Chapter 10 - Brothers on Opposite Sides
Sophie spent two days in the hospital.
The doctors treated hypothermia, dehydration, and a minor concussion. Elena remained beside her bed. Mrs. Russo smuggled in homemade soup despite hospital rules.
Vincent stood outside the room while Dominic explained the truth.
Eight years earlier, Dominic had prepared evidence not only against Gabriel and Rocco, but against the entire Torino organization.
“That included you,” Dominic said.
Vincent stared through the glass at Sophie sleeping.
“How much?”
“Everything I knew.”
“Murders?”
“I never had proof you ordered one.”
“But you believed I had.”
Dominic did not answer.
Vincent turned.
“You were going to send me to prison.”
“I was going to end the organization.”
“You knew what would happen to our mother.”
“I planned to move her.”
“You planned my life without asking.”
“I was trying to save yours.”
Vincent laughed once, without humor.
“By betraying me.”
“By stopping you before Gabriel turned you into him.”
The accusation landed hard.
Vincent stepped closer.
“You think I became Gabriel?”
“I think you were becoming him.”
“And now?”
Dominic looked through the glass at Sophie.
“Now I don’t know.”
Vincent left before anger became something worse.
He drove alone to Bella Vista.
The restaurant had reopened, though half the staff avoided his eyes. The sidewalk where Sophie offered him five dollars looked ordinary.
That disturbed him.
Life always rushed to cover evidence of transformation.
Tony joined him at the bar.
“You should be with your family.”
Vincent poured water into a glass.
“I don’t know whether they’re my family.”
Tony sat.
“Blood makes relatives. Choices make family.”
“Did you read that on a greeting card?”
“My wife says it whenever I annoy her.”
Vincent looked at him.
“You have a wife?”
“Seventeen years.”
“I didn’t know.”
“You don’t ask personal questions.”
Vincent considered that.
His empire had been built on knowing everyone’s weaknesses, debts, and secrets, yet he knew almost nothing about the people closest to him.
Gabriel had taught him that distance created power.
Perhaps distance had only created blindness.
“What would you do?” Vincent asked.
“If my brother planned to put me in prison?”
“Yes.”
Tony thought for a moment.
“I’d ask whether I deserved it.”
Vincent’s expression hardened.
Tony did not look away.
“That’s why you pay me,” he said. “To say things other men are too frightened to say.”
Vincent looked at the empty restaurant.
The ledger had exposed Gabriel’s network, but it had also exposed legitimate crimes committed under Vincent’s leadership: extortion, bribery, illegal gambling, smuggling.
He could claim ignorance about trafficking.
He could not claim innocence.
Federal Agent Cole entered Bella Vista and placed a folder on the bar.
“Gabriel’s arraignment is tomorrow.”
“Will he remain in custody?”
“For now.”
“For now?”
“Several judges in the ledger are already challenging the warrants. Evidence is disappearing from local servers.”
Tony cursed.
Cole continued.
“Rocco offered cooperation.”
Vincent’s face changed.
“In exchange for what?”
“Protective custody and a reduced sentence.”
“He kidnapped a child.”
“He also has direct knowledge of murders, trafficking routes, and Gabriel’s political network.”
“And you’re considering it.”
“I’m considering what saves the most future victims.”
Vincent understood the logic.
He hated it anyway.
Cole opened the folder.
“There is another complication. Dominic’s evidence from eight years ago includes testimony implicating you in criminal activity.”
“He told me.”
“If he authenticates it, federal prosecutors will pursue charges.”
Tony stood.
Cole raised a hand.
“I’m not here to arrest him.”
“Then why are you here?” Vincent asked.
“Because Gabriel escaped.”
The room went silent.
A transport van had been ambushed while moving him to a federal facility. Two agents were wounded. One driver was missing.
“Rocco arranged it,” Vincent said.
Cole shook her head.
“Rocco was in federal custody when it happened.”
“Then who?”
“We don’t know.”
Vincent looked toward the door.
Gabriel had spent decades purchasing loyalty. Even exposed, he remained dangerous.
Cole slid a photograph across the bar.
It showed a farmhouse outside the city.
“We believe Gabriel may target witnesses.”
“Elena.”
“And Leonard Price. Possibly Dominic.”
“Sophie?”
Cole hesitated.
“Yes.”
Vincent stood.
At the hospital, Elena was packing Sophie’s belongings.
“We’re leaving,” she said.
“To where?”
“Somewhere without Torinos.”
Dominic sat by the window.
Vincent looked at him.
“You agree?”
“I don’t know what protects them anymore.”
“I do.”
Elena turned sharply.
“Your protection brought gunmen to our apartment, our hospital, and the gala.”
“My protection kept Sophie alive.”
“And your world nearly killed her.”
Vincent absorbed the words.
Sophie watched from the bed.
“Mom.”
“No, Sophie. We are done.”
“Uncle Vincent saved us.”
“He also created enemies who see us as weapons.”
Vincent could not deny it.
Elena zipped the bag.
“Agent Cole has a witness program.”
Dominic looked at Vincent.
“If we go, you may never see us again.”
Vincent’s chest tightened.
Sophie climbed down from the bed.
“Do I get to choose?”
Elena knelt.
“You’re a child.”
“That doesn’t mean I’m furniture.”
Dominic covered a smile.
Elena sighed.
“What do you want?”
Sophie looked at Vincent.
“I want nobody to get taken again.”
“So do I,” Vincent said.
“Then stop being a mafia boss.”
The room became completely silent.
Sophie continued.
“Bad men keep coming because you’re the biggest bad man.”
Elena started to speak.
Vincent raised a hand.
The child was not insulting him.
She was explaining the world as she understood it.
And perhaps more honestly than any adult had.
“What would happen if I stopped?” he asked.
Sophie shrugged.
“Maybe you could own a restaurant.”
Dominic laughed.
Even Elena smiled despite herself.
Vincent looked at them.
For fifteen years, he had believed power meant never surrendering what men feared.
Now a seven-year-old was asking him whether fear was worth more than family.
“I can’t erase what I’ve done,” he said.
“No,” Sophie replied. “But you can do something different tomorrow.”
Vincent felt the lock inside him turn.
He looked at Cole.
“If I cooperate fully, what happens?”
She studied him.
“You could face prison.”
“How long?”
“That depends on the evidence, your testimony, and what you help dismantle.”
Tony stepped forward.
“Boss.”
Vincent looked at Dominic.
“Would you testify?”
Dominic’s voice was quiet.
“Yes.”
Elena looked between them, afraid the answer would reopen the war.
Vincent nodded.
“Good.”
Dominic frowned.
“Good?”
“You were right eight years ago.”
The words cost Vincent more than blood.
“I should have listened.”
Dominic stood with difficulty.
“What are you saying?”
“I’m ending it.”
Tony’s face went pale.
“The organization?”
Vincent looked around the hospital room.
At his brother.
At Elena.
At Sophie.
“Yes.”
His phone rang.
Gabriel’s voice answered before Vincent spoke.
“You always were weak around children.”
Vincent turned away from Sophie.
“Where are you?”
“Near enough to watch.”
A red laser dot appeared on Dominic’s chest.
Vincent tackled him as a rifle round shattered the hospital window.
Elena pulled Sophie behind the bed.
Alarms screamed.
Across the street, a figure withdrew from a rooftop.
Gabriel’s voice remained on the phone.
“You want a different tomorrow?”
May you like
Vincent looked at the shattered glass.
“You won’t live to see it.”
