Chapter 7 - The Black Crown
Smoke filled the hallway.
Emma screamed.
Alejandro pulled both children behind the kitchen island.
Rafael fired toward the entrance.
Michael joined him.
Maria covered Emma and Luca with her body.
Three men entered.
Unlike Marco’s soldiers, they wore no suits.
No visible insignia.
No shouting.
They moved with frightening precision.
Rafael fired twice.
The first man retreated.
Michael yelled, “Rear exit!”
Alejandro looked at him.
“Can we trust you?”
“No time!”
“That isn’t an answer.”
Michael looked toward Emma.
“I came back for my daughter.”
Alejandro believed that.
For now.
They moved through the pantry.
A concealed door led to the garage.
Rafael had parked an armored sedan inside.
Michael stopped.
“They’ll expect the car.”
“So?”
“There’s a drainage channel beyond the property.”
Alejandro stared.
“How do you know the property?”
Michael hesitated.
“I designed the security layout.”
Rafael spun.
“What?”
“Eight years ago.”
Alejandro almost laughed.
“Is there anything in my life you people didn’t secretly design?”
Emma tugged his sleeve.
“We should run.”
Alejandro nodded.
“The four-year-old remains the most sensible person here.”
They exited through a utility hatch and climbed into the drainage tunnel.
Behind them, gunfire continued.
The attackers had entered the house.
They moved through shallow water.
Luca held Alejandro’s hand.
Emma held Maria’s.
Michael walked behind them.
After two hundred yards, they emerged beyond the tree line.
A road waited ahead.
Michael had left an old station wagon there.
Rafael stared.
“This is your escape vehicle?”
“Nobody searches for fugitives driving twenty-year-old station wagons.”
Alejandro looked at the peeling paint.
“I hate that you’re right.”
They drove north.
Dawn began turning the sky gray.
For the first time in hours, they had distance from immediate danger.
Alejandro turned toward Michael.
“Talk.”
Michael stared ahead.
“The Black Crown existed before the Council. My father didn’t create the system. He inherited it.”
“What system?”
“A network linking criminal organizations, private companies and political figures.”
Bellini had described something similar.
Michael shook his head.
“The Council is regional. Black Crown is larger.”
“How large?”
Michael looked at him.
“You don’t want that answer.”
“I’m having a morning filled with answers I don’t want.”
Michael exhaled.
“Several cities. Possibly several countries.”
Rafael frowned.
“What do they want with Emma?”
“My father.”
Maria looked toward him.
“What?”
“Anthony was trying to leave.”
Alejandro stared.
“The man who ordered my death?”
“Yes.”
“That’s his idea of retirement?”
Michael ignored the comment.
“He did terrible things. But three years ago, he discovered Black Crown had started using children as leverage.”
“The hospital,” Maria whispered.
Michael nodded.
“He tried to shut it down.”
“And they threatened Emma?”
“Yes.”
Maria’s anger became visible.
“You knew they were watching her?”
“I knew someone was.”
“And you left us alone?”
“I stayed close.”
“You stood across streets. Hid trackers in toys. That isn’t being a father.”
Michael took the accusation without defending himself.
“You’re right.”
Emma sat quietly.
Then she asked, “Did Grandpa know about me?”
Michael closed his eyes.
“Yes.”
“Does he like me?”
No adult in the car knew how to answer.
Finally Michael said, “He has your pictures.”
Emma frowned.
“What pictures?”
“Every school picture. Every birthday picture your mom posted.”
Maria stared at him.
Michael continued.
“He kept them in a drawer beside his desk.”
Emma thought about that.
“Then why didn’t he visit?”
“Because people were watching him too.”
Emma looked disappointed.
Adults always seemed to have reasons for leaving.
None of those reasons made the empty chair at a birthday table feel less empty.
Alejandro watched her through the mirror.
Then his phone rang.
Unknown number.
He answered.
Marco.
“Good morning.”
Alejandro’s voice hardened.
“You’re alive.”
“You sound disappointed.”
“I’m adaptable.”
Marco laughed.
“I heard you found Michael.”
Michael looked over.
Alejandro didn’t react.
Marco continued.
“Ask him who really poisoned your brother.”
Michael’s face changed.
Alejandro noticed.
“What is he talking about?”
Marco laughed.
“Put me on speaker.”
Alejandro did.
Marco’s voice filled the car.
“Michael. Tell your old friend what happened to Matteo.”
Michael stared forward.
“Marco is manipulating you.”
“Probably,” Alejandro said. “Answer anyway.”
Michael said nothing.
Marco continued.
“Tell him where you were the night Matteo died.”
Maria looked between them.
Alejandro’s voice dropped.
“Michael.”
“I was at the hospital.”
“Why?”
Michael’s jaw tightened.
“Because Matteo called me.”
“Before he died?”
“Yes.”
“What did he say?”
“He had proof against my father.”
Alejandro’s hands clenched.
“And?”
“He wanted me to testify with him.”
“Did you?”
“No.”
Marco laughed through the phone.
“There it is.”
Alejandro ignored him.
