Chapter 2 - ENZO THOUGHT HIS UNCLE HAD KIDNAPPED KHLOE’S MOTHER TO CONTROL HIM—THEN SOFIA REVEALED SHE HAD BEEN HIDING THE TRUTH ABOUT THE BIANKE FAMILY FOR TWENTY-THREE YEARS
Khloe read the message three times.
Then she looked at Enzo.
"I'm going."
"No."
"My mother is there."
"And Anthony wants you there."
"Exactly."
"Which is why you're not going."
Khloe laughed once.
There was no humor in it.
"You hired me because I'm invisible."
"This isn't work anymore."
"It stopped being work when your uncle threatened my mother."
"Khloe—"
"No."
She stepped closer.
"You don't get to use me when my invisibility helps you and lock me away when my life becomes inconvenient."
Enzo's jaw tightened.
"That's not what this is."
"Then what is it?"
"I'm trying to keep you alive."
"So am I."
They stared at each other.
Frankie wisely remained silent.
Finally Khloe said:
"You told me if anything felt wrong, I could leave."
"Yes."
"You gave me a choice."
"Yes."
"Don't take it back because you're scared."
That hit him.
Enzo looked away.
When he looked back, something had changed.
"Fine."
Khloe blinked.
"Fine?"
"You come."
Frankie looked horrified.
"Boss."
"But you follow my instructions."
Khloe crossed her arms.
"We negotiate them."
Enzo almost smiled despite everything.
"Of course we do."
Pier 17 had been abandoned for nine years.
Anthony chose it because the old refrigeration warehouses blocked most surveillance signals.
Enzo did not go alone.
He merely made it look that way.
Frankie positioned men two blocks away.
Khloe wore a transmitter inside the heel of her shoe.
"If they search you, they won't find it," Frankie explained.
"If they make me take my shoes off?"
"Then kick Anthony."
Khloe stared.
Frankie shrugged.
"Improvisation."
Enzo didn't laugh.
He had barely spoken during the drive.
Khloe watched him.
"You're afraid."
His eyes moved toward her.
"No."
"You're a terrible liar."
"I'm excellent."
"Not tonight."
He looked through the windshield.
"My father died when I was sixteen."
Khloe waited.
"Officially, heart attack."
"Officially?"
"Three years later I learned he had been poisoned."
Her stomach tightened.
"By who?"
"We thought the Caruso family."
"My mother's family?"
"Yes."
"Why?"
"My father was negotiating peace between the Biankes and Carusos. Somebody wanted the war to continue."
"And Sofia?"
"Disappeared the same week."
Khloe understood.
"You thought she was involved."
"My uncle said she was."
"Anthony."
"Yes."
The car became quiet.
Khloe looked at the photograph on Enzo's phone.
Her mother.
Twenty-three years younger.
Standing beside Enzo's father.
"What if Anthony lied?"
Enzo's expression became cold.
"Then I've spent most of my life hating the wrong people."
Anthony waited inside Warehouse Three.
Sofia sat in a chair.
Her hands weren't tied.
That surprised Khloe.
Anthony held a pistol.
That didn't.
"Baby."
Sofia stood.
Khloe ran toward her.
Anthony lifted the weapon.
"Stop."
Khloe froze.
Her mother looked unharmed.
Terrified.
But unharmed.
Enzo stepped forward.
"Let her go."
Anthony smiled.
"Nephew."
"Whatever you want is with me."
"That's always been your problem."
"What?"
"You think everything is about you."
Anthony looked at Khloe.
"Sometimes history belongs to the women cleaning up after men."
Khloe hated him instantly.
"Why do you know my mother?"
Anthony laughed.
"Sofia?"
He switched to Sicilian.
"Tell her."
Sofia's face collapsed.
"Mom?"
Sofia looked at her daughter.
"I'm sorry."
"For what?"
"My name was Sofia Caruso."
"I know that now."
"No."
Tears appeared.
"You don't know the rest."
Enzo remained still.
Sofia looked at him.
"I knew your father."
Enzo's expression hardened.
"How?"
"I worked for him."
Anthony laughed.
"Worked."
