Chapter 17 - The Last Trade
They now had the archive.
And Luca knew Elena could lead him to it.
Salvatore had one advantage.
Luca did not know they had already found it.
He called at noon.
“Bring Elena to Pier Nineteen.”
“No.”
“Then Matteo takes a boat ride.”
Salvatore closed his eyes.
“What time?”
“Midnight.”
Elena stood across the room.
She nodded.
Salvatore shook his head.
She nodded again.
After the call, they argued.
“You’re not going.”
“He wants me.”
“He wants the archive.”
“He thinks I have it.”
“That makes you bait.”
“Yes.”
“No.”
Elena stepped close.
“My son walked nine miles because I told him you would protect him.”
“I am protecting him.”
“Then trust his mother.”
That stopped him.
He looked away.
Trust had always been harder than violence.
Carmine said quietly:
“She’s right.”
Salvatore glared.
“You found family yesterday. Don’t abuse the privilege.”
At 11:58, Elena walked onto Pier Nineteen alone.
Or appeared to.
Salvatore’s men surrounded the docks from warehouses and rooftops.
Isabella controlled surveillance.
Carmine covered the water.
Luca waited beside a cargo vessel.
Matteo stood ten feet behind him.
Sofia too.
Salvatore’s heart nearly stopped.
Both children.
Alive.
“Where’s the archive?” Luca asked.
Elena held up a flash drive.
“Here.”
“Throw it.”
“Children first.”
Luca laughed.
“You still negotiate like you have power.”
“I have the only thing Crane wants.”
A second vehicle arrived.
Alexander Crane stepped out.
Salvatore cursed under his breath.
Crane was not supposed to be there.
Neither was Gabriel Vale, who emerged beside him with a gun.
Vale had betrayed them.
Again.
Crane smiled.
“Family gatherings are exhausting.”
Luca pointed his weapon toward him.
“You killed Anna.”
Crane shrugged.
“Your wife made poor choices.”
Luca’s face twisted.
For the first time, Salvatore saw beneath the monster.
Grief.
Rotten into obsession.
Elena stepped between them.
“Stop.”
Both men looked at her.
“You used children to avenge adults.”
She pointed at Luca.
“You terrorized your own son.”
Then Crane.
“You built an empire from stolen lives.”
Then Vale.
“And you watched.”
Vale lowered his eyes.
Elena held up the drive.
“This contains copies.”
Crane’s expression changed.
“Copies of what?”
“Everything.”
“You’re bluffing.”
She smiled.
“Then shoot me.”
Salvatore’s breath stopped.
Crane raised his gun.
Matteo screamed.
“Mom!”
A shot fired.
Elena fell.
Chaos exploded.
Salvatore fired at Crane’s guard.
Carmine shot Luca’s weapon from his hand.
Isabella’s men stormed the pier.
Matteo ran toward Elena.
Luca grabbed him.
Salvatore saw it.
“Let him go!”
Luca dragged Matteo toward the ship.
Salvatore pursued.
They climbed the gangway.
Luca held a knife against Matteo’s throat.
“Stop.”
Salvatore did.
The harbor wind tore at their clothes.
Behind them, sirens approached.
Not police Salvatore controlled.
Federal.
Isabella had sent the archive to the FBI, Justice Department, and three newspapers simultaneously.
There would be no burying it now.
Luca looked toward the sirens.
“You destroyed the family.”
Salvatore answered:
“No.”
He looked at Matteo.
“I ended what was destroying it.”
Luca’s grip tightened.
“You think you’re better than Antonio?”
“No.”
Salvatore lowered his gun.
“I think I get to choose not to become him.”
Luca’s face changed.
Matteo suddenly bit his hand.
Luca shouted.
The boy ducked.
Salvatore fired.
The bullet hit Luca’s shoulder.
Matteo ran.
Luca stumbled against the railing.
Then slipped.
Salvatore lunged.
He caught Luca’s wrist.
For one impossible moment, Luca hung above black water.
He looked up.
“You’re saving me?”
Salvatore strained.
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because Matteo is watching.”
Luca looked past him.
His son stood crying.
Salvatore continued:
“And I refuse to teach him that killing is the only way this family solves pain.”
Carmine arrived and helped pull Luca back.
Federal agents took him into custody.
On the pier, Elena was alive.
The bullet had struck her side.
Not fatal.
Crane was arrested.
Gabriel Vale surrendered.
Maria arrived just before dawn.
For the first time in generations, the Moretti family watched powerful men leave in handcuffs instead of body bags.
Matteo sat beside Salvatore on the ambulance bumper.
“Did you really save him because I was watching?”
“Yes.”
“Would you have saved him if I wasn’t?”
Salvatore considered lying.
Then remembered Elena.
“No.”
Matteo nodded.
“Thank you for not lying.”
Then, after a long silence:
“Can I call you Dad even if you’re not?”
Salvatore looked at him.
His vision blurred.
“You can call me whatever you want.”
Matteo leaned against him.
“Okay, Dad.”
May you like
Salvatore closed his eyes.
And somewhere inside him, a forty-three-year war finally became quiet.
