“Sit down.”
Marco looked at him with something I had never seen anyone direct toward Dominic Viscari.
Hatred without caution.
“You would destroy twenty years of loyalty for a secretary who fell into your lap?”
Dominic’s eyes hardened.
“This has nothing to do with where she fell.”
Then he glanced at me.
“It has everything to do with who tried to make sure she never stood back up.”
My chest tightened.
For six months, I had believed Dominic barely noticed me except when his calendar was wrong or his coffee arrived late.
But he had noticed the login warning on my desk.
He had noticed Marco watching me.
He had noticed enough to keep me inside the room when Marco wanted me gone.
Marco laughed without humor.
“You knew before this meeting.”
“I suspected.”
“Then why let me speak?”
“Because suspicion tells me where to look.
Arrogance tells me the truth.”
Dominic slid the report toward the center of the table.
“You overplayed your hand when you mentioned the hospital.
You confirmed access to confidential payroll information.
Then you threatened her in front of witnesses.”
Marco’s gaze moved around the table again.
No one looked away this time.
“They’re not witnesses,” he said.
“They’re family.”
“Family doesn’t steal from the table,” one man answered.
“Family doesn’t send our routes to Costello,” another said.
Marco’s expression sharpened.
“You have no proof of that.”
Dominic removed a sealed envelope from beneath the report.
“The transfer wasn’t the only thing the audit found.”
He opened the envelope and placed several printed call records on the table.
North Quay Consulting had received the thirty thousand dollars.
The same account had paid for a prepaid phone.
That phone had contacted a Costello-controlled warehouse less than an hour before two Viscari drivers were attacked.
Marco stared at the chain of records.
He did not deny it immediately.
That hesitation was more convincing than any confession.
“I was negotiating,” he finally said.
“Without permission?” Dominic asked.
“Someone had to act.
You’ve become cautious.
Distracted.”
His eyes flicked toward me.
There it was again—the belief that my presence had weakened Dominic.
Marco mistook restraint for softness because he had never needed restraint himself.
“You sent our drivers into an ambush,” Dominic said.
“I sent them a warning.
The Costellos escalated.”
“Two men went to the hospital.”
“And I was fixing it.”
“By blaming Alyssa.”
Marco’s mouth curved into something ugly.
“She was perfect.
