Chapter 4 - The Spider’s Web
By 2:00 a.m., the heavy iron gates of the Valentino estate in Barrington swung open to admit a single black town car.
Inside the sprawling, stone-faced mansion, the lights in the second-floor nursery were burning bright. Rocco stood by the mahogany staircase, his expression tight and guarded as Marcus carried Elena through the front doors.
She looked smaller now, wrapped in one of Marcus’s heavy cashmere sweaters, her hair still damp, her bare feet tucked into a pair of oversized slippers Marcus had insisted she wear.
"Is she sleeping?" Marcus asked as Rocco approached.
"Like a stone," Rocco replied, casting a sideways glance at Elena that was equal parts caution and disbelief. "The doctor checked her over. She's fine. But boss... we have a bigger problem than family reunions."
Marcus’s jaw tightened. "Speak."
"Word travels fast in this city," Rocco said, lowering his voice. "The manager from Aurora—Nicola—was picked up by the North Side crew an hour after you left. He sang like a canary. Everyone from here to Cicero now knows that Elena Vance didn't die in that clinic fire three years ago."
Elena flinched, her hand flying to her chest. "Victor... if Victor Romano finds out I'm alive, he'll finish what he started."
Marcus’s dark eyes narrowed into slits of pure, frozen steel. "Victor Romano thinks he owns the docks because I let him collect the tolls while I was busy burying a ghost. If he wants to test whose city this really is, I'll give him a funeral he won't need to fake."
"It's not just Romano," Rocco warned, stepping closer. "The federal strike force has been sitting on your tax filings for six months, looking for a RICO hook. If Elena surfaces legally, every prosecutor in the district is going to subpoena her to find out how she hid her death for three years. They'll tear this family apart piece by piece."
Marcus looked down at Elena. She was staring at the marble floor, her face pale, the terrible weight of her choices finally catching up to her.
"They won't touch her," Marcus said, his voice dropping into that absolute, terrifying register that brooks no argument. "Move her into the secure east wing. Double the perimeter guards. Anyone who comes within five hundred yards of this property without my direct authorization gets put in a box before they reach the gate."
"And the little one?" Rocco asked gently.
"She stays with her mother," Marcus said.
May you like
He reached out, taking Elena’s cold, trembling hand in his. For the first time in three years, his grip didn't feel like iron; it felt like a lifeline.
"We finish this," Marcus whispered, looking out the reinforced glass windows toward the dark, sprawling expanse of his empire. "All of it. Once and for all."
