Chapter 9 - THE RIVER TERMINAL
The freight terminal sat beside the river like the skeleton of an older Chicago.
Broken windows.
Rusting steel.
Abandoned cranes.
Water black enough to hide almost anything.
At 11:52 p.m., Lorenzo arrived with Evelyn and Marco.
No army.
No convoy.
No visible backup.
That had been Salvatore’s condition.
Evelyn carried the suitcase.
The ledger inside was fake.
Lorenzo had spent the day photographing every page of the real one.
Copies had been placed in three separate locations.
If Salvatore killed them, the records would still survive.
At least that was the theory.
Evelyn wore the same hoodie from the night before.
She had not slept.
Neither had Lorenzo.
The terminal doors stood open.
They walked inside.
Lights came on one by one.
Celeste stood in the center of the warehouse.
Her hands were tied.
A bruise darkened one cheek.
Evelyn stopped.
Celeste looked at Lorenzo.
“I’m sorry.”
He said nothing.
Behind her stood Arthur Vane.
Alive.
Celeste’s father looked exhausted but unharmed.
Beside him stood six armed men.
And behind them, slowly emerging from the shadows, came Salvatore Moretti.
He was older than Lorenzo by nearly thirty years.
Silver hair.
Expensive black coat.
A face that looked eerily similar to Vittorio’s photograph.
Lorenzo stared at him.
“So the dead return.”
Salvatore smiled.
“Only the useful ones.”
Evelyn stepped forward.
“My father.”
Salvatore looked at her.
“Straight to business.”
“Where is he?”
“Ledger first.”
Evelyn held up the suitcase.
Salvatore nodded toward one of his men.
The man approached.
Lorenzo stopped him with a look.
“Show us Thomas.”
Salvatore sighed.
“You inherited Vittorio’s stubbornness.”
Lorenzo’s voice remained flat.
“And apparently his enemies.”
Salvatore gestured toward the far wall.
A steel door opened.
A man was pushed through.
Evelyn forgot how to breathe.
He was older.
Much older.
Thin.
Gray-haired.
His shoulders stooped.
But she knew him.
Some part of her knew him before her mind did.
Thomas Caruso lifted his head.
His eyes found Evelyn.
Everything in his face broke.
“Evie.”
The name destroyed her.
Nobody had called her that in her father’s voice since childhood.
She took one step forward.
Lorenzo caught her arm.
“Wait.”
Thomas shook his head violently.
“Don’t give him anything.”
Salvatore smiled.
“Still dramatic.”
Evelyn stared at her father.
“You’re alive.”
Thomas’s eyes filled.
“I’m sorry.”
Twenty years of anger crashed into her chest.
“You’re sorry?”
“Evelyn.”
“You left me.”
“I tried to protect you.”
“My mother died thinking you were gone.”
Thomas looked away.
Evelyn’s voice cracked.
“Did you know?”
Silence.
“Did you know she died?”
Thomas nodded.
The answer hurt worse than she expected.
Evelyn took another step.
“You knew, and you stayed away?”
“I had no choice.”
“There is always a choice.”
Salvatore laughed softly.
“Your daughter has spirit.”
Thomas glared at him.
“Leave her out of this.”
“She has been in it since she was born.”
Lorenzo stepped forward.
“This ends tonight.”
Salvatore looked amused.
“Nothing ends tonight.”
He gestured around the warehouse.
“This city belongs to systems, Lorenzo.”
“Not families.”
“Systems.”
He pointed at the suitcase.
“The ledger is one system.”
“Fear is another.”
“Debt is the oldest.”
Lorenzo looked at Arthur.
“And betrayal?”
Arthur Vane lowered his eyes.
Salvatore smiled.
“The most efficient.”
Celeste looked at her father.
“You told me you were a prisoner.”
Arthur could not meet her gaze.
Celeste’s face changed.
Slowly.
Painfully.
“You weren’t.”
Arthur said nothing.
“You sent me to him.”
Still nothing.
“You told me Salvatore would kill you if I didn’t cooperate.”
Arthur finally spoke.
“He would have.”
Celeste laughed through tears.
“So you volunteered me instead.”
Arthur flinched.
“Celeste.”
She looked away.
Evelyn understood then.
Celeste had betrayed Lorenzo.
But Celeste had also been betrayed.
Salvatore held out his hand.
“The ledger.”
Evelyn lifted the suitcase.
“Release my father first.”
“No.”
“Then no ledger.”
Salvatore’s smile disappeared.
A gun rose behind Thomas.
Evelyn’s pulse thundered.
Lorenzo whispered, “Don’t.”
Salvatore counted.
“One.”
Evelyn gripped the suitcase.
“Two.”
Thomas shouted.
“Evelyn, no!”
She threw the suitcase forward.
One of Salvatore’s men caught it.
Salvatore opened the case.
Pulled out the ledger.
Flipped through several pages.
His smile returned.
Then stopped.
The pages were blank after page twelve.
Salvatore looked up.
Lorenzo smiled.
For the first time, Evelyn understood why that expression scared people.
Salvatore whispered, “What did you do?”
Lorenzo answered.
“I learned from a waitress.”
Confusion flickered across Salvatore’s face.
Lorenzo continued.
“Never trust what’s placed right in front of you.”
The lights went out.
Total darkness swallowed the terminal.
Gunfire erupted.
Evelyn dropped to the floor.
Marco pulled Thomas behind a crate.
Lorenzo moved toward Celeste.
Salvatore’s men fired at muzzle flashes.
Somebody screamed.
The river doors crashed open.
Moretti loyalists flooded in from the docks.
Lorenzo had brought backup after all.
Just not by road.
Evelyn crawled toward her father.
Thomas reached for her.
Their hands touched.
Then a gun pressed against Evelyn’s neck.
Salvatore’s voice came beside her ear.
“Stand up.”
She froze.
The lights flickered back on.
Salvatore held Evelyn against him.
Lorenzo turned.
His weapon came up.
Salvatore smiled.
“Now we discover how much she is worth to you.”
Evelyn looked at Lorenzo.
“Don’t.”
Salvatore tightened his grip.
Lorenzo’s face became completely still.
The same terrifying stillness Evelyn had noticed at Table Four.
Only now she understood what it meant.
May you like
He was not calm.
He was deciding who would survive.
