Chapter 2
Celeste laughed.
It came too fast.
“Your mother heard one word through a concrete corridor and now we're inventing a second Mafia boss?”
Donna looked down.
Celeste noticed.
That encouraged her.
She stepped closer.
“You see?”
She looked at Rocco.
“This is exactly what I've been trying to tell you.”
“What?”
“That she is old.”
Donna’s face tightened.
Celeste continued.
“She forgets.”
“She confuses rooms.”
“She hears names that weren't said.”
Her lips curved.
“And every time someone tells her no, she runs to her son.”
Rocco’s eyes hardened.
Celeste looked toward Donna.
“You wanted him to hate me.”
“Congratulations.”
“You finally found a stain dramatic enough.”
Donna whispered:
“I know what I heard.”
Celeste rolled her eyes.
“Of course you do.”
Sebastian joined her.
His confidence had returned.
“Rocco, you really want senior capos hearing that your household decisions are being made by a seventy-six-year-old woman kneeling beside a sink?”
Rocco looked at him.
Sebastian smiled.
“Think about it.”
“You're about to marry into the Hale network.”
“Men are watching whether you can move forward.”
Then he nodded toward Donna.
“And Mommy is dragging you backward through a tunnel your father closed before some of your guards were born.”
Rocco did not react.
That irritated Sebastian.
He continued.
“Your mother isn't protecting you.”
“She’s protecting her position.”
Donna’s fingers tightened.
Rocco looked at her.
Not because he believed Sebastian.
Because he wanted her to see that he was listening.
Donna breathed in.
“The third man wore a silver tie pin.”
Rocco’s gaze sharpened.
“What shape?”
Donna looked at Celeste.
Celeste’s face changed before Donna answered.
A tiny movement.
Enough.
“Wolf.”
Silence.
Rocco knew the symbol.
The Serrano crew.
North Shore.
Not enemies.
Not friends.
Kept at arm’s length for twelve years.
Celeste recovered.
“Half Boston wears wolves.”
“No.”
Rocco looked directly at her.
“Not that one.”
Sebastian’s mouth tightened.
Rocco stepped closer.
“Who was it?”
Celeste smiled again.
“Ask your mother.”
“She seems to know everything.”
Donna suddenly spoke.
“He called Sebastian by name.”
Sebastian’s expression sharpened.
Rocco turned toward him.
Donna continued.
“And Sebastian told him the wedding would solve the rest.”
Rocco’s eyes narrowed.
“What rest?”
Sebastian gave a dismissive laugh.
“Enough.”
Rocco stared.
Sebastian spread his hands.
“This is humiliating.”
He looked around at the guards.
“Your boss is interrogating family because an old lady got mud on shoes.”
Donna's eyes filled.
Sebastian saw it and leaned harder.
“Don't cry now.”
His voice became openly contemptuous.
“You wanted attention.”
“You've got it.”
Rocco took one slow step toward him.
Sebastian smiled.
Waiting.
Wanting anger.
Rocco stopped.
“No.”
Sebastian frowned.
Rocco looked toward Matteo, his security chief.
“Open the north passage.”
Matteo hesitated.
“The chapel seal—”
“Open it.”
Celeste’s head turned sharply.
Rocco saw it.
There.
The first real concern.
Not fear.
Concern.
They crossed the garage.
Behind a steel detailing cabinet sat a stone panel no guest would notice.
Matteo pressed the old release.
Nothing.
Again.
Nothing.
Rocco frowned.
Then Nora spoke.
“She used this.”
Everyone turned.
The maid was holding something from beneath the basin.
A narrow brass key.
Celeste stared.
Nora’s voice trembled.
“I saw Miss Celeste drop it when Mrs. Donna fell.”
Rocco held out his hand.
Nora gave him the key.
Celeste immediately laughed.
“Now the maid finds magical keys.”
Her eyes became cruel.
“Maybe tomorrow she finds a crown and we can let her run the estate.”
Nora lowered her head.
Rocco inserted the key.
The stone panel released.
Cold air moved through the wash bay.
The passage was open.
Celeste stopped smiling.
Rocco looked at her.
Then at Sebastian.
Neither spoke.
Inside, pale clay covered the floor.
Fresh heel marks led toward the chapel.
Beside them were men’s shoe prints.
Three different sizes.
Donna had told the truth.
But farther down the passage Rocco found something worse.
May you like
A black cigar was still burning in a stone tray.
Someone had been inside the tunnel less than an hour earlier.
