control Manhattan because men stopped being afraid of your generation and became afraid of mine.”
Vittorio’s face changed.
“Be careful, boy.”
“I’m forty.”
“You’re still Salvatore’s frightened son.”
Gerardo did not react.
That seemed to anger Vittorio more.
Then the old man looked at Molly.
“Ask him how many fathers he has taken from daughters.”
Molly stiffened.
Vittorio smiled.
“Ask him how many houses he has emptied.”
“Enough,” Gerardo said.
“No, let her understand what she is standing beside.”
Molly looked at Gerardo.
He did not look away.
Vittorio continued.
“He may not have burned your father, sweetheart. But his hands are not cleaner than mine.”
“I know.”
Vittorio blinked.
Molly surprised even herself.
“I know what he is.”
Gerardo’s expression shifted.
“And you stay beside him?”
“I’m standing beside the person currently helping me find the truth.”
“That sounds dangerously like loyalty.”
“It isn’t.”
Vittorio smiled.
“It will be.”
Then an explosion shattered the windows.
Gerardo threw Molly to the floor.
Gunfire erupted from the far end of the warehouse.
Men screamed.
Gerardo covered Molly with his body while his people returned fire.
Vittorio’s men scattered.
“Back exit!” someone shouted.
Gerardo pulled Molly upright.
They ran.
A bullet struck the wall beside her head.
Gerardo turned and fired twice.
A man fell.
Molly stared.
This was not the polished criminal sitting beneath restaurant lights.
This was the reality beneath the suit.
Violence.
Fast.
Efficient.
Terrifying.
They reached a steel door.
Gerardo pushed Molly through.
Then his body jerked.
He stumbled.
“Gerardo?”
Blood appeared across his shoulder.
He had been shot.
His men dragged them into an SUV.
Molly pressed both hands against the wound.
“Stay awake.”
Gerardo looked at her.
“Concerned?”
“Don’t flirt while bleeding.”
“Noted.”
“Who attacked us?”
Gerardo’s face hardened.
“My uncle.”
“But he was inside.”
“He wanted both of us dead.”
“Why?”
“Because he believes we know where the ledger is.”
Molly pressed harder.
Gerardo winced.
“Sorry.”
“I’ve had worse.”
“I’m sure that’s something you’re very proud of.”
He almost smiled.
Then his eyes closed.
“Gerardo.”
No response.
“Gerardo!”
Molly slapped him.
His eyes opened.
“That was unnecessary.”
“You passed out.”
“I was resting.”
“You are the most annoying man I’ve ever met.”
“Good.”
“Why good?”
His gaze held hers.
“Because you’ve met me.”
Molly’s breath caught.
For one second, the gunfire disappeared.
Then she looked away.
At the hospital, Gerardo refused general admission.
A private surgeon arrived at a secure townhouse.
The bullet had passed through cleanly.
While the doctor worked, Molly waited in the hall.
Gerardo’s lieutenant, Luca, stood beside her.
“You saved his life.”
“I held a towel against a hole.”
“You kept him conscious.”
“He would have survived.”
“Maybe.”
Molly looked at Luca.
“How long have you known him?”
“Twenty years.”
“Is he as bad as everyone says?”
Luca considered.
“Yes.”
The honesty surprised her.
Then he added:
“But not in the ways people think.”
“What does that mean?”
“He became boss at thirty-two. First thing he did was stop narcotics sales near schools. Second thing, he ended his father’s trafficking operation.”
Molly stared.
“Human trafficking?”
Luca nodded.
“Cost him millions.”
“Why?”
“Because his mother disappeared.”
Molly remembered Vittorio.
“Gerardo believed she died.”
“Yes.”
“But something about losing her…”
“Changed the rules.”
Molly looked through the doorway.
Gerardo lay unconscious while the surgeon stitched his shoulder.
A monster with rules.
That did not make him innocent.
May you like
But it made him complicated.
And complicated was far more dangerous to hate.
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