Including Leo stepping into power

Including Leo stepping into power.

Gabriel read the messages without blinking.

Then Rebecca showed us one final document.

A draft succession agreement.

Leo had already divided Gabriel’s businesses between three captains.

Before Gabriel was dead.

Gabriel leaned back.

“So three of them knew.”

Rebecca nodded.

“Possibly.”

I looked at the names.

Then noticed something.

One captain had refused to sign.

Anthony Vale.

Beside his name, Leo had written:

Handle after transition.

I pointed.

“This isn’t just a murder.”

Gabriel looked at me.

“No.”

His voice was ice.

“It’s a purge.”

The dinner invitation went out one hour later.

All five captains.

Leo seated beside Gabriel.

And one hidden camera placed directly above the dining-room chandelier.

Gabriel wanted a confession.

Rebecca wanted it recorded.

I wanted one thing.

To see whether Leo Rossi could still smile when the dead man sat down beside him.

PART 5: Leo came to dinner expecting a funeral and found evidence

Leo kissed Gabriel on the cheek when he arrived.

That was the sickest part.

“Son,” he said warmly. “You look terrible.”

Gabriel had makeup under his eyes to appear half-dead.

“Feel worse.”

Leo squeezed his good shoulder.

“We’ll get you through this.”

I stood near the curtains in a black dress.

Invisible again.

But this time I was watching on purpose.

Dinner was roast lamb, potatoes, green beans, red wine.

Very American mob-family Thanksgiving energy, except it was April and three men at the table had guns under their jackets.

Gabriel barely ate.

Then he set down his fork.

“The infection is winning.”

Leo lowered his eyes like a grieving father.

“No.”

“My doctors think I have weeks.”

One captain cursed.

Another crossed himself.

Leo reached for Gabriel’s arm.

“You’ll beat it.”

Gabriel smiled weakly.

“Before I die, I need to settle what happened.”

Then he placed the evidence bag on the white tablecloth.

Six black stitches.

Leo stopped breathing.

Gabriel watched him.

“These were soaked in poison.”

Nobody spoke.

“Dr. Croft put them inside me.”

Leo took a sip of wine.

Too quickly.

Gabriel continued.

“Croft bought the thread from a dock supplier.”

Leo’s jaw tightened.

“Miller is a liar.”

Gabriel smiled.

Tiny.

Sharp.

“I never said Miller talked.”

Leo realized it instantly.

Too late.

The room changed.

Every captain looked at him.

Then Rebecca Sloan walked through the side door carrying a folder.

“Actually,” she said, “Miller did talk.”

Behind her came two federal agents.

Leo went white.

That was the moment the kingmaker realized this wasn’t a mafia execution.

It was a federal case.

And suddenly, his expensive suit looked like prison clothing.

PART 6: Leo’s confession destroyed his power before federal agents moved

Leo stood so fast his chair crashed backward.

“You brought federal agents into this house?”

Gabriel remained seated.

“No.”

He glanced at me.

“She did.”

Technically, Rebecca had.

But Gabriel enjoyed the effect.

Two days earlier, I had told Rebecca I wanted protection.

Not Falcone protection.

Real protection.

She contacted federal authorities handling organized crime and public corruption.

Gabriel agreed after one brutal argument.

“If you want me alive,” I told him, “you don’t get to decide what kind of cage I live in.”

He stared at me for a long time.

Then said, “Fair.”

Now Leo looked at me like he wanted to erase me with his eyes.

“You little cleaning girl.”

There it was.

The contempt.

The thing men like him always reached for when they were losing.

I smiled.

“I found your thread.”

His face twisted.

“You don’t know what you stepped into.”

“I know you paid five million dollars to murder a man with sewing supplies.”

One agent placed photographs on the table.

Bank transfers.

Croft entering Leo’s club.

The succession contract.

Deleted messages.

Then Rebecca played the audio.

Dr. Croft’s voice.