Chapter 10 - THE HOUSE WHERE FEAR WAS BORNDominic walked out of the farmhouse alone.
Salvatore stood near the tree line with Leo beside him.
Twenty armed men surrounded the property.
Rain had stopped.
Morning mist hung between the pines.
Dominic kept both hands visible.
Salvatore smiled.
“Finally.”
“Let the boy go.”
“Bring me the tape.”
“You first.”
Salvatore laughed.
“You still negotiate like Antonio.”
“Best compliment you’ve given me.”
The smile vanished.
Dominic stopped twenty feet away.
Leo was crying silently.
Salvatore held a handgun loosely at his side.
Dominic looked at the child.
“Leo.”
The boy raised his eyes.
“My name is Dominic.”
“I know.”
“Your mother is inside.”
Leo’s face crumpled.
“I want her.”
“You’re going to see her.”
Salvatore tightened his hand on the boy’s shoulder.
“Do not make promises you cannot keep.”
Dominic looked at him.
“I learned that from you.”
Inside the house, Madeline watched through the curtain.
Sofia stood beside her trembling.
Lorenzo positioned shooters upstairs.
Mateo remained in surgery recovery miles away.
Michael held the evidence case near the rear entrance.
Madeline whispered, “Dominic needs time.”
Lorenzo nodded.
“For what?”
“For Salvatore to believe he has control.”
Outside, Dominic removed Rosa’s tape.
Salvatore’s eyes fixed on it.
“Throw it.”
“Release Leo.”
“Throw it.”
Dominic smiled faintly.
“No.”
Salvatore raised the gun.
Sofia gasped inside.
Madeline grabbed her hand.
Dominic did not move.
“You won’t shoot him.”
Salvatore’s expression hardened.
“You think I have limits?”
“No.”
“Then why are you confident?”
“Because the second you hurt that boy, Sofia has no reason to obey you.”
Salvatore stared.
“And I think you still need something from her.”
A flicker.
Dominic saw it.
“Lucia’s account.”
Salvatore’s jaw tightened.
“There it is.”
Dominic continued.
“You never found it.”
No answer.
“You killed Lucia and still couldn’t find it.”
Salvatore raised the gun toward Dominic.
“I could kill you and search at leisure.”
Dominic nodded toward the farmhouse.
“You could.”
Then he smiled.
“But Rosa’s testimony is being uploaded to six separate attorneys right now.”
Salvatore’s face changed.
It was a bluff.
Mostly.
Madeline had begun copying the tapes.
But upload access was weak in the mountains.
Salvatore did not know.
“You’re lying.”
“Shoot me and find out.”
For several seconds, neither man moved.
Then Leo whispered, “Mister?”
Dominic kept his eyes on Salvatore.
“Yes?”
“My mom says bad men hate when people see them scared.”
Salvatore looked down.
Dominic almost smiled.
“Sofia is a smart woman.”
The boy continued.
“He’s scared.”
Salvatore slapped the child.
Everything changed.
Dominic moved.
So did the farmhouse.
Lorenzo’s men fired from windows.
Salvatore’s guards scattered.
Dominic crossed the distance in seconds.
He struck Salvatore’s wrist.
The gun flew.
Dominic grabbed Leo and rolled behind an SUV.
Bullets tore through metal.
Inside, Sofia screamed.
Madeline held her back.
“Wait!”
Dominic pushed Leo toward the underside of the vehicle.
“Crawl.”
The boy obeyed.
“Toward the house.”
Gunfire exploded around him.
Dominic rose and fired twice.
One guard fell.
Another retreated.
Leo reached the porch.
Sofia ran out.
“Leo!”
Mother and son collided.
Sofia dropped to her knees.
Madeline pulled both inside.
Dominic saw them.
Safe.
Then Salvatore hit him from behind.
Dominic fell.
The tape slid across the ground.
Salvatore kicked his ribs.
Once.
Twice.
Dominic rolled and caught his leg.
Both men crashed into mud.
Salvatore was older.
Dominic was stronger.
But Salvatore fought like a man who had spent his entire life refusing to lose anything he believed belonged to him.
He drove a knife toward Dominic’s throat.
Dominic caught his wrist.
