“That’s exactly what he asked for.”
“You believe him?”
“No.”
“Then why are you walking straight into it?”
“Because my son is inside it.”
The words landed and neither of them spoke for a moment. For three years Dante had trained every soft edge out of himself, turning grief into discipline and discipline into a wall nobody could climb. Then this woman had walked into his club with his dead wife’s locket in her fist, and in under two hours she had handed him back a son, exposed his own brother’s betrayal, and reintroduced him to the particular terror of having something left to lose.
He turned to his captain, Bruno Castellano. “Circle the hill. Nobody fires until I give the signal.”
Bruno glanced at Sienna. “And her?”
“She stays in the car.”
“No,” Sienna said.
Dante opened the rear door anyway. “That wasn’t a request.”
“Milo calls my name when he’s scared.”
“He’ll have his father.”
“He doesn’t know you.”
The sentence hit harder than any insult could have. Sienna softened her voice, but she didn’t take it back.
“For three years I’ve been the one who wakes up when he has nightmares. I know which lullaby settles him. I know he won’t sleep unless the hallway light stays on because he hates the thunder.”
Dante’s jaw tightened. “You kept him from me.”
“I kept him alive.”
“You should have come sooner.”
“My brother tried.”
She pulled the coat tighter around the silver dress she still hadn’t had time to change out of. “Ray sent letters. He called your office more than once. Salvatore intercepted every one. Then Ray disappeared.”
Dante studied her face in the dashboard light. “You told me he was murdered.”
“I believe he was.”
“You believe?”
“His body was never found.”
The story shifted under him again. “What else haven’t you told me?”
“There isn’t time.”
“Make time.”
Sienna took a shaking breath. “The night Elena died, my brother wasn’t the only one in that ambulance.”
“Who else was there?”
“I was.”
Dante stared at her. “You saw her?”
“I held her hand while she was dying.” Rain streaked down Sienna’s face like it was doing her crying for her. “She made me promise not to bring Milo to you until we knew who had betrayed her. She said the danger was inside your own family. Ray wanted to trust you immediately. I was the one who was afraid.”
“So you let me bury an empty box.”
“I watched Salvatore’s people search every hospital in this city. I watched them kill the doctor who signed Milo’s birth record. If I’d carried that baby to your front door, he’d have been dead before sunrise.”
“And the dancing?”
“Salvatore found my brother’s old storage unit six weeks ago. He realized someone had taken the locket. I knew he’d come looking for whoever had it, so I put myself somewhere he’d already be watching.”