Chapter 4 - The Man Behind the Grease
“My name is Elias DeLuca.”
Roman drew his weapon.
Norah stepped between them before she had time to think.
“Don’t.”
Roman stared at her.
“Move.”
“No.”
“He lied to you.”
“So did everyone else in this house.”
“That is not helping his case.”
Elias stood still.
The grease-stained mechanic Norah had met twelve hours earlier suddenly seemed different.
Older.
Sharper.
Not because his face changed.
Because the performance ended.
“What are you to Victor?” Roman asked.
Elias answered without hesitation.
“His son.”
Enzo cursed.
Roman’s gun rose.
Norah grabbed Roman’s wrist.
“Stop.”
Roman looked at her hand.
Then at her.
“You’re protecting a DeLuca?”
“I’m stopping you from doing something stupid.”
“Norah.”
“He came with us when he could’ve escaped.”
Roman’s jaw tightened.
Elias nodded.
“She has a point.”
“Speak again and I’ll reconsider.”
Elias wisely shut up.
They returned to the warehouse rather than the estate.
Roman put Elias in a guarded office.
Not tied.
Not beaten.
That alone shocked Enzo.
Roman stood across from him.
“Start from the beginning.”
Elias leaned against the desk.
“My father believes Daniel Bennett had evidence connecting Marco Vieri to stolen money.”
“We know.”
“He also believes Marco diverted money from DeLuca territory.”
Roman frowned.
“So Victor wanted the ledger.”
“He wanted leverage.”
“Against me?”
“Against Marco.”
Roman laughed without humor.
“Marco works for me.”
“Marco works for Marco.”
That part was becoming undeniable.
Norah sat in the corner holding her father’s note.
“Why pretend to be a mechanic?”
“Because Roman would never knowingly allow Victor DeLuca’s son inside the estate.”
Roman said, “Correct.”
Elias looked at Norah.
“I expected to search quietly.”
“And me?”
“You were supposed to be a source.”
Her expression hardened.
“You were ordered to get close to me.”
“Yes.”
“Was any part of this afternoon real?”
Elias paused.
“That wasn’t supposed to happen.”
Roman looked between them.
His jealousy returned instantly.
Norah noticed.
“Seriously?”
Roman said, “He manipulated you.”
“So did you when you kept information about my debt until today.”
“I found out today.”
“And he just told me his real name.”
“After Marco exposed him.”
Elias muttered, “This is an extremely uncomfortable conversation.”
Roman’s stare silenced him.
Norah turned back.
“Why would Marco say the real Finn would die?”
Elias looked at the floor.
“Because there is a real Finn Mercer.”
“Who?”
“A mechanic who applied for the Costa motor pool.”
Roman understood.
“You intercepted him.”
“My father’s people did.”
Norah stood.
“You kidnapped an innocent man?”
“He’s alive.”
“That isn’t an answer.”
Elias looked genuinely ashamed.
“He was paid to disappear for a month.”
“Paid?”
“Yes.”
“Then Marco has him now.”
“Apparently.”
Roman paced toward the window.
“Marco must have found the real Mercer and realized the substitution.”
Elias nodded.
“He’s been watching everyone.”
The situation was worse than Roman had thought.
Marco had infiltrated his operations.
Possibly his guards.
His financial system.
His home.
And Roman had allowed it because Marco had served his father.
Trust built over decades had become a blindfold.
Norah unfolded Daniel’s note again.
“Where my mother used to sing.”
Roman looked at her.
“Church?”
“Maybe.”
“Why maybe?”
“Because she sang everywhere.”
Elias frowned.
“You said Sunday church.”
“She did.”
Norah stood.
“But when I was a child, she sang while cooking. Every night.”
“Childhood house,” Roman said.
“She had an old upright piano.”
Norah closed her eyes.
“Dad hated that thing because one key stuck.”
Roman saw recognition.
“What?”
“My mother kept sheet music inside the bench.”
Elias stood.
“The ledger could be there.”
