Chapter 14 - The Last Bullet
Lorenzo did not intend to hide.
He intended to rewrite the ending.
Channel Eight occupied a forty-story tower overlooking the river. At dawn, the station would broadcast the mayor’s annual city address live across every local network.
The mayor’s name appeared in Sofia’s ledger.
So did the station owner’s.
Lorenzo planned to stand before the city, control the evidence, and present himself as the man exposing corruption rather than the architect who created it.
He would sacrifice selected members of the Nine, erase his own role, and emerge as a public savior.
Power rarely survives by denying the truth.
It survives by telling a more convenient version first.
Luca was taken into surgery under federal guard. Enzo refused treatment beyond a field dressing. Maeve stayed with the children while Anna, Enzo, and I drove toward Channel Eight.
“You have lost half your blood,” I told Enzo.
“Then I still have half.”
“You sound like Luca.”
“Don’t insult me.”
The station lobby was already occupied by police.
Some belonged to the commissioner.
Others answered to federal command.
No one knew which uniforms could be trusted.
Anna displayed her credentials.
A police captain raised his rifle.
“Federal authority has been suspended pending investigation.”
“By whom?” she asked.
“The attorney general.”
His name was in the ledger too.
I stepped forward.
The captain recognized me.
“Marco Moretti, you are under arrest.”
“Get in line.”
Gunfire erupted from the mezzanine.
The captain fell.
Enzo pulled Anna behind a column while I fired toward two men wearing tactical uniforms.
The lobby became chaos.
Civilians ran toward the exits.
Alarm lights flashed.
We entered a maintenance stairwell and climbed.
On the thirty-eighth floor, we found the mayor dead inside a dressing room.
A prepared speech lay beside him.
The first page accused Damon Crowe, Carlo Bellini, and Luca Moretti of creating a criminal conspiracy.
My name appeared nowhere.
Lorenzo wanted me alive.
Not from mercy.
From ownership.
“He plans to place you beside him,” Anna said.
“He wants the city to believe I helped expose the Nine.”
“And afterward?”
“He controls me with what remains in the ledger.”
Enzo opened the studio door.
Lorenzo stood beneath the broadcast lights.
The station owner sat nearby with a pistol pressed against his back.
Cameras were already live.
A red countdown displayed thirty seconds until the mayor’s scheduled address.
Lorenzo smiled when he saw me.
“Perfect timing.”
“You killed the mayor.”
“A weak man at the end of his usefulness.”
“You are finished.”
“No, Marco. I am about to give you legitimacy.”
The cameras activated.
A producer counted down with shaking fingers.
Three.
Two.
One.
Lorenzo looked into the lens.
“My name is Lorenzo Moretti. For more than fifty years, I have watched corruption poison this city.”
Anna moved toward the control booth.
A gunman blocked her.
Enzo fired first.
The broadcast continued as bullets tore through studio glass.
Lorenzo did not flinch.
“Today, with the assistance of my grandson Marco Moretti, I am releasing evidence of a conspiracy—”
“No,” I said.
My voice carried through the studio microphones.
Lorenzo turned.
Every camera moved toward me.
I stepped beneath the lights.
“My grandfather is lying.”
His expression hardened.
“Marco.”
“He built the conspiracy. He ordered fires that killed families. He stole children, changed identities, purchased courts, and murdered anyone who threatened him.”
Lorenzo raised the final pages of the ledger.
“And where is your proof?”
The archive upload had stopped.
The physical records were burning.
He believed he held the only complete evidence.
A monitor behind him changed.
Elena appeared on-screen.
She sat beside Maeve and Gabriel inside the cathedral archive.
“The truth sleeps where no king owns,” Elena said.
Lorenzo stared.
Maeve held up a small memory card.
Sofia’s bracelet had contained more than a map.
It contained a digital copy.
Every page.
Every recording.
Every name.
The files began appearing across the broadcast screen.
Lorenzo reached for his pistol.
Enzo moved between us.
The bullet struck him in the chest.
I caught him as he fell.
Lorenzo ran toward the emergency exit.
I lowered Enzo carefully.
Then I followed.
We reached the roof.
Rain swept across the tower, just as it had the night Elena found me.
Lorenzo stood near the edge with the pistol in one hand and the ledger pages in the other.
“You could have inherited everything,” he said.
“I inherited enough.”
“You are an O’Shea mistake wearing a Moretti name.”
“I am the man your crimes created.”
He aimed at me.
“And I am still your grandfather.”
“No.”
I looked directly into his eyes.
“You are simply the last man I was taught to fear.”
He fired.
The bullet passed through my side.
I fired once.
My shot struck his shoulder.
The pages escaped his hand and scattered into the rain.
Lorenzo stumbled against the ledge.
He reached toward me.
Not for help.
For the gun.
I kicked it away.
Federal agents flooded the roof.
Anna placed him under arrest.
Lorenzo looked at me as they dragged him toward the stairwell.
“This city will never let you become anything else.”
“Then I’ll build somewhere new.”
I returned to the studio.
Enzo was conscious.
Barely.
“You stepped in front of a bullet,” I said.
He managed a weak smile.
“It seemed familiar.”
Paramedics lifted him onto a stretcher.
On every monitor, Sofia’s evidence continued spreading across the country.
Judges resigned.
Officers were arrested.
The commissioner attempted to flee by helicopter and was captured at the airport.
The Nine collapsed before sunrise.
Maeve arrived with Elena.
The child ran toward me.
She stopped when she saw the blood on my shirt.
“You got shot.”
“It happens.”
“That’s not funny.”
“No.”
She put her arms around me anyway.
Bruno jumped against my leg.
Maeve stood nearby, exhaustion and relief in her eyes.
“It’s over,” she whispered.
I looked around the ruined studio.
“No.”
Elena tightened her arms around me.
May you like
For once, the word did not feel like a threat.
“It’s beginning.”
