Chapter 8
The bell house was not a house.
It was an abandoned chapel forty miles north of the Moretti estate.
Sofia loved it.
Dante had taken her there once before their marriage.
Years later she occasionally went alone.
He thought she liked the silence.
Now Ethan’s words made the place feel different.
Dante went with Nico and Vanessa.
No children.
No large convoy.
The chapel stood beneath dead trees.
One bell remained in the tower.
It had not rung in decades.
Inside, candles burned.
Fresh.
Gabriel knew they were coming.
Vanessa whispered:
“He’s here.”
Dante looked at her.
“You stay behind me.”
She laughed bitterly.
“Still protecting me?”
“No.”
“Then?”
“If Gabriel shoots, I want to know who he aimed at.”
Dark honesty.
They moved deeper.
A man stepped from behind the altar.
Scar across his left cheek.
Burn damage along one hand.
Gabriel Cole.
Forty-two.
Alive.
Ethan had his eyes.
Gabriel smiled at Vanessa.
“You finally brought him.”
Dante looked at him.
“You’ve been inside my house.”
“Yes.”
“You’ve been near my daughter.”
“Yes.”
“You taught your son to lie.”
“Yes.”
No apology.
Dante almost respected the honesty.
Almost.
“Did you kill Sofia?”
Gabriel’s smile vanished.
“No.”
“Did you threaten her?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“She lied to me.”
“About?”
“You.”
Dante waited.
Gabriel continued:
“She told me you were becoming different from your father.”
“Were you?”
“I wanted to believe her.”
“And?”
“I watched you expand his empire.”
“Kept his captains.”
“Protected Rafael.”
“Buried Marcus’s death as war.”
Dante accepted each.
“What did Sofia promise you?”
“That she would help expose Rafael.”
“And then?”
“She stopped.”
“Why?”
“Because she discovered something about me.”
Dante’s eyes narrowed.
“What?”
Gabriel looked toward Vanessa.
Vanessa went pale.
“Tell him.”
She whispered:
“No.”
“Tell him.”
Dante turned.
“What?”
Vanessa’s face broke.
“Gabriel killed someone.”
“Who?”
“My brother.”
Silence.
Dante stared.
Vanessa continued:
“Two years before Sofia died.”
“Why?”
“He said my brother was working for Rafael.”
Gabriel’s jaw tightened.
“He was.”
“Proof?”
Gabriel did not answer.
Vanessa laughed bitterly.
“That is what Sofia asked.”
Dante understood.
Sofia realized Gabriel had become the same kind of man he claimed to hate.
A man who killed on suspicion.
“Then she pulled away.”
Gabriel looked at Dante.
“She chose you.”
Dante’s voice became cold.
“She was my wife.”
Gabriel laughed.
“She chose your way.”
“Meaning?”
“She said revenge had eaten me.”
Dante almost felt the ghost of Sofia smiling somewhere.
Accurate.
Gabriel continued:
“She hid Marcus’s rosary from me.”
“Why?”
“She said I no longer had the right to collect his blood debt.”
Dante took it from his pocket.
Gabriel’s eyes locked on it.
There.
Hunger.
Not grief.
Identity.
Dante understood.
“You don’t want justice for your father.”
Gabriel stared.
“You need the debt.”
“What?”
“Without it, what are you?”
Gabriel’s face hardened.
Dante continued:
“Marcus died.”
“Your father died.”
“Sofia died.”
“Years passed.”
“You built yourself around one sentence: Moretti owes Cole.”
Gabriel stepped forward.
“You know nothing.”
“I know enough.”
Dante held up the rosary.
“You want this because you need permission to stay angry.”
Gabriel’s hand moved.
Nico raised his weapon.
Dante lifted one finger.
No.
Gabriel stopped.
“You came here for revenge,” Gabriel said.
“Yes.”
“Then why not shoot me?”
Dante looked at him.
“Because Sofia asked me not to kill you first.”
Gabriel froze.
“First?”
Dante almost smiled.
“She knew me.”
For the first time, Gabriel looked uncertain.
Then the bell above them rang.
Once.
Nobody had touched it.
Gabriel turned sharply.
Fear.
Real.
Dante saw.
“What?”
Gabriel whispered:
“He’s here.”
“Who?”
“Rafael.”
A voice came from the balcony.
“No.”
They looked up.
Rafael Moretti stood beneath the bell.
His silver cane gone.
Gun in one hand.
And beside him—
an elderly man Dante had not seen since childhood.
His uncle Stefano.
Supposedly dead twenty-four years.
May you like
Rafael smiled.
“You are all still hunting the wrong brother.”
