Chapter 4 - THE LEDGER
By nightfall, I had every loyal man I trusted inside the basement of La Estrella.
Tomas had closed the restaurant after Elena’s accident. The chairs were stacked. The ovens were cold. Her horse drawings still covered the wall near the register.
One was of Bruno.
She had drawn him with huge ears and a red cape.
I stared at it longer than I should have.
Tony spread photos across a metal prep table.
“Marco used two of our delivery routes,” he said. “Same nights we moved cash. Harlan slipped his trucks inside our convoy. Nobody checked because Marco gave clearance.”
“What cargo?” I asked.
Tony hesitated.
I looked at him.
“People,” he said quietly. “Mostly women. Some teenagers.”
The room went silent.
I closed my eyes.
There were things I had done that would never wash off my soul. But there were lines. Lines that separated criminals from monsters.
Marco had erased that line and used my name to do it.
“Find him,” I said.
A young soldier named Nicky raised his hand like a schoolboy, stupid enough to do it in that room. “Boss, if Harlan has cops, doctors, funeral homes…”
“He does.”
“Then how do we fight that?”
Before I could answer, the back door opened.
Every gun in the room came up.
A woman stepped inside.
Short black hair. Leather jacket. Badge on her belt.
Detective Mara Vale.
NYPD Major Crimes.
And the only cop in Queens who had once saved my life by arresting me before my enemies could shoot me.
“You’re predictable, Romano,” she said.
Tony cursed. “How the hell did you find us?”
She looked at the horse drawings. “Dead girl comes back to life, mafia boss starts meeting in her father’s restaurant. Not exactly subtle.”
“She’s not dead,” I said.
“Thanks to your dog.”
I studied her. “What do you want?”
“The same thing you do. Harlan.”
No one spoke.
Mara placed a folder on the table. Inside were photographs. Shipping containers. Bank transfers. Missing persons flyers.
“I’ve been building this for two years,” she said. “Every time I get close, a witness disappears, a file gets lost, a judge gets pressure from someone upstairs.”
“Harlan owns officials.”
“He owns more than officials.” Her eyes met mine. “He owns someone in your family.”
Tony stiffened.
I said nothing.
Mara pulled one last photo from the folder.
Marco Ricci, standing outside a storage facility.
May you like
Beside him was my younger brother.
Luca.
