Chapter 17 - The Exchange
Valerio wanted a tactical team.
The police wanted time.
Alessia wanted everyone to stop talking over one another.
“The trust appendix is what they need,” she said. “That means they can’t destroy it until they know the copy at Saint Michael’s is handled.”
Marco nodded. “We give them a fake.”
“No.”
Valerio stared at her. “No?”
“They’ll know. Cesare helped draft it.”
“So what are you suggesting?”
“I bring the real one.”
“Absolutely not.”
Alessia looked at him.
“Remember when I asked you to handle this like a crime?”
“Yes.”
“Then stop acting like my permission disappears when you’re scared.”
That shut him up.
The exchange location was an abandoned banquet hall owned by a shell company near the old freight yards.
Police set surveillance outside. Alessia wore a wire. Valerio remained one room away with officers, hating every second.
Cesare stood beneath a broken chandelier when Alessia entered.
Veronica was beside him.
Carlo sat tied to a chair near the wall.
“Give me the appendix,” Cesare said.
“Let Carlo go.”
“You are not negotiating from strength.”
Alessia held up the document.
“You’ve spent a year trying to make me look weak. You should know better by now.”
Veronica’s mouth tightened.
Cesare smiled.
“You were always your mother’s daughter.”
“You hated her too?”
“I respected her. That was the problem.”
He admitted the financial scheme almost casually. Bellini Maritime’s voting rights had blocked a merger that would have allowed Cesare to hide decades of illicit money inside legitimate shipping assets.
Alessia’s mother refused.
Then Alessia inherited the same block.
“So you cut my brakes.”
Cesare’s eyes flicked toward Veronica.
“I ordered you frightened.”
Veronica laughed once.
“That’s his favorite lie.”
Cesare turned.
She continued.
“He ordered the line cut. Luca saw me leave the garage afterward.”
Alessia’s stomach dropped.
“You were there?”
Veronica’s eyes filled with something ugly and old.
“I was twenty-four. Cesare said Luca would leave me if the Bellini merger failed.”
“And Luca did leave you.”
“Because I helped them.”
“Then you killed him?”
Veronica’s face changed.
“No.”
Cesare reached inside his coat.
Veronica stepped away from him.
“Tell her,” she said.
Cesare’s voice hardened. “Enough.”
“Tell her who sabotaged Luca’s boat.”
May you like
Cesare pulled a gun.
And pointed it at Veronica.
