Chapter 1 - THE CONFESSION
“The girl,” Marco whispered. “She saw something she wasn’t supposed to
see.”
The funeral room went silent. Bruno remained pressed against Elena
Vasquez’s white coffin, his massive body curved protectively around it.
My dog had survived seven bloody conflicts and three assassination
attempts without showing fear. Yet now he whimpered like a wounded
animal.
“What did she see?” I asked.
Marco Ricci, my underboss for twelve years, swallowed. “Two men were
putting someone into a car behind the restaurant. Elena saw them.”
“Who were the men?”
He glanced toward Tony.
“Look at me when you answer.”
“Salvatore was driving. I was there.”
“Was the man in the trunk alive?”
Marco hesitated.
Bruno’s growl deepened.
“Yes,” Marco finally said. “He was alive.”
“And what happened to Elena?”
“I didn’t touch her. I only wanted the phone. She recorded something.”
“Then why did you lie about where you were?”
“It wasn’t supposed to happen like that.”
I looked at the little coffin. Elena was seven. She liked chocolate ice
cream, violet sneakers, and drawing horses. Her father owed me forty-two
thousand dollars. None of that mattered now.
“You sent a man after a child?”
“I told Salvatore to scare her. Not hurt her.”
Bruno lunged. Tony caught his leash just before his teeth reached
Marco’s leg.
“Where is Salvatore?” I asked.
“I don’t know.”
“Find him,” I told Tony. “And find Mateo Vasquez. He needs protection.”
Marco’s face crumpled. “Boss, I was protecting the family.”
“Which family?” I asked. “The one you betrayed, or the one you used as
an excuse?”
As my men escorted him out, Bruno returned to the coffin and pressed his
nose against the white wood.
I crouched beside him. “What did you smell, boy?”
He looked toward the doorway Marco had disappeared through.
May you like
For the first time in twelve years, I wondered whether my dog had
recognized a danger I had invited into my own house.
