Chapter 12: The Gala, Part Two

"Brancato?" Jared said into the microphone, and his voice carried across the ballroom.

He stared at me from the stage.

"Mom, who is he talking about?"

I took my phone out of my clutch and typed a single word to Dario.

Now.

"Sit down, Jared," I said. "Not here. You'll hear it at a table."

"I'm the Chief Executive of this..."

"You are a man who sold something that isn't his."

Mr. Gallo came down the aisle on his cane, slowly, and his four men stayed at the doors.

"Signora, let's be civilized," he said.

"Your son has signed a letter of intent. Honor it tonight and you walk out of here with your daughter and your name."

"My name is on the building."

"Your father's name is on the river docks. I'd like those, and the warehouses that touch them."

"My father is dead."

"His family isn't," Mr. Gallo said. "And a girl in a gold dress should not have to see what happens next."

Alessia's hand closed on my wrist.

I heard the ballroom doors open behind us.

It was not a sound anybody else would have noticed.

I knew it, because I had grown up in rooms where that sound meant the next ten minutes were already decided.

Dario came down the center aisle with a dozen men behind him.

He wore a black suit, no coat, and his eyes were fixed on Mr. Gallo.

He did not look at the first row.

The Gallo man at the main door had stepped forward to stop him.

Two of Dario's men lifted him off his feet and set him against the wall without any hurry.

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