Chapter 5 - THE BULLET
Nora moved before she thought.
She pulled Evelyn sideways.
The bullet struck the wooden rail behind them.
Vincent's men fired toward the balcony.
The shooter vanished.
Nora stared at the splintered wood inches from Evelyn's head.
Evelyn squeezed Nora's hand.
You saved me.
"I pulled you."
That counts.
Vincent looked at Nora differently after that.
Not romantically.
Not yet.
Like someone he could no longer dismiss as accidental.
Police searched the church.
No shooter.
One shell casing.
Professional weapon.
Then Father Daniel admitted something.
Vito Caldero was not dead.
His "heart attack" had been staged after a federal investigation closed around him.
The body in the coffin belonged to an unidentified man.
"You buried a stranger under my family name?"
"I was told Vito would disappear and the violence would stop."
"Did it?"
No answer.
Vito visited me.
"When?"
Three years after explosion.
At the private clinic.
He came at night.
He told Evelyn Carlo died because he chose her over the family.
Then he made the threat that kept her quiet.
If she found a way to reach Vincent, Vito would kill him.
"You believed him."
I watched him kill Mara.
Evelyn had seen Mara Velez brought into the clinic basement.
Vito argued with her.
Mara said Evelyn was competent and should be released.
Vito struck her.
Marcus was there.
Arthur Bell was there.
Vincent whispered, "Marcus saw it."
Then her hands slowed.
Marcus helped carry her out.
The loyal security chief had carried the body of the woman who tried to give Evelyn a voice.
Then Vincent's phone buzzed.
A photograph.
Marcus Reed tied to a chair.
Blood on his shirt.
Behind him stood an older man with silver hair.
Vito Caldero.
Alive.
A text followed.
BRING THE LEDGER TO THE OLD HARBOR WAREHOUSE.
May you like
COME WITH YOUR MOTHER.
OR MARCUS TELLS HIS LAST LIE.
