Chapter 9 - THE SISTER WITH THE GUN
Brielle had imagined finding Mara in hundreds of ways.
Never once had the reunion included a pistol aimed at Dante Moretti's chest.
"Mara."
Her sister's arm did not lower.
The emergency lights painted the clock chamber red.
Dante remained on one knee with Sofia against him.
He did not reach for his weapon.
He looked at Mara the way he looked at every threat.
Carefully.
Without wasting motion.
"Bri, move away from him."
Mara's voice was deeper than the child's voice Brielle remembered.
Everything else about it hurt with familiarity.
"Put the gun down."
"Move first."
"He just got Sofia back."
"That doesn't make him safe."
Sofia buried her face against her father's shoulder.
Brielle stepped between Mara and Dante.
"Then you'll have to shoot through me."
Mara's face broke for half a second.
"Don't do that."
"I've had a strange week."
"Brielle."
"You disappeared for eleven years."
"I didn't disappear."
Mara's eyes filled.
"I was taken."
Brielle's anger vanished beneath something heavier.
"By who?"
Mara looked at Dante.
"His family."
Dante's expression did not change.
"Which member?"
Mara's jaw tightened.
"You really don't know."
"No."
"That's convenient."
"Mara, look at me."
Brielle moved another step closer.
"I buried ashes because everyone told me you were dead."
Mara's arm trembled.
"I know."
"How?"
"Nico showed me the obituary."
"Nico had you?"
"Nico got me out."
That answer changed everything again.
Dante finally spoke.
"Out of where?"
Mara looked at him.
"A house in Rockford."
"I lived there under another name for six years."
"With other kids?"
"Sometimes."
"Who ran it?"
"Bellweather contractors."
Brielle swallowed.
"Were they hurting you?"
Mara looked at her.
Silence became the answer.
Brielle wanted to cross the room and hold her.
Mara's gun made the distance feel impossible.
"Nico found me when I was fifteen."
"He got me out."
"He kept moving me because people were still looking for me."
"Why didn't he bring you to me?"
Mara laughed bitterly.
"He tried."
"He showed me photographs of you."
"Your diner."
"Your first apartment."
"The shelter where you stayed after Mom died."
Brielle's throat closed.
"Then why?"
"Because every time Nico got close to you, somebody else did too."
Mara lowered the weapon a fraction.
"You were the bait they never stopped watching."
Dante's voice hardened.
"Who are they?"
Mara looked at him with open hatred.
"Your uncle."
Dante went still.
"Vittorio?"
"Ask your mother."
Brielle turned toward Dante.
"You have an uncle?"
"My father's younger brother."
"Where is he?"
"At the estate."
The words echoed.
Vincent's warning returned.
A man who still sits at Rosa Moretti's dinner table.
Brielle stared at Dante.
"Your uncle is at the house with Rosa."
Dante was already standing.
He pressed his earpiece.
"Luca."
Static answered.
"Luca."
Mara lowered the gun fully.
"He jammed the tower."
"Vittorio?"
"No."
"The people behind him."
Dante reached for his phone.
No signal.
Mara stepped closer.
"If Vittorio realizes Vincent talked, Rosa is in danger."
"How do you know Vincent talked?"
"Because I was above the clock chamber."
Brielle stared at her.
"You shot him."
Mara looked away.
"I stopped him from shooting Sofia."
"He wasn't aiming at Sofia."
"Not yet."
Dante handed Sofia to Brielle.
"Take her."
Sofia clung to his coat.
"Daddy, don't go."
He crouched.
"I need to get Grandma."
"I want to come."
"No."
The child began to cry.
Dante held her face gently.
"You did something brave tonight."
"You left the flower."
"You wrote train."
Sofia nodded.
"Now I need you to do one more brave thing."
"Stay with Brielle."
"Okay?"
Sofia looked at Brielle, then back at him.
"Promise you come back."
Dante hesitated.
Brielle saw it.
He would not lie to his daughter even now.
"I promise I will do everything I can."
Sofia accepted the imperfect promise.
Mara looked at Brielle.
"There's a service tunnel under the freight yard."
"It leads to a street east of here."
"Take Sofia through it."
"You're coming."
Mara shook her head.
"I need to go with Dante."
Brielle stared at her.
"I just got you back."
"You didn't get me back yet."
The sentence hurt more than Mara intended.
She saw it.
"Bri."
"Then come with me."
"I can't."
"Why?"
Mara looked toward Dante.
"Because Vittorio knows where Nico hid the original witness list."
"And if he gets it tonight, every survivor on it becomes a target again."
Dante picked up his weapon.
"Where is the list?"
"Celeste hid it."
"Where?"
"I don't know."
"Nico does."
"And Vittorio has Nico."
Brielle's mind raced.
"How do you know?"
Mara pulled out a phone and showed them a photograph.
Nico sat tied to a metal chair.
Blood covered one side of his face.
Behind him was a stone wall Brielle recognized.
The wine cellar beneath the Moretti estate.
Dante's expression turned murderous.
"When was this taken?"
"Thirty-two minutes ago."
"By who?"
"Vittorio sent it to me."
Brielle looked at her sister.
"Why would he message you?"
Mara swallowed.
"Because he thinks I still work for him."
Silence.
"Do you?"
Mara met her eyes.
"Not anymore."
Brielle hated the words not anymore.
They contained too much history.
Dante asked the question she could not yet ask.
"What did you do for him?"
Mara's face hardened.
"Things I survived."
Dante nodded once.
He did not demand details.
Brielle noticed.
"We'll talk later."
Mara looked at her.
"If there is a later."
"There will be."
Brielle stepped forward and finally touched her sister's face.
Mara flinched at first.
Then she leaned into the hand.
Eleven years collapsed.
Brielle saw the nine-year-old under the scar and hard eyes.
"Three taps."
Mara's mouth trembled.
"Seventeen seconds."
"Nine taps."
Mara closed her eyes.
"I'm here."
Brielle pulled her into an embrace.
Mara held on with one arm while the pistol remained in the other hand.
It was not the reunion Brielle had imagined.
It was real.
That was enough for ten seconds.
Then Dante's phone found signal.
It rang once.
He answered.
Rosa's voice came through, shaking.
"Dante."
"Mama, where are you?"
A man's hand took the phone.
The voice that followed was warm and familiar to Dante.
"Nephew."
Dante's face went white.
"Vittorio."
"Come home."
"If you touched her—"
"Your mother is comfortable."
"Nico is less comfortable."
"What do you want?"
Vittorio laughed.
"The same thing Elena Dawson died for."
"Bring Brielle."
Dante looked at her.
Vittorio continued.
"And bring my niece Mara too."
Mara's face drained of color.
Brielle heard the possessive word.
My niece.
She stared at her sister.
Mara looked away.
The call ended.
Brielle's voice came out barely above a whisper.
"Why did he call you his niece?"
Mara did not answer.
May you like
That silence frightened Brielle more than the gun had.
