Chapter 9 - The Price of Ending a DynastyThe textile factory had been abandoned for 14 years.
Broken windows.
Rusting machinery.
Graffiti.
A place designed for ghosts.
Dominic arrived at 11:58.
Norah sat beside Salvatore in the rear of the armored SUV.
Frank drove.
No visible convoy.
That did not mean they were alone.
Dominic had positioned men throughout the industrial district.
Police were not involved.
Not yet.
Salvatore wore a dark wool coat.
Oxygen tubing ran beneath his nose.
He looked impossibly old.
Norah checked his pulse.
“Too fast.”
Salvatore rolled his eye.
“Do not die before we get inside.”
He squeezed her hand.
Dominic turned from the front seat.
“We can still turn around.”
Salvatore lifted one finger.
A gesture Norah recognized.
Basta.
Enough.
Dominic almost laughed.
The factory doors opened.
Barzini waited inside.
He was 64.
Silver hair.
Tailored suit.
No visible weapon.
Around him stood 12 armed men.
Emily sat tied to a chair.
Alive.
Bruised.
Terrified.
Frank saw his daughter.
Every muscle in his body changed.
Dominic caught his shoulder.
“Wait.”
Barzini smiled.
“Salvatore.”
The old man stared.
“You look terrible.”
Salvatore raised his left hand.
Middle finger.
Norah nearly laughed.
Barzini did.
“There he is.”
Dominic pushed Salvatore’s wheelchair forward.
Norah remained beside him.
“Emily first.”
Barzini shook his head.
“Not how this works.”
“Then nothing happens.”
Barzini looked at Norah.
“Mara’s girl.”
Norah felt Salvatore tense.
“Don’t.”
Barzini smiled.
“You know your mother begged him to leave?”
Norah remained silent.
“She knew what he was.”
“He knew what he was.”
Barzini walked closer.
“And yet here you are.”
Norah met his eyes.
“Here I am.”
“You could have been a doctor.”
“I’m a nurse.”
“A little basement apartment.”
“Student debt.”
He laughed.
“Salvatore’s daughter living like a waitress.”
Norah’s expression remained flat.
“My mother gave me something money couldn’t.”
“What?”
“A childhood where nobody was murdered at breakfast.”
Frank made a sound suspiciously like a laugh.
Barzini’s smile disappeared.
Dominic spoke.
“Emily.”
Barzini nodded toward one of his men.
The man cut the ropes.
Emily stood shakily.
She walked toward Frank.
Halfway across the floor, Barzini raised a pistol.
He pointed it at Salvatore.
“Stop.”
Emily froze.
Frank’s hand moved toward his jacket.
“Don’t.”
Barzini’s voice hardened.
“I want Dominic’s phone.”
Dominic removed it.
Dropped it.
“Gun.”
Dominic placed his pistol on the concrete.
Frank did the same.
Norah had no visible weapon.
Barzini approached Salvatore.
“This could have been mine 20 years ago.”
Salvatore stared.
“You kept me beneath you.”
“You treated me like a dog.”
Salvatore’s expression conveyed something close to boredom.
Barzini’s face twisted.
“You can’t even speak.”
He leaned closer.
“And somehow you still look at me like I’m nothing.”
Salvatore suddenly smiled.
Barzini stopped.
The old man lifted his hand.
Pointed toward Norah.
Then Dominic.
Then Emily.
Then around the factory.
Norah understood before anyone else.
Barzini had built the entire confrontation around Salvatore’s empire.
But Salvatore had already surrendered it.
There was nothing left to steal.
Norah spoke.
“He doesn’t care.”
Barzini looked at her.
“About what?”
“The territory.”
“The ports.”
“The businesses.”
Norah smiled slightly.
“You kidnapped a teenager and started a war for an empire he already told Dominic to dismantle.”
Barzini looked toward Dominic.
Dominic said nothing.
Norah continued.
“The accounts are closed.”
“The archives burned.”
“The routes abandoned.”
“The crews dissolved.”
“You won.”
She let the word sit.
“And there’s almost nothing left.”
Barzini’s face changed.
“No.”
Dominic finally spoke.
“You inherited debt.”
“Investigations.”
“Unstable crews.”
“And every enemy my father accumulated over 50 years.”
Barzini looked furious.
“You planned this.”
Dominic shook his head.
“My father did.”
Salvatore smiled again.
Barzini raised the pistol.
Norah moved.
She stepped directly between the gun and Salvatore.
Dominic shouted her name.
Barzini stared.
Norah’s heart hammered.
But she did not move.
“You shoot him, you kill a dying 80-year-old man.”
She said.
“You shoot me, you kill a nurse.”
She pointed toward Emily.
“You kidnapped a college student.”
