Chapter 8 - Table NineVeluto had been repaired after the explosion, but the scars remained.
One window was covered with plywood.
Half the dining room furniture had been removed.
Table 9 remained.
Sophia entered through the front door alone.
At least, that was what Gabriel Vale was supposed to believe.
Dante hated the plan.
Agent Sloan hated it more.
Elena had called everyone idiots.
But Sophia insisted.
A microphone was hidden inside the seam of her coat.
Federal tactical teams waited three blocks away.
Dante and Enzo were in the building next door.
Sophia carried no visible weapon.
Vale stood behind table 9.
Pierre and Emily Bell were tied to chairs near the kitchen.
Both were alive.
“Welcome home,” Vale said.
Sophia stopped.
“This was never my home.”
“It changed your life.”
“So did a hospital. I don’t live there.”
Vale smiled.
“You have Maria’s mouth.”
“So you keep saying.”
Sophia walked closer.
“Let them go.”
“In time.”
“You have nothing left.”
“I have more than you understand.”
“Your accounts are frozen.”
“Money can be rebuilt.”
“Your judges are being investigated.”
“Judges can be replaced.”
“Your name is on every television network.”
Vale’s smile faded.
Sophia continued.
“You built your power by being invisible. Now a taxi driver in Brooklyn knows your face.”
“You think that matters?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because you care.”
Vale stepped closer.
“You are clever.”
“My mother was clever.”
“She was.”
“And you killed her.”
Silence.
Sophia’s heart began pounding.
Vale looked at her.
“I wondered when you would ask.”
“My father told me she died of cancer.”
“She did.”
Sophia paused.
That was not the answer she expected.
Vale continued.
“I did not kill Maria.”
“Then what did you do?”
“I made sure she couldn’t leave.”
Sophia felt sick.
“What does that mean?”
“After Carlo died, Maria wanted to go to the authorities. Frank stopped her.”
“How?”
Vale shrugged.
“He reminded her that you existed.”
Sophia’s eyes burned.
“You threatened me.”
“Yes.”
“And my father helped you.”
“Yes.”
The truth hurt less now.
Perhaps because Sophia had already buried the illusion of Frank Rossi.
“What happened when she got sick?”
Vale looked away.
“She asked me for one thing.”
“What?”
“To leave you alone.”
Sophia’s voice became quiet.
“And did you?”
“For fourteen years.”
“Until you wanted your books.”
“Yes.”
Sophia nodded.
“Thank you.”
Vale frowned.
“For what?”
“For admitting it.”
She touched the microphone beneath her coat.
“You just confessed to blackmail, conspiracy, kidnapping, and decades of corruption in front of the FBI.”
Vale stared at her.
Then he laughed.
“Did you really think I wouldn’t search you?”
Sophia’s blood chilled.
Vale reached forward.
He tore the microphone from her coat.
Then crushed it beneath his shoe.
Outside, Dante heard static.
“Sophia?”
Nothing.
Sloan raised a hand.
“Team ready.”
Dante grabbed her arm.
“Wait.”
“We lost audio.”
“If you breach now, Vale kills the hostages.”
“And if we don’t?”
Dante stared at the building.
“He might kill my wife.”
Inside, Vale slapped Sophia.
Her head snapped sideways.
Blood touched her lip.
She slowly looked back at him.
“You feel better?”
“You destroyed forty years of work.”
“Good.”
Vale grabbed her throat.
Pierre struggled against his restraints.
“Take your hands off her, you overcooked corpse!”
Vale turned.
Sophia drove her knee upward.
Vale doubled over.
She ran toward Pierre.
A gunman stepped from the kitchen.
Sophia froze.
Vale laughed behind her.
“You thought I came alone again?”
Two more men appeared.
Sophia raised her hands.
“Fine.”
Vale wiped blood from his mouth.
“You are going to call your husband.”
“Why?”
“Because Dante still has something I want.”
“The ledger is useless.”
“Not the ledger.”
Vale smiled.
“His confession.”
Sophia understood.
“You want him to admit everything.”
“On camera.”
“Why?”
“Because when the Moretti name falls, I want it to fall with mine.”
“You’re insane.”
“No.”
Vale looked toward the windows.
“I am old.”
That was different.
And somehow more frightening.