“You were supposed to become me,” Salvatore hissed.
Dominic strained against the blade.
“That was your mistake.”
“You are me.”
“No.”
Dominic twisted.
The knife fell.
He struck Salvatore hard.
The older man collapsed against a vehicle.
Dominic picked up the knife.
For one moment, it would have been easy.
One movement.
One death.
Six years of lies answered.
His father avenged.
Madeline appeared on the porch.
She did not shout.
She simply watched him.
Dominic looked at Salvatore.
Then dropped the knife.
Salvatore smiled through blood.
“Weak.”
Dominic shook his head.
“No.”
He stepped back.
“I just refuse to let you choose who I become one more time.”
Sirens sounded in the distance.
Not police.
Federal.
Lorenzo emerged.
“Did you call them?”
Madeline came down the steps.
“I did.”
Dominic stared.
“When?”
“While you were negotiating.”
“Which agents?”
“Not Halloran’s people.”
She held up her phone.
“My father left me one federal contact in a sealed emergency file.”
Dominic frowned.
“You had an emergency federal contact?”
“I married you. Of course I did.”
Despite everything, Lorenzo laughed.
Salvatore heard the sirens.
His face changed.
“You stupid girl.”
Madeline walked toward him.
“You murdered my father’s client.”
Salvatore stared.
“You know.”
“Not everything.”
“You never will.”
“Maybe.”
She crouched and picked up Rosa’s tape.
“But this is a start.”
Federal vehicles entered the property.
Agents poured out.
A woman in a navy jacket led them.
Special Agent Rebecca Shaw.
Madeline recognized her name from her father’s file.
“Dominic Vitiello?” Shaw called.
Dominic raised both hands.
Salvatore smiled.
“Now you go to prison.”
Shaw walked past Dominic.
She stopped in front of Salvatore.
“Salvatore Vitiello, you are under arrest.”
The older man’s smile vanished.
“For trafficking, conspiracy, murder, witness intimidation, bribery, and the attempted murder of a federal cooperating witness.”
Salvatore looked at Dominic.
“What did you do?”
Dominic said nothing.
Madeline answered.
“He finally listened to his wife.”
Agents cuffed Salvatore.
For several seconds, victory felt possible.
Then Agent Shaw’s phone rang.
She answered.
Her expression changed immediately.
“What do you mean compromised?”
Everyone watched.
“When?”
Pause.
“Seal the evidence room.”
She lowered the phone.
Madeline stepped closer.
“What happened?”
Shaw looked at her.
“The copied Vitiello archive from St. Michael’s was moved to a federal evidence facility an hour ago.”
Dominic frowned.
“And?”
“It’s gone.”
Lorenzo stared.
“Gone?”
“Someone inside the bureau removed it.”
Salvatore began laughing.
Agents pushed him toward a vehicle.
Dominic stepped closer.
“Who?”
Salvatore looked over his shoulder.
“You still think I’m the top of this organization.”
Dominic’s face hardened.
Salvatore smiled.
“I never was.”
The SUV door closed.
Madeline looked at Agent Shaw.
“What does that mean?”
Shaw’s expression was grim.
“It means we have a federal mole.”
Dominic asked, “Name?”
“We don’t know.”
Then Michael came from the farmhouse carrying the original evidence case.
“Not everything is gone.”
Shaw looked at him.
Michael set the case down.
“We kept originals.”
Salvatore’s transport SUV began moving toward the highway.
Dominic watched it.
Then the vehicle exploded.
The blast tore through the morning.
Metal flew across the road.
Madeline screamed.
Agents dropped.
Flames swallowed the SUV.
Dominic stared.
Salvatore had been alive thirty seconds earlier.
Now the vehicle was burning.
Agent Shaw shouted into her radio.
“Transport hit! Transport hit!”
Dominic looked toward the ridge.
A distant black vehicle disappeared among the trees.
Lorenzo’s voice was quiet.
“That wasn’t a rescue.”
Dominic nodded.
“No.”
Madeline stared at the flames.
“They killed him.”
Dominic understood exactly what it meant.
May you like
Salvatore had just been silenced.
Which meant someone more powerful was afraid of what he might say.
