Chapter 7
Rafael Santoro arrived at nine that night.
He expected me to be unconscious.
That was useful.
Vanessa didn't know I'd called him.
Neither did Rafael.
I sent one message from Vanessa's phone.
COME THROUGH EAST. LORENZO DOWN.
He came alone.
Confidence makes people careless.
He stepped into the pantry passage wearing a dark suit and his capo pin.
My men closed the panel behind him.
He saw me.
Stopped.
Then looked at Vanessa.
She was sitting at the kitchen table under guard.
Her face didn't change.
His did.
“You said—”
Vanessa cut him off.
“Shut up.”
I almost smiled.
Rafael looked at me.
“This isn't what it looks like.”
Apparently everyone had attended the same school.
I sat across from him.
“What does it look like?”
He didn't answer.
“Sit.”
He did.
Vanessa laughed.
“Look at him.”
She looked at Rafael with contempt.
“Twenty years beside this family and one stare still turns him into a schoolboy.”
Rafael's face tightened.
“Careful.”
She smiled.
“Or what?”
He looked at me.
Then away.
There it was.
He wanted my chair.
But he still feared me.
Vanessa had probably spent months convincing him those two things could coexist.
“What were you promised?” I asked.
Rafael crossed his arms.
“Nothing.”
Vanessa laughed.
“You're a terrible liar.”
He turned.
She continued.
“Tell him.”
“Vanessa.”
“What?”
“You said—”
She smiled.
“I said a lot of things.”
His face changed.
Same realization.
Different man.
“You promised me council.”
“I promised you opportunity.”
“You said the east crews would follow me.”
“I said they might.”
“You said—”
She rolled her eyes.
“Oh, stop whining.”
Rafael stared.
Vanessa leaned back.
“Men like you always want guarantees.”
She looked at me.
“They want power without risk.”
I studied her.
She was doing it again.
Turning on the person she'd recruited the moment he became inconvenient.
“Rafael.”
He looked at me.
“What was the plan?”
Silence.
Vanessa answered.
“Why ask him?”
I ignored her.
“What was the plan?”
Rafael finally spoke.
“You drink.”
“Black bottle.”
“Yes.”
“How long am I down?”
“Overnight.”
Vanessa laughed softly.
Rafael looked at her.
“What?”
She smiled.
“Nothing.”
He went pale.
I saw it.
“You didn't know.”
He stared at me.
“No.”
“What did she tell you?”
“One night.”
Vanessa examined her nails.
Rafael's voice rose.
“You said he'd wake after breakfast.”
“I said what kept you useful.”
Silence.
Florence had told me the same thing about Santoro.
He thought he was taking the chair.
Vanessa thought he was taking blame.
I leaned forward.
“What happens after I drink?”
Rafael swallowed.
“Council is told you're ill.”
“Then?”
“I take emergency command.”
“Then?”
“Florence gives the inner code.”
“No.”
He frowned.
“What?”
“She wasn't going to.”
His eyes moved toward Vanessa.
I continued.
“So what then?”
Rafael stared.
“You use the children.”
His face changed.
Vanessa didn't.
That told me who knew.
“You knew.”
Rafael looked sick.
“I knew she planned to scare them.”
“Food?”
He said nothing.
“Dark room?”
Nothing.
“Separate them?”
He looked down.
Vanessa laughed.
“Don't pretend you grew a conscience in the last thirty seconds.”
Rafael's jaw tightened.
“You said nobody would hurt them.”
“I didn't hurt them.”
My hands curled.
Vanessa continued.
“Missing dinner isn't injury.”
Rafael stared at her.
“Locking toddlers in storage?”
“They were never locked together.”
The room went silent.
She realized.
Too late.
I leaned forward.
“Never together?”
Vanessa's face hardened.
Ivy and Owen had only told me about one dark room.
Apparently there had been more.
“What did you do?”
“Nothing.”
“Vanessa.”
She smiled.
“Your children dramatize.”
“What did you do?”
“They fight less when separated.”
My blood went cold.
Rafael whispered:
“You put them in different rooms?”
She looked at him.
“Don't act horrified.”
“You told me—”
“I told you enough.”
I stood.
Vanessa stared.
For the first time, something like real fear entered her eyes.
Not because I raised my voice.
I didn't.
Because I had finally stopped asking whether she was cruel.
Now I was asking how organized the cruelty had been.
I looked at Rafael.
“What happens after emergency command?”
He swallowed.
“The house changes.”
“How?”
“Men rotate.”
“Whose?”
“Mine.”
“And Vanessa?”
He looked at her.
“She controls the family side.”
There it was.
Not wife.
Not mother.
Warden.
“What did she get?”
Rafael frowned.
“Everything here.”
I looked around my kitchen.
My mother's chair.
My children's table.
The pantry.
The council door beyond the hall.
Vanessa had meant it when she slapped me.
I run this house.
May you like
She wasn't bragging.
She was announcing the plan.
