Chapter 7 - THE MAN SERENA MET
The photograph gave Alessio one location.
An abandoned boatyard near the river.
The rusted crane behind Serena and Gabriel still stood.
Alessio went there before dawn.
Damian came with him.
Claudia demanded to come.
Alessio refused.
“This started because I stayed silent.”
“It continues if you get killed.”
“I know Gabriel.”
“You knew him seventeen years ago.”
Alessio looked at her.
“Stay with the girls.”
Claudia hated the order.
She obeyed.
At the boatyard, rain began.
Alessio almost laughed.
Serena had died in rain.
Gabriel vanished in fire.
Their family memories seemed incapable of occurring beneath a clear sky.
An old man waited inside the warehouse.
Not Gabriel.
Benedict Price.
Former dock supervisor.
Alessio knew him.
Benedict had worked for the Ventrescas before retiring.
He looked at Alessio and Damian.
“Serena said you’d come eventually.”
Alessio stopped.
“When?”
“Last year.”
“Before she died?”
“Yes.”
“Where is Gabriel?”
Benedict smiled sadly.
“Still the first question.”
“Answer it.”
“I don’t know where he is now.”
“You all seem to have practiced that sentence.”
Benedict walked toward an old desk.
“Gabriel came back because Serena found him.”
“How?”
“She followed Claudia.”
Alessio’s eyes narrowed.
“Claudia?”
“Your cousin was meeting one of Gabriel’s old men.”
“Thomas?”
“After Thomas died.”
Benedict looked at him.
“Claudia believed she was being threatened by Gabriel.”
“She wasn’t?”
“No.”
“Then who?”
“Serena spent months trying to answer that.”
Damian spoke.
“Why meet Gabriel?”
“Because if someone was using his symbol, she wanted the man who created it.”
Alessio understood.
The black rose.
The thorn ring.
The threats.
Someone had been acting in Gabriel’s name.
Gabriel returned because his own shadow had been stolen.
“Did he trust Serena?”
“No.”
“Did she trust him?”
“No.”
Benedict smiled.
“That’s probably why they worked well together.”
“What did they discover?”
Benedict’s smile disappeared.
“Someone had rebuilt part of Gabriel’s old network.”
“Who?”
“We never knew the top.”
“Names.”
“I knew one.”
Alessio waited.
“Thomas Ventresca.”
Claudia’s husband.
Alessio’s face hardened.
“You said Thomas was dead.”
“He was.”
“But before?”
“He wasn’t carrying messages because Gabriel ordered him to.”
“Then who?”
“Someone called the Gardener.”
The same name Claudia used.
Benedict continued.
“Gabriel never used that name.”
Alessio looked at Damian.
Damian’s expression remained controlled.
“So Claudia blamed the wrong man.”
“Yes.”
“Serena?”
“She figured it out.”
“Then why was she killed?”
Benedict looked toward the river.
“Because she found the Gardener’s habit.”
“What habit?”
“He never threatened the person he wanted.”
Alessio frowned.
“He threatened someone they loved.”
Evelyn.
Ruby.
Thomas.
Every time.
“He controlled Claudia through Evelyn,” Benedict said. “Controlled Thomas through Claudia. Controlled someone else through Serena.”
Alessio’s breathing slowed.
“Who?”
Benedict looked directly at him.
“You.”
Silence.
“You were Serena’s weakness.”
Alessio almost laughed.
Nobody had described him that way.
Benedict continued.
“The night she died, Serena believed the Gardener planned to kill you.”
“Where?”
“Blackstone Bridge.”
Alessio went still.
That was where Serena died.
“She left instead?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“To draw them away from you.”
Damian whispered, “She used herself as bait.”
Benedict nodded.
“She told Gabriel to follow at a distance.”
“Did he?”
“Yes.”
Alessio stepped closer.
“Then he saw what happened.”
Benedict’s eyes lowered.
“Yes.”
“Where is he?”
“I told you.”
Alessio grabbed his coat.
“Where is my brother?”
Benedict did not resist.
“I don’t know.”
“You expect me to believe Gabriel watched my wife die and disappeared?”
“He didn’t watch her die.”
Alessio froze.
Benedict’s voice dropped.
“He reached the car.”
“What are you saying?”
“Serena was alive when Gabriel pulled her out.”
Damian looked sharply at Benedict.
Alessio felt the warehouse disappear around him.
“Then why did I bury her?”
Benedict looked at him.
“You buried what the Gardener wanted you to believe was left of her.”
Alessio’s fist tightened.
“Serena survived the crash?”
“For a while.”
“How long?”
“I don’t know.”
“Where did Gabriel take her?”
“I don’t know.”
Alessio struck the desk instead of Benedict.
Wood cracked beneath his hand.
“You know nothing very conveniently.”
Benedict flinched.
“I know one thing.”
Alessio turned.
“Serena sent Gabriel back for you.”
“For me?”
“Yes.”
“Why didn’t he come?”
Benedict looked toward Damian.
May you like
Then back.
“Because someone inside your inner circle found Gabriel first.”