Vale no longer wanted to survive.
He wanted legacy.
If he could not control history, he would poison it.
“You call Dante,” Vale said. “Tell him to come alone.”
Sophia looked at Pierre.
Then Emily.
“No.”
Vale raised his pistol toward Emily.
Sophia’s voice sharpened.
“Wait.”
He smiled.
“There’s Maria’s daughter.”
Sophia called Dante.
He answered instantly.
“Sophia.”
“I’m okay.”
“Are you hurt?”
“Not badly.”
Vale gestured.
Sophia continued.
“He wants you inside. Alone.”
“No.”
“Dante.”
“No.”
Sophia closed her eyes.
She needed him to understand.
“Remember the soup.”
Silence.
Dante’s voice changed.
“Yes.”
“Pastina.”
“Yes.”
“I used too much salt.”
Dante understood.
Sophia never used too much salt.
It was code.
Something was wrong with the obvious instruction.
“Come alone,” she said.
“I’m coming.”
The call ended.
Vale smiled.
“Good girl.”
Sophia looked at him.
“You never understood my mother.”
“I understood her perfectly.”
“No.”
Sophia sat down at table 9.
“She survived you for fourteen years.”
Vale’s expression changed.
“That means every morning you woke up, Maria Rossi had beaten you one more day.”
Vale struck her again.
Sophia smiled through the blood.
“You see?”
“What?”
“You still care what dead people think.”
Ten minutes later, the front door opened.
Dante entered.
Alone.
He wore no jacket.
His hands were visible.
Vale’s men searched him.
No weapon.
Dante looked at Sophia’s bruised face.
Something murderous entered his eyes.
Sophia shook her head slightly.
Not yet.
Vale placed a camera on the table.
“Sit.”
Dante sat opposite him.
“You want a confession?”
“Yes.”
“To what?”
“Everything.”
“That could take all night.”
Vale pointed his pistol toward Sophia.
“Summarize.”
Dante looked at the camera.
Then at Sophia.
He understood her signal.
Keep him talking.
“My name is Dante Moretti.”
The camera recorded.
“For most of my adult life, I participated in organized crime.”
Vale smiled.
Outside, Enzo entered the building through an old wine-delivery tunnel Sophia had remembered from her waitress days.
Inside, Dante continued.
“I bribed officials. Controlled businesses through intimidation. Used violence.”
Sophia watched Vale.
He was enjoying it.
That made him careless.
Enzo reached the basement.
Pierre saw the kitchen door move.
He immediately began shouting.
“You call this Italian food?”
Everyone turned.
Vale frowned.
Pierre continued.
“You have kidnapped me for eight hours and fed me supermarket prosciutto!”
One gunman stared at him.
“What?”
“It is an insult!”
Sophia almost laughed.
The kitchen door opened.
Enzo fired.
Chaos erupted.
Dante flipped the table.
Sophia threw herself toward Emily.
Vale fired.
The bullet struck the wall.
Dante tackled him.
The two men crashed through chairs.
Enzo shot one guard.
Federal agents breached the front entrance.
“FBI! DROP YOUR WEAPONS!”
Sophia cut Emily’s restraints with a steak knife.
Pierre freed himself.
Vale and Dante fought near the broken window.
Vale was older.
Dante was stronger.
But Vale had a knife.
He drove it into Dante’s side.
Sophia screamed.
Dante staggered.
Vale raised the blade again.
Sophia grabbed a heavy wine bottle.
She smashed it across Vale’s wrist.
The knife fell.
Vale turned toward her.
“You.”
“Yes.”
Sophia kicked the knife away.
Vale lunged.
Dante caught him from behind.
Agents flooded the room.
Vale was forced to the floor.
Handcuffs snapped around his wrists.
Sophia dropped beside Dante.
Blood spread across his shirt.
“No.”
“It missed anything important.”
“You always say that.”
“I’m usually right.”
“You’re impossible.”
Dante touched her bruised cheek.
“So are you.”
Sloan approached.
“Gabriel Vale, you are under arrest.”
Vale looked at Sophia from the floor.
“This doesn’t end anything.”
Sophia stood.
“No.”
She looked around Veluto.
At table 9.
At Pierre.
At Dante.
May you like
At the place where she had once been terrified of spilling wine.
“It ends you.”
