Chapter 18 Dante
DANTE
Rico drives while I sit in the passenger seat and try to push the argument with Angelica out of my mind.
The anger in her voice still echoes in my head.
The hurt in her eyes when she realized I hadn't told her the full truth about what happened at the parish.
She thinks I'll never change and that I'll always default to violence and lies.
Maybe she's right.
Maybe I'm a lost cause.
But I won't let her take Sofia from me.
We drive through the center of Rome toward the Pantheon.
The streets are busy even at this late hour.
Tourists and locals are walking through the squares.
Shops and restaurants are still open and glowing with warm light.
The city feels alive and it contrasts sharply with the darkness I carry inside me.
This thing has pushed me to my limits and beyond.
I keep making promises I end up breaking and Gerard's pressing and teasing is pissing me off.
I'm going to lose Angelica because of this snake.
"The informant said he has proof about who leaked the ledgers," Rico says. "He wouldn't give details over the phone. He wanted to meet in person… Personally, I wonder if it's a trap."
"Why the Pantheon?" I ask, beginning to think the same thing.
An insistence to meet in person often means a trap is being set, but with such a public location, I can't be certain.
"He said it's crowded enough to blend in but open enough to see if anyone is watching. He's scared, Dante. He thinks Antonelli is already onto him."
I lean back in my seat and watch the buildings pass by.
The informant's taking a risk by coming forward.
If Antonelli finds out, he's as good as dead.
And if this is a trap, I'm as good as dead.
But if the information is good, it could give me the leverage I need to turn this war around.
We park two blocks away from the Pantheon and walk the rest of the distance on foot.
The square in front of the ancient building is packed with people—couples taking photos, street performers playing music, vendors selling trinkets and flowers.
The fountain at the center sprays water into the air and catches the light from the surrounding lamps.
It would be a breathtaking sight if I weren't so angry.
Rico points toward a bench near the fountain. "He said he would be there wearing a gray jacket."
I scan the crowd and spot a man sitting alone on the bench.
He wears a gray jacket and his head is tilted forward like he is looking at his phone.
But something about his posture is wrong.
He's too still, too slumped.
I move closer and see the blood.
It spreads across the front of his jacket in a dark stain.
His hands rest in his lap and his eyes stare blankly at nothing.
A knife wound in his side has bled out and left a pool beneath him on the cobblestones and not a single person around here seems to have noticed.
They're just walking past like it's any normal night.
"He's dead," I say quietly to Rico.
My eyes are already scanning faces, looking for movement in the chaos around us, but there’s too much of it.
Too many people are here, and picking out someone trying to flee is useless.
Rico curses under his breath. "Antonelli got to him first."
I kneel beside the bench and check for a pulse even though I already know what I'll find—nothing.
The man's been dead for minutes at most.
The blood is still fresh and warm, still oozing from the hole in his side.
And then people start to notice.
A woman screams.
A crowd begins to form around the bench.
I stand and scan the square again for anyone moving now, anyone trying to leave quickly.
And I see a figure in a dark hoodie cutting through the crowd toward the narrow alley behind the Pantheon.
He moves fast enough to draw my attention and I know that's the killer.
He glances back once and I catch a glimpse of his face.
The same fucking kid who came to the church earlier.
He hasn’t learned his lesson and I should've cut him out when I had the chance.
"There," I say to Rico. "Follow me."
It takes a second to clear the crowd, all pressing in to see the dead man, but we push through and head toward the alley.
The killer sees us coming and breaks into a run, vaulting over a low barrier and disappearing into the maze of streets behind the square.
I follow and Rico stays close behind me.
The alley's narrow and dark with buildings pressing in on both sides.
The cobblestones are slick from rain earlier in the evening, and I almost lose my footing a few times in these dress shoes.
It's dark, and I think we've lost him, but a flash of his white shirt catches my eye and I see where he's gone.
The killer takes a sharp turn to the left.
I follow and see him scrambling over a stack of wooden crates.
He reaches the top and jumps down on the other side.
His phone falls from his pocket and clatters onto the stones, but he doesn't stop to retrieve it.
He just keeps running.
I climb over the crates and grab the phone.
Then I look up and see the killer disappearing around another corner.
I can't even keep up anymore.
I'm winded, exhausted from the constant barrage of stress, and with his phone I may have everything I need to find out where Gerard is and shut him down.
"Let him go," I tell Rico. "He's a waste of energy…" I'm huffing, sucking in air like it's a precious gem, and Rico gives me a look that says he's displeased with my decision, but he stops and stays with me.
We turn and make our way back through the alley toward the square where sirens wail in the distance.
The police are on their way to investigate the body.
We need to leave before they arrive and start asking questions.
We reach the car and Rico drives us away from the Pantheon.
I unlock the phone with a simple swipe to find no password.
The killer was careless.
I scroll through the recent calls and messages.
Most of them are in Italian but a few are in Turkish.
Then I find three voice messages exchanged between two contacts.
I recognize Kemal's number clearly as if this were my own cell phone.
What the hell were they calling him for?
I play the first message.
A man's voice speaks in Italian.
"The ledgers are ready. I've planted the evidence showing Dante as the source of the skimming. The Turks will believe it once they see the proof."
The voice is familiar.
I've heard it before but I can't place it immediately.
I play it again and focus on the cadence and tone.
Then it clicks.
The voice belongs to one of Antonelli's lieutenants, a man who's been with him for years.
It's nothing I don’t know, but now I have proof to provide Kemal, at least.
Then I play the second message and the same man speaks again. "The data's been fed to the Turks. They believe it. Once they cut ties, his organization collapses. The boss moves in and takes over the territory without a fight."
I clench my jaw.
This is exactly what I suspected, but hearing it confirmed makes the rage burn hotter.
Antonelli didn't just steal my shipment.
He orchestrated an entire campaign to destroy my reputation and isolate me from my allies.
He's turned my suppliers against me through lies and manipulation.
It's evil and manipulative and just the world I live in now.
I've known it from the beginning of all of this, but with this proof in my hand, I know his days are numbered.
When I play the third message and hear the same lieutenant’s voice speaking to my supplier, it guts me.
Kemal believes all of this bullshit, the forgeries and coverups. And he's ready to move on me just as soon as his deadline runs out.
He thinks I can't be trusted.
But this phone proves otherwise.
These voice messages are hard evidence that Antonelli orchestrated the entire scheme.
If I can get this to Kemal before his deadline expires, I might be able to salvage the alliance and to turn the Turks against Antonelli instead of me.
Rico glances over while he drives. "What's on it?"
"Proof that Antonelli set me up. Voice messages between his lieutenant and a Turkish contact. They confirm the ledgers were forged and the skimming story was fabricated to turn Kemal against me."
"Will Kemal believe it?"
"I don't know. But it's the only chance I have to fix this before his deadline."
Finally, a bit of light at the end of the tunnel.
I might not have Kemal's missing shipment, but I do have proof that I'm not the one who took it.
Now, if I’m going to fully convince him that I'm still trustworthy, despite the skimming I've done, I have to get this to him and find a way past Gerard's defenses to get Kemal his drugs.
And all while convincing Angelica that it's safe in my world.
Easy job, right?