Chapter 5
Dante Russo had stood beside Alessia at her father’s funeral.
He had carried her daughter’s—no, Alessia had no child; careful. He had stood beside her during her wedding.
He had been the first man Garrett supposedly needed to win over.
Alessia called him.
Dante arrived twenty minutes later.
He read the neutrality agreement.
His expression did not change.
“Your signature?”
“Yes.”
Miriam’s hand closed around the arm of her chair.
Alessia watched Dante.
“Why?”
He looked directly at her.
“Because I wanted to see where it went.”
Alessia said nothing.
Dante continued.
“Garrett approached me eight weeks ago.”
“You didn't tell me.”
“No.”
The room changed.
Dante’s confidence faded for the first time.
“I thought I could learn who else he was recruiting.”
“And did you?”
“Four names.”
“Not six?”
“No.”
Alessia pushed the page toward him.
Dante studied the remaining signatures.
Two were unfamiliar to his private conversations.
“Those weren't with us.”
“So either you're lying—”
“I’m not.”
“—or Garrett forged two signatures.”
Dante looked toward Miriam.
Then back at Alessia.
“There’s another option.”
“What?”
“He wanted you to find this.”
Alessia’s eyes narrowed.
The document was almost too clean.
Too easy.
The guard confessed.
The signatures surfaced.
Garrett's movements were traceable.
Everything pointed toward a crude internal takeover.
Garrett was arrogant.
He was not stupid.
Dante leaned forward.
“If he planned this for months, why leave the map on the table?”
Alessia went silent.
That was the right question.
She ordered the signatures verified.
Four were real.
One belonged to Dante.
Three belonged to men Garrett had approached.
Two were fabricated.
Which meant the paper was partly genuine and partly bait.
But bait for what?
The answer came from Alessia’s phone.
Her communications director entered holding a tablet.
“Boss, Garrett released a statement.”
Alessia took it.
Garrett accused her of threatening senior members of her own organization after violently attacking him.
He claimed several capos feared retaliation.
Attached was a photograph.
The neutrality agreement.
Exactly the copy sitting on Alessia’s table.
She looked toward Dante.
Only seven people had been inside the council room since it appeared.
May you like
Garrett had received a photograph less than six minutes after Alessia did.
Someone in the room was still feeding him information.