“You think that makes you powerful?”
Barzini’s hand trembled.
Norah continued.
“It makes you desperate.”
“Shut up.”
“You already lost.”
“Shut up!”
Barzini swung the weapon toward her.
That was the mistake.
Salvatore moved.
His left hand came from beneath the blanket.
The vintage revolver.
Norah had searched him.
She had no idea how he had hidden it.
Apparently dying mafia kings had tricks.
He fired once.
The bullet struck Barzini’s gun hand.
The pistol fell.
Everything exploded.
Dominic tackled Norah.
Frank ran toward Emily.
Gunfire erupted from the upper catwalks.
Moretti men.
Barzini’s men returned fire.
Norah crawled toward Salvatore.
He had been hit.
Blood spread across his coat.
“No.”
She dragged him behind machinery.
“Salvatore.”
His eyes remained open.
The bullet had entered beneath his ribs.
Norah tore open the coat.
Too much blood.
She pressed both hands against the wound.
“Dominic!”
Dominic reached them.
He saw his father.
“No.”
Norah looked at him.
“Pressure.”
Dominic replaced her hands.
Norah searched the wound.
Entrance.
No exit.
Salvatore coughed.
Blood appeared at his mouth.
Norah knew.
Lung.
Possibly pulmonary vessel.
They needed surgery.
Immediately.
Sirens approached.
Dominic had called federal authorities before arriving.
The legitimate endgame.
Evidence.
Kidnapping.
Weapons.
Barzini alive.
Enough to dismantle what remained.
Barzini was arrested minutes later.
Norah barely noticed.
She remained with Salvatore.
Paramedics arrived.
They transported him.
Dominic rode in the ambulance.
Norah worked beside the medic.
“Pressure dropping.”
“Seventy systolic.”
“Salvatore.”
Norah leaned close.
“Stay with me.”
His eye found her.
“You do not get to disappear again.”
His fingers moved.
He touched her wrist.
Hospital.
Surgery.
Three hours.
Norah sat beside Dominic.
Frank was downstairs with Emily.
She had a fractured wrist.
Concussion.
But alive.
Dominic stared at the operating-room doors.
“He saved you.”
Norah looked at him.
“He saved all of us.”
Dominic’s eyes were red.
“I spent my whole life thinking he didn’t love anyone.”
Norah took his hand.
“Maybe he didn’t know how.”
The surgeon appeared.
His expression told them everything.
“We controlled the bleeding.”
Norah stood.
“But?”
“His heart is extremely weak.”
The surgeon spoke gently.
“The trauma was significant.”
“He may have hours.”
They entered Salvatore’s room together.
Machines surrounded him.
For once, he looked small.
Norah sat on one side.
Dominic on the other.
Salvatore woke near dawn.
His eye moved toward Dominic.
Then Norah.
Dominic leaned closer.
“Barzini is alive.”
Salvatore frowned.
“He’s going to prison.”
The old man considered.
Then nodded.
Apparently acceptable.
“Emily is safe.”
Another nod.
Dominic swallowed.
“The organization is finished.”
Salvatore looked at him.
“I’m done.”
Dominic continued.
“No more Moretti crews.”
“No more extortion.”
“No more wars.”
Salvatore squeezed his hand.
Dominic’s voice broke.
“I’m sorry I hated you.”
Salvatore shook his head.
He struggled for the writing board.
Norah placed it beneath his hand.
He wrote slowly.
YOU SHOULD.
Dominic laughed through tears.
“That sounds like you.”
Salvatore wrote again.
BETTER MAN.
Dominic looked down.
“I’ll try.”
Then Salvatore looked toward Norah.
His hand trembled.
He wrote one word.
FIGLIA.
Norah knew enough Italian now.
Daughter.
Her throat closed.
She took his hand.
“I’m here.”
Salvatore watched her.
Norah leaned closer.
“I wish you had found me sooner.”
A tear moved down his face.
“But I’m glad I found you at all.”
His breathing became shallow.
Norah kissed his forehead.
“Dad.”
The word escaped before she could decide whether she was ready.
Salvatore’s eye widened.
Then softened.
His fingers tightened once around hers.
His monitor slowed.
Dominic stood.
“No.”
Norah knew.
She had seen this hundreds of times.
But never like this.
She held Salvatore’s hand.
Dominic placed his hand over theirs.
The old king took one final breath.
Then none.
The monitor flattened.
Dominic lowered his head.
Norah closed Salvatore’s eye.
No screaming.
No dramatic collapse.
Only silence.
The silence blood and money had never been able to buy.
Salvatore Moretti died holding the hands of the two people he had spent most of his life failing to love properly.
May you like
Outside, dawn rose over Manhattan.
And with him died the last true king of the Moretti empire.