Sofia ignored him.
"Antonio wanted peace."
Enzo's father.
"He knew the Biankes and Carusos were destroying each other over territory neither family truly needed."
"What did you do?"
"I translated."
Khloe stared.
"You?"
Sofia nodded.
"The older men used dialects to exclude outsiders. Your father learned I understood both sides."
The parallel struck Khloe so hard she almost laughed.
Her mother had once been exactly what Khloe became.
Invisible.
Listening.
Sofia continued.
"Antonio discovered someone was sabotaging negotiations."
"Who?"
Sofia looked at Anthony.
Enzo's eyes turned toward his uncle.
Anthony smiled.
"You have no proof."
Sofia continued.
"Anthony was selling weapons to both families. War made him rich."
Enzo's face became frighteningly blank.
"He poisoned my father."
"Yes."
"Why did everyone blame the Carusos?"
"Because Anthony planted evidence."
Khloe asked:
"Why did you disappear?"
Sofia looked at her.
"Because I had proof."
Anthony's smile vanished.
"What proof?"
Khloe asked.
"Ledger pages. Recordings."
"Where?"
Sofia began crying.
"Your father found out I had them."
Khloe's heart stopped.
"My father?"
"Daniel knew enough to understand we'd never be safe in Chicago."
Her father.
The quiet man who sold insurance.
The man who died from pancreatic cancer.
Sofia continued.
"He married me. Gave me his name. We left."
Khloe's eyes filled.
"Why didn't you tell me?"
"Because secrets kept you alive."
"No."
Khloe's voice broke.
"Secrets kept me ignorant."
Sofia flinched.
Khloe continued.
"You taught me to understand men when they thought I couldn't. You taught me every Sicilian insult before I was twelve. You taught me to watch exits."
Tears streamed down her face.
"And you never told me why."
"I was afraid."
"I know."
Khloe swallowed.
"But fear doesn't make it fair."
Enzo looked at her.
Something in his face said he understood that sentence too well.
Anthony became impatient.
"Enough family therapy."
He pointed the gun toward Enzo.
"Where are the records?"
Sofia looked at him.
"Gone."
"Lie."
"I destroyed them."
Anthony stepped closer.
"No, you didn't."
He smiled.
"Because Daniel Bennett wasn't stupid."
Khloe's stomach dropped.
"What does my father have to do with this?"
Anthony looked at her.
"Your seventy-thousand-dollar debt."
Khloe frowned.
"What?"
"Pancreatic cancer is expensive."
Rage hit her.
"Don't talk about him."
"Did you ever wonder why a man with excellent insurance suddenly had claims denied?"
Khloe froze.
Anthony smiled.
"Did you ever wonder why bills appeared for treatments he never received?"
The warehouse disappeared around her.
"What did you do?"
"Your father wouldn't tell me where Sofia hid the evidence."
Enzo's voice became deadly.
"So you financially destroyed him."
Anthony shrugged.
"Pressure."
Khloe moved before she thought.
Enzo caught her around the waist.
"Khloe."
"Let me go!"
Anthony laughed.
"There's the Caruso temper."
"Don't call me that!"
"Why not? It's your blood."
"My father was Daniel Bennett."
Anthony's smile faded slightly.
"Yes."
Khloe stared.
"And you killed him anyway."
"I didn't give him cancer."
"No."
Her voice became cold.
"You just made sure dying destroyed us too."
Anthony pointed the gun at her.
Enzo stepped between them.
"Put it down."
Anthony smiled.
"Always the hero."
"No."
Enzo's voice was quiet.
"Just tired of listening to you."
Then he spoke in Sicilian.
A sentence Khloe understood immediately.
Down.
She grabbed Sofia and dropped.
The warehouse erupted.
Lights died.
Glass shattered.
Frankie's men entered.
Gunfire cracked.
Enzo hit the concrete.
Anthony ran.
Khloe crawled toward her mother.
"Are you hurt?"
"No."
"Stay down."
Then she heard Enzo grunt.
She looked.
Blood.
His shoulder.
"Enzo!"
"I'm fine."
"You've been shot!"
"Technically grazed."
"That is still shot!"
