Chapter 15 - BLOOD FAMILY
Anthony Rinaldi arrived at the mansion before dawn.
He was sixty-two, silver-haired, respected, and furious about being summoned like an employee.
“You have any idea what kind of night I’ve had?” he demanded.
Massimo sat behind the library desk.
For the first time since the ambush, he was not in his wheelchair.
He was in a high-backed chair with a cane resting against his knee.
Anthony noticed.
His face emptied.
“You’re standing?”
“Sometimes.”
Anthony recovered quickly. “That’s wonderful.”
“Is it?”
Massimo slid Hale’s folder across the desk.
Anthony did not touch it.
“Julian was shot,” Massimo said.
“I heard.”
“He named you.”
Anthony’s eyes hardened. “A dying man says anything.”
“He said you agreed to declare me incompetent after the wedding.”
“That’s insane.”
Massimo tapped the folder. “Your signature’s in there.”
Anthony stood very still.
Then he sat down.
“You don’t understand what Dean offered.”
Massimo almost smiled. “There it is.”
Anthony rubbed his face. “Your father built this family into a machine. You inherited it and thought fear was leadership. Dean wanted stability.”
“Dean wanted my chair.”
“He wanted control.”
“Same thing.”
Anthony leaned forward. “You think I wanted you crippled? I changed your diapers.”
“And later signed the paper that would erase me.”
Anthony’s voice broke. “I was trying to keep the family alive.”
“No. You were trying to keep the family rich.”
Outside the library, Carla listened from the hallway with Nina asleep in her arms.
She hated being close to this world. Every secret seemed to contain a gun.
Anthony rose. “If Dean still has access to the offshore accounts, you have bigger problems than me.”
Massimo’s eyes narrowed. “What access?”
Anthony hesitated.
“What access?”
“He copied the emergency codes your father kept in the chapel safe.”
Massimo looked toward the hallway.
The chapel.
Where Carla and Nina had been hiding.
He stood too fast, pain tearing through his legs.
“Marco!”
They reached the chapel in under a minute.
The safe door was open.
May you like
The codes were gone.
And so was Nina.
