She Found Who Was Robbing the Don’s Syndicate—Then He Claimed Her Before Everyone
Chapter 11
Elena stepped forward.
“You’re wrong.”
Caruso’s eyebrows lifted.
“You think I don’t know what you did?”
“You know the thefts.”
She held up the ledger.
“But you don’t know what I found inside them.”
Caruso’s smile faded.
Elena opened the book.
“You weren’t stealing goods.”
“What?”
“You were creating shortages.”
She pointed to the entries.
“Every stolen shipment raised the price of food in three towns.”
Matteo watched silently.
“You bought grain cheaply elsewhere,” Elena continued, “then sold it back at three times the price.”
Caruso’s men exchanged glances.
“You were creating hunger.”
Caruso’s face hardened.
“And?”
“And you were using Matteo’s name to do it.”
She turned toward the assembled guards.
“He planned to make the people hate the Belladonna house. Then, when Matteo lost control, Caruso would take over the river trade.”
Caruso laughed.
“You think these men care about your little accounting lesson?”
“No.”
Elena closed the book.
“They care about money.”
She threw a packet of documents onto a nearby crate.
“Every one of them has been underpaid.”
The men looked at each other.
Caruso shouted, “Do not listen to her!”
But it was too late.
Elena had spent weeks copying payroll records.
Caruso had stolen from his own men.
He had kept half their wages.
Lorenzo suddenly pulled his pistol.
Matteo moved faster.
A shot cracked through the fog.
Lorenzo fell.
The harbor exploded into chaos.
Men scattered.
Gunfire echoed against the warehouses.
Matteo dragged Elena behind a stone wall.
“Are you hurt?”
“No.”
“Stay here.”
“No.”
He stared at her.
“You are impossible.”
“You married your business.”
“I didn’t marry you.”
Elena looked at him.
He paused.
Then, in the middle of the chaos, Matteo’s expression softened.
“Not yet.”
Before Elena could answer, Caruso’s men seized them from behind.
They were dragged into the warehouse.
The doors slammed shut.
Caruso stood before them.
“You have ruined twenty years of work.”
Matteo’s wrists were bound.
Elena’s hands were tied behind her.
Caruso walked toward Matteo.
“You could have ruled the river.”
“You wanted more.”
“I wanted everything.”
“You never understood the difference between power and fear.”
Caruso smiled.
“Fear is power.”
“No.”
Matteo looked at him.
“Fear is what men use when they know they cannot earn loyalty.”
Caruso raised his pistol.
Then Elena noticed something behind him.
A loose floorboard.
The same kind she had seen in the first warehouse.
She looked at Matteo.
He followed her gaze.
Neither spoke.
Caruso lifted the pistol.
But before he could fire, Elena kicked the lantern.
Darkness swallowed the room.