Roman immediately called Enzo.
“Get men to the Bennett house.”
“No.”
Everyone looked at Norah.
“If Marco has people watching it, a convoy tells him exactly what we know.”
Roman studied her.
“What do you suggest?”
“I go.”
“No.”
“With you.”
“No.”
Her eyes narrowed.
“That wasn’t a request.”
Roman almost admired the nerve.
Almost.
“Norah, Marco has already threatened you.”
“He threatened Elias.”
“He thinks Elias is useful because of you.”
“And he knows where I grew up. Sitting here doesn’t make me safer.”
She stepped closer.
“If my father died because of that ledger, I am not hiding while men decide what happens to it.”
Roman stared at her.
Then nodded once.
“Fine.”
Elias smiled.
Roman pointed at him.
“You stay.”
“Absolutely not.”
“You’re a DeLuca.”
“And the ledger may implicate my family too.”
Roman paused.
That was true.
Elias continued.
“Besides, Norah trusts me.”
Roman’s eyes turned murderous.
Norah sighed.
“Please stop making everything about that.”
Roman looked away.
Twenty minutes later, three of them left in an ordinary sedan.
No convoy.
No visible guards.
Enzo followed two blocks behind.
Norah’s childhood home stood in a working-class neighborhood outside Providence.
Peeling paint.
Narrow porch.
Dead flowerbeds.
The house had been vacant since Daniel died.
Norah unlocked the door.
The smell stopped her.
Dust.
Old wood.
Her father’s aftershave, somehow still trapped inside memory.
Roman stayed behind her.
For once, he did not touch her.
He understood some grief needed space.
Norah entered the living room.
The piano remained against the wall.
Brown upright.
One missing ivory key.
She walked toward it slowly.
Her mother had sat there every Christmas.
Daniel pretending not to listen.
Norah doing homework at the dining table.
A whole family reduced to dust and furniture.
She opened the bench.
Sheet music.
Nothing else.
Elias searched the underside.
“Wait.”
He ran his fingers along a seam.
A false panel.
Roman helped pry it loose.
Inside was a black leather ledger.
Norah stared.
Her father had died protecting this.
She lifted it.
The first pages contained financial entries.
Marco.
Shell companies.
Missing millions.
Then other names.
Judges.
Police officers.
Business owners.
Politicians.
Roman’s father.
Antonio Costa.
Norah looked at Roman.
“Your father knew.”
Roman took the ledger.
A handwritten note appeared beside Antonio’s name:
A.C. confronted. Refused to act. Claims M.V. too important to operations.
Roman’s face hardened.
His father had known Marco was stealing.
Had chosen loyalty over Daniel’s warning.
Maybe he hadn’t ordered Daniel’s death.
But he had allowed danger to remain.
Norah’s voice became cold.
“Your family knew.”
“My father knew.”
“Your family.”
Roman didn’t argue.
Then Elias turned a page.
“Guys.”
The final section contained something else.
Payments made after Daniel’s death.
To NORAH BENNETT COLLECTION ACCOUNT.
Roman saw hundreds of thousands siphoned through Norah’s supposed debt.
Marco had been laundering stolen money through her name.
Norah whispered, “He made me look involved.”
“Yes,” Roman said.
A floorboard creaked upstairs.
All three froze.
Roman drew his gun.
Elias grabbed a fireplace poker.
Norah held the ledger.
A voice came from the staircase.
“Put it down.”
Marco descended slowly.
Gun pointed at Norah.
Behind him stood two Costa guards.
Traitors.
Marco smiled.
“There it is.”
Roman stepped in front of Norah.
Marco shook his head.
“Don’t be stupid.”
“You point a weapon at her again,” Roman said, “you won’t leave this house.”
Marco smiled wider.
“That’s exactly the problem, Roman.”
“What?”
“You finally found something you’re afraid to lose.”
He aimed past Roman.
May you like
Directly at Norah.
“And fear makes powerful men very easy to control.”