“Why not?”
Michael looked toward Emma.
“Maria was pregnant.”
Maria stared.
“You knew?”
Michael nodded.
“I knew if I went public, Black Crown would find everyone connected to me.”
“So you left Matteo alone.”
“Yes.”
Alejandro’s face hardened.
Marco said, “He did more than that.”
Michael snapped, “Shut up.”
Alejandro looked at the phone.
“What more?”
Marco sounded almost cheerful.
“Michael was the last person to hand Matteo his medication.”
Silence.
Alejandro stared at Michael.
“Is that true?”
Michael’s eyes filled with something impossible to read.
“Yes.”
Maria whispered, “Michael…”
Alejandro’s voice became ice.
“Did you kill my brother?”
“No.”
“Did you give him the medication that killed him?”
“I gave him something my father told me would help him.”
Alejandro reached for Michael.
Rafael swerved.
“Not while I’m driving!”
Alejandro forced himself back.
“You didn’t check it?”
“I trusted my father.”
“So did Matteo.”
Michael lowered his eyes.
Alejandro wanted to hurt him.
Instead, Emma said softly:
“He made a mistake.”
Everyone looked at her.
She hugged her rabbit.
“Mommy says making a mistake and doing something mean on purpose are different.”
Alejandro stared out the window.
Children simplified morality.
Adults spent careers finding ways around it.
Marco’s voice returned.
“Touching. Truly.”
Alejandro picked up the phone.
“What do you want?”
“A meeting.”
“No.”
“I have Anthony Bellini.”
Michael sat upright.
Marco continued.
“And before you pretend you don’t care, he knows every name inside Black Crown.”
Michael looked at Alejandro.
“That could be true.”
Marco said, “Midnight. Moretti Shipping Terminal Twelve.”
Alejandro frowned.
“My terminal?”
“It used to be.”
“What’s the trade?”
“Anthony for Michael.”
Maria immediately said, “No.”
Michael looked at her.
Marco heard.
“And Maria.”
Her face changed.
Michael snapped, “She has nothing to do with this.”
“Oh, she does.”
Alejandro stared at the phone.
“How?”
Marco laughed quietly.
“You still haven’t figured it out.”
“Figured out what?”
“Why Maria was hired at your mansion.”
Maria went still.
“I applied for that job.”
“Did you?”
Marco continued.
“Who told you about it?”
Maria thought.
“My cousin Elena.”
“And who told Elena?”
Maria said nothing.
Marco laughed.
“Exactly.”
Alejandro looked at her.
Marco continued.
“Emma wasn’t accidentally living beneath your roof.”
Michael’s face drained of color.
Marco delivered the final blow.
“She was placed there.”
Alejandro stared at Emma.
“By who?”
Marco’s voice softened.
“Ask Michael.”
The call ended.
Everyone turned toward him.
Michael closed his eyes.
Maria whispered, “You put us in that mansion?”
Michael nodded.
“Why?”
“To protect Emma.”
“By placing her in a mafia boss’s house?”
“Because Alejandro was the only man powerful enough to scare my father.”
Alejandro stared.
“You used me as a shield.”
“Yes.”
“And never told me.”
“If you knew, Black Crown would know you knew.”
Emma looked between them.
“You wanted Mr. Moretti to protect me?”
Michael turned toward her.
“Yes.”
Emma thought about that.
Then she looked at Alejandro.
“Did you?”
Alejandro stared at her.
He could have said no.
He could have reminded everyone that until last night, he barely knew Maria’s child existed.
Instead, he remembered Emma kneeling beside him with her last injector.
He remembered her throwing the rabbit to create a distraction.
Her asking about Luca.
Her standing in front of her mother when Rafael suspected her.
Alejandro answered quietly.
“I do now.”
Maria looked away, fighting tears.
Rafael checked the rearview mirror.
“Company.”
Two motorcycles appeared behind them.
Michael looked back.
“Black Crown?”
“No markings.”
The motorcycles accelerated.
One rider came beside the station wagon.
Rafael reached for his gun.
“Wait,” Alejandro said.
The rider lifted his visor.
Daniel Cross.
The loyal guard from the mansion.
He pointed toward a roadside warehouse.
They followed.
Inside, Daniel removed his helmet.
“I found Dr. Mercer.”
Alejandro stepped closer.
“Where?”
“Dead.”
Silence.
Daniel held out a sealed envelope.
“But he left this.”
Alejandro opened it.
Inside was a handwritten medical report dated seven years earlier.
Matteo Moretti.
At the bottom, Dr. Mercer had written:
Death was not natural. Patient was deliberately exposed to a compound designed to mimic an acute medical crisis. Ordered to alter findings by Judge Anthony Bellini.
Alejandro’s hand shook.
Then another paper slipped out.
A list of names.
Seventeen people.
All dead.
All under suspicious medical circumstances.
The final name had been added recently.
Alejandro Moretti.
Beneath it was another name.
Not dead.
Not yet.
Alejandro stared.
Emma Bellini.
May you like
And beside her name was a date.
Tomorrow.