Even bleeding, he almost smiled.
Anthony escaped through the rear loading bay.
But he left something behind.
His phone.
Frankie unlocked it before dawn.
Messages.
Accounts.
Names.
One conversation mattered most.
ANTHONY: THE GIRL IS THE KEY.
UNKNOWN: SHE DOESN'T KNOW.
ANTHONY: HER FATHER MADE SURE SHE WOULD.
UNKNOWN: WHERE?
ANTHONY: MEDICAL DEBT.
Khloe stared.
"My debt?"
Enzo's shoulder had been stitched.
He stood beside her.
"Maybe the amount."
Seventy thousand.
Not exactly.
$70,413.82.
Khloe suddenly remembered her father's final week.
He had asked her to keep every bill.
Every statement.
"Never throw away paperwork, kiddo."
She thought grief made him obsessive.
Now she understood.
The debt wasn't merely debt.
It was a message.
They went to Khloe's apartment.
Boxes filled the closet.
Bills.
Appeals.
Insurance statements.
Khloe spread everything across the floor.
Enzo sat beside her.
No suit jacket.
Bandage visible beneath his shirt.
For two hours, nothing.
Then Khloe found a hospital invoice.
Account number:
The exact debt.
Below it:
AUTHORIZATION: DB-917-PALERMO.
"Palermo."
Enzo leaned closer.
Khloe turned the page.
There were handwritten numbers in her father's handwriting.
Coordinates.
Frankie entered them.
A location appeared.
St. Mary's Cemetery.
Khloe went cold.
"My father's grave."
They arrived at sunrise.
The cemetery caretaker protested.
Enzo solved that problem with paperwork rather than threats.
Khloe noticed.
Daniel Bennett's headstone was removed.
Beneath it was a sealed steel tube.
Inside:
A flash drive.
Three letters.
One addressed to Sofia.
One to Khloe.
One:
TO ANTONIO BIANKE'S SON.
Enzo held it without opening.
Khloe opened hers.
Kiddo,
If you're reading this, your mother finally had to tell you.
Don't be angry at her forever.
Be angry for a while. She earned some of it.
Khloe laughed through tears.
That was her father.
Daniel continued.
Anthony Bianke found us two years before I got sick.
I convinced him I had destroyed the evidence.
He never believed me completely.
I hid it somewhere he wouldn't search until I was dead.
If he ever came for you, I needed you to have something stronger than fear.
Truth.
Khloe wiped her eyes.
One final paragraph:
You are not responsible for finishing our war.
Read that again.
You do not owe dead people your life.
Use the truth if you need it.
Then walk away.
Love,
Dad.
Khloe pressed the letter against her chest.
Enzo looked away.
She noticed.
"Open yours."
He hesitated.
Then did.
Daniel's letter was short.
Enzo Bianke,
Your father was a better man than the organization allowed him to become.
Maybe you can be too.
Anthony killed him because peace threatened his business.
Sofia's evidence proves it.
If you use this information only to kill Anthony, then he still wins.
If you use it to end what made men like him powerful, Antonio wins.
Your choice.
—Daniel Bennett
Enzo read it twice.
Then folded it.
Khloe asked:
"What are you going to do?"
He stared at his father's grave.
For most of his life, violence had been the answer people expected from Enzo Bianke.
Anthony expected it too.
Perhaps that was why Enzo finally chose something else.
"I'm going to destroy him."
Khloe's stomach tightened.
Enzo looked at the flash drive.
"Legally."
She blinked.
"Was that difficult to say?"
"Extremely."
She laughed.
Then, unexpectedly, Enzo did too.
But the relief lasted only seconds.
Frankie's phone rang.
He answered.
Listened.
His face changed.
"Boss."
"What?"
"Anthony isn't running."
Enzo frowned.
"Where is he?"
Frankie looked at Khloe.
"He just walked into the Onyx Room."
"Why?"
"He has Sal."
Khloe went cold.
"And Tommy."
Enzo stood.
Frankie continued.
"Anthony says if Khloe doesn't bring the drive back to where this started..."
May you like
A pause.
"...the restaurant burns with everyone inside."
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