Chapter 10 - The Bullet Between Brothers
For one terrible second Elena believed Luca had shot Adrian.
Then Luca fell.
A second shooter stood behind him.
Vittorio Santoro.
Luca had fired first.
At Santoro.
Santoro’s bullet had passed through Luca’s shoulder and struck Adrian.
Federal agents tackled Santoro.
Elena ran.
Adrian was on one knee.
Blood covered his side.
“Adrian.”
“I’m fine.”
“You’ve been shot.”
“I noticed.”
She pressed both hands against the wound.
Sofia cried behind her.
Adrian saw the child.
“Hey.”
Sofia approached slowly.
“Are you dying?”
“No.”
“You promise?”
Adrian looked at Elena.
“Yes.”
The answer was for both of them.
He survived surgery.
The bullet missed major organs.
Elena sat beside his hospital bed the next morning.
When Adrian opened his eyes, she was sleeping in the chair.
Sofia was curled on a couch.
A drawing rested on Adrian’s blanket.
Three stick figures.
Elena.
Sofia.
Adrian.
Above them, Sofia had written FAMILY.
Adrian stared at it.
Elena woke.
“You’re alive.”
“So I’ve heard.”
“You scared her.”
“Just her?”
Elena looked at him.
“Don’t.”
His expression softened.
“I’m sorry.”
“For getting shot?”
“For all of it.”
She stood.
“Marco chose this world before he chose us.”
Adrian said nothing.
“I’m angry at him.”
“You’re allowed.”
“I still love him.”
“You’re allowed that too.”
“And I’m angry at you.”
“That seems fair.”
She looked at Sofia’s drawing.
“What happens now?”
“Carlo is in federal custody.”
“Santoro?”
“Same.”
“Luca?”
“Surgery.”
“Teresa?”
“Missing.”
Elena sighed.
“Of course.”
Adrian shifted and winced.
“And the evidence?”
“Released.”
“All of it?”
“Yes.”
“What does that mean for you?”
He was silent.
“That depends.”
“On?”
“How much Marco recorded about me.”
Elena stared.
“Are you afraid of prison?”
“Yes.”
The honesty surprised her.
“I thought mafia bosses were supposed to say they fear nothing.”
“Those are usually the stupid ones.”
She almost smiled.
“What will you do?”
“Tell the truth.”
“All of it?”
“As much as I can without putting innocent people in danger.”
“Why?”
He looked at the child sleeping nearby.
“Because someone told me to start somewhere.”
Elena remembered the porch.
Stop hurting people who have nothing to do with your wars.
Her chest tightened.
“You listened.”
“I occasionally do.”
The investigations began immediately.
Carlo’s network collapsed faster than anyone expected.
Judges resigned.
Police officers were arrested.
Businesses were seized.
Santoro’s organization fractured.
And Adrian Moretti did something nobody predicted.
He cooperated.
Not completely.
Not blindly.
But enough.
He turned over financial records.
He shut down illegal operations tied to extortion.
He surrendered weapons caches.
He negotiated immunity for employees who had committed no violent crimes.
Some called it betrayal.
Others called it survival.
Elena called it complicated.
Three weeks later Adrian returned home.
Not to the estate.
He refused.
Too many ghosts.
He rented a townhouse temporarily.
Elena and Sofia moved into an apartment provided through a victim protection program.
Adrian visited often.
At first because of security.
Then because Sofia demanded it.
“You promised chess,” she told him.
“I do not remember making that promise.”
“You did.”
“When?”
“When you were sleeping.”
“That is not legally binding.”
“It is to me.”
Elena watched from the kitchen as Sofia taught a mafia boss chess incorrectly.
Adrian knowingly followed her invented rules.
One evening, after Sofia went to bed, Elena found him fixing a loose cabinet hinge.
“You know people for that too.”
“I’m expanding.”
“Cooking next?”
“Never.”
She smiled.
Then silence.
Adrian set the screwdriver down.
“Elena.”
She knew.
The conversation they had postponed at the harbor.
“No.”
He paused.
“No?”
“Not like this.”
“Like what?”
“While everything is still burning.”
He nodded.
“I understand.”
“You’re important to Sofia.”
“That is not why I—”
“I know.”
“And?”
Elena looked at him.
“You’re important to me too.”
Adrian said nothing.
“But Marco has been dead two years, and somehow I’m only beginning to grieve him honestly now.”
“I can wait.”
“You shouldn’t promise that.”
“I’m not asking you for anything.”
“Then what are you saying?”
“That when you’re ready to decide what you want, I’ll still be someone who wants to hear the answer.”
Elena looked down.
It was the least possessive thing a powerful man had ever said to her.
Which was perhaps why it affected her so much.
The next morning, Elena received a package.
No return address.
Inside was Sofia’s stuffed rabbit.
The original one.
The toy they believed had been cut open during the break-in had been a replacement.
Elena turned it over.
A seam had been recently repaired.
Inside she found a small recorder.
One audio file.
Teresa’s voice.
“Elena, if you are hearing this, then Carlo has been arrested.”
Elena called Adrian immediately.
They listened together.
Teresa continued.
“I betrayed Adrian. But not for the reason he believes.”
Adrian’s expression hardened.
“I worked for Isabella.”
He froze.
“Carlo did not keep her prisoner for twenty years.”
Elena looked at him.
The recording continued.
“Isabella stayed hidden voluntarily for the last seven.”
Adrian’s face changed.
“And Marco discovered why.”
The audio stopped.
A second file appeared.
Password protected.
The hint contained only two words.
ASK ISABELLA.
Then someone knocked on Elena’s apartment door.
Three slow knocks.
Adrian looked through the peephole.
May you like
His mother stood outside.
Alone.
