Chapter 3 - The Ghost at the Harbor
An hour later, the wedding guests had been quietly escorted off the estate by security, their luxury cars streaming down the long private drive under the watchful eyes of armed guards. The Romano family delegation had tried to protest, but when Marco blocked their exit and informed them that federal investigators had already been notified of corporate racketeering and homicide conspiracies linked to their name, they climbed back into their limousines and vanished into the evening mist.
Isabella was locked in the East Wing guest suite, guarded by two men who wouldn't let her breathe without permission.
I rode in the back of a black SUV alongside Marco, heading toward the old Moretti harbor warehouse on the desolate industrial edge of the city. Sophia and little Emma had been placed in a secure safehouse under my personal protection, safe from anyone who might want to silence them permanently.
The SUV crunched over gravel as we pulled up beside the looming, corrugated-metal structure.
The warehouse looked abandoned from the outside, its paint peeling, its windows dark and grimy. But as Marco killed the engine, we heard a faint, rhythmic sound echoing from inside: the metallic clatter of computer keys and the hum of a portable generator.
“He’s still here,” Marco murmured, drawing his sidearm and checking the chamber with a crisp, practiced click.
“Don't shoot him yet,” I said, opening my door and stepping out into the salty sea breeze. “I want him alive long enough to look him in the eye when I take everything away.”
We moved silently toward the side service door. It was unlocked—a sign of pure arrogance. Luca had always believed he was the smartest man in any room, too clever to ever be caught.
I pushed the door open and stepped into the cavernous, dimly lit interior.
Boxes of old inventory were stacked high against the rusted steel beams, but in the center of the room sat a folding table illuminated by a single halogen work light.
And there sat my cousin Luca.
He wore a custom designer shirt with the sleeves rolled up, a glass of expensive scotch sitting beside his laptop as he frantically transferred encrypted files from a local hard drive to an offshore server.
“I told you, Isabella, stop calling me, the police are—!” Luca started without looking up, assuming the person walking in was his panicked co-conspirator.
He stopped mid-sentence when he heard the heavy, deliberate click of my boots against the concrete floor.
Luca slowly raised his head.
The color drained entirely from his face. His mouth opened, but no sound came out except a dry, panicked hitch in his throat.
“Hello, cousin,” I said, stepping into the circle of light.
Luca scrambled backward out of his chair, tumbling over a plastic crate and landing hard on the dusty floor. He dragged himself backward until his spine hit a stack of wooden crates, his eyes wide with stark, unadulterated terror.
“Alessandro... wait... let’s talk about this,” Luca stammered, holding his hands up defensively. “It’s... it’s just business! The Romano alliance was weak! We were just positioning ourselves to take over the board—!”
“Business?” I walked over to the folding table, picked up his glass of scotch, and poured it slowly over the keyboard of his open laptop, watching the screen flicker, spark, and die in a puff of smoke. “You murdered an innocent engineer. You terrorized a mother and her child. You sold out our family name to our oldest enemies for a percentage of stolen equity.”
“I’m a Moretti too!” Luca screamed, his voice cracking with hysteria. “I deserved more than a junior partnership! You inherited everything just because you were the firstborn!”
I stopped right in front of him, looking down at the man who shared my blood and yet possessed the soul of a viper.
“You didn't want a partnership, Luca,” I said coldly. “You wanted a kingdom built on corpses.”
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I signaled to Marco, who stepped forward with a pair of heavy steel zip-ties.
“Get him up,” I ordered. “We’re going to pay a visit to the federal prosecutor’s office. And after that, we’re going to visit Isabella’s father.”
