Chapter 5
I didn't hit Julian.
That surprised him.
I let go.
Straightened his shirt.
Then walked out.
Men like Julian understand punches.
They've spent their entire lives preparing for them.
What they don't understand is being denied the reaction they expected.
I found Vanessa exactly where I left her.
The silver whistle remained on the table.
I closed the door.
“Julian said you were allowed to choose.”
For the first time, fear appeared.
Tiny.
But real.
“Between me and Mason.”
Her eyes moved.
That was enough.
I sat.
“Explain.”
She didn't.
I waited.
Thirty seconds.
Then a minute.
Silence bothers guilty people because eventually they start hearing themselves inside it.
Vanessa broke first.
“Cesare said only one of you mattered.”
My hands went still.
“To whom?”
“The family.”
“Which one?”
She laughed weakly.
“You really want to hear this?”
“Yes.”
“He said if you died, Mason could be raised.”
“By whom?”
She looked at me.
“Us.”
The room disappeared for a second.
Not physically.
Everything just became very far away.
“You were going to kill me and raise my son.”
“That wasn't the first plan.”
I leaned forward.
“What was?”
“To force August to speak at the west house.”
“Say what?”
“That you had betrayed the old rules.”
“What rules?”
“It didn't matter.”
Exactly.
The accusation was decoration.
Only August's voice mattered.
Vanessa continued.
“He would remove you in front of the capos. Julian would step forward. Cesare would return.”
“And if August refused?”
She looked away.
“You already know.”
“No.”
I kept my voice calm.
“Say it.”
“Mason.”
Something inside me hardened permanently.
“You were going to use my son against my father.”
“Yes.”
That explained why August had been moved from the hunting house.
Why the service room was beside the poolhouse.
Why Mason had become dangerous the instant he found the door.
They didn't bring August closer because the plan was almost finished.
They brought him closer because they needed leverage close too.
“What did you get?”
Vanessa looked at the floor.
“Protection.”
“From what?”
“Julian.”
I stared at her.
She laughed bitterly.
“You think he's only jealous of you?”
“What did he do?”
“He made it clear that once he controlled the family, everyone chose a side.”
“So you chose his.”
“No.”
She looked at me.
“I chose Cesare.”
That was different.
“Why?”
“Because Julian was never going to survive this.”
I remembered his words.
Whoever talks second is the one Cesare expects to sacrifice.
“What was Cesare planning to do to him?”
Vanessa shook her head.
“I don't know.”
“Lie.”
“I don't.”
Then she leaned forward.
“But I know he never intended Julian to sit in your chair.”
A knock sounded at the door.
One of my guards entered.
“Boss.”
“What?”
“We found the east camera.”
“Broken?”
“No.”
“Then?”
“Covered.”
“With what?”
“A jacket.”
Deliberate.
Someone inside the grounds.
Not an outside attack.
My guard continued.
“And we found a second thing.”
He placed a capo pin on the table.
Gold.
Black enamel.
I recognized it immediately.
Dominic Serra.
One of my father's oldest men.
One of mine too.
He was supposed to be upstairs guarding August.
I stood.
“Where is Dominic?”
The guard shook his head.
“We don't know.”
I looked at Vanessa.
She had gone pale.
That reaction told me Dominic wasn't part of the plan she knew.
Which meant the betrayal had another layer.
I ran upstairs.
August's room was open.
Two guards were unconscious in the hallway.
Mason was gone.
My father was gone too.
On the bed lay Cesare's silver whistle.
May you like
And beneath it, one sentence scratched into the wood by August's fingernail.
WEST HOUSE.
