Chương 15
“Yes.”
“And crimes you committed.”
“Yes.”
Anna rested her hands in her lap. “You could blame everything on him.”
“I could.”
“Would people believe you?”
“Some.”
“Would you?”
Victor looked at the untouched pillows.
“No.”
Footsteps approached. Evelyn appeared in the hallway holding a clipboard.
“Anna, David needs—” She stopped when she saw Victor. “Am I interrupting a murder or a romance?”
Anna stood too quickly. “Neither.”
Victor said, “She once slept in my bed.”
Anna stared at him.
Evelyn looked from one to the other. “That did not clarify things.”
“It was pneumonia,” Anna said.
“Usually is,” Evelyn replied, and walked away.
Anna covered her face with one hand.
Victor felt something unfamiliar move through his chest. It took him a moment to identify it as amusement.
She pointed at him. “Never say that again.”
“You did.”
“With a gun near my face.”
“That part seemed unnecessary to repeat.”
Anna headed toward the hallway.
At the door, she turned back. “Cooperate.”
Victor’s expression settled.
“Is that an order?”
“No. It’s the only advice I have that doesn’t come with truffle fries.”
She left him in the room.
Victor signed the cooperation agreement the next morning.
It did not absolve him. Nina made that clear on every page. He agreed to provide records, identify financial structures, explain his authorizations, and testify truthfully regarding Dominic’s control of the vendor network. In exchange, prosecutors would consider the value of his cooperation when determining charges and recommendations. No promise covered violence unrelated to the financial case.
“You may lose companies,” Nina said.
“I know.”
“Property.”
“I know.”
“Freedom.”
Victor looked at the signature line. “I know.”
“You cannot take this back when it becomes humiliating.”
He signed.
Agents arrived at the Russo office before noon. They copied files, seized devices, and interviewed staff. News vans gathered outside by evening. Photographs of Victor leaving federal court from years earlier returned to television screens.
This time the captions included wage theft, insurance fraud, shell companies, and organized crime.
The public story flattened everyone.
Victor became either a ruthless boss exposed by vulnerable workers or a reforming criminal betrayed by his lieutenant. Anna became “the maid in the mafia mansion,” though no reporter knew about the bed until someone inside Lakeshore leaked it. Thomas became “her dying brother,” a phrase he hated because he was not dying that week.
Evelyn was described as a whistleblower even though she had complained for years without anyone listening.
Mrs. Bell was called a mastermind in one article and a victim in another.
Dominic disappeared.
A federal warrant was issued after he failed to appear through counsel and evidence linked him to attempted witness intimidation. His photograph spread across local news.
Victor’s cooperation agreement became public through court filings. Men who had worked for him began choosing sides. Two restaurants closed after suppliers refused deliveries. A parking contract was canceled. Someone fired shots into the windows of a Russo-owned office at three in the morning.
No one was hurt.
Victor moved Anna and Thomas from the hotel after the address leaked online. This time Anna did not refuse protection, but she chose the location: a furnished apartment leased by David’s firm near Thomas’s dialysis center. The security officer remained in the lobby.
Victor was not given the apartment number.
He found that more difficult than he admitted.
Anna called him after the first news report.
“You told them I slept in your bed?”
“No.”
“Then who did?”
“Dominic knew.”
“So did the guards.”
“Leo doesn’t talk.”
“Raymond?”
“Raymond knows what happens when people talk.”
Anna was silent.
Victor heard his own words and closed his eyes.
“I mean he’s loyal,” he said.
“That was not better.”
“No.”
Thomas spoke in the background. “Ask him if the gun detail was necessary.”
Anna covered the phone. “Stop reading comments.”
“They think you seduced him.”
Victor said, “Give me the names.”
Anna returned to the call. “You are not threatening strangers on the internet.”
“I only asked for names.”
“That sentence has a history.”
Victor stood at his office window, looking down at reporters on the sidewalk. “Do you need anything?”
“No.”
“Thomas?”
“No.”
“Security?”
“Fine.”
“Food?”
“We know how food works.”
He had run out of practical questions.
Anna’s voice softened. “Are you okay?”
Victor looked at the agents carrying boxes through his lobby.
“No.”
“Good.”
He almost laughed. “Good?”
“You would be frightening if you were okay.”
“I’m always frightening.”
“You’re currently asking whether I have groceries.”
“People can be afraid of hunger.”
“That was almost normal.”
“Don’t become disrespectful.”
“Too late.”
The call ended without either of them saying goodbye.
Dominic remained missing for six days.
On the seventh, Thomas received a message from an unknown number containing a photograph of Anna entering the dialysis center. Beneath it were four words.
TELL RUSSO TO WITHDRAW.
Thomas deleted the message before showing Anna.
She discovered it because he began insisting she stay inside during treatments. When she asked why, he lied badly. She checked his recently deleted messages while he slept.
Their argument lasted twenty minutes.
“You promised you’d stop going through my phone,” Thomas said.
“You hid a threat.”
“I was handling it.”
“How?”
“By not making you panic.”
“I am now panicking with less time.”
“You make everything about your responsibility.”
“You make everything dangerous so I have to.”
Victor arrived after Anna called David, who called Nina, who called him despite instructions to let law enforcement respond first.
He entered the apartment and found Thomas standing near the kitchen while Anna blocked the door.
“I’m not going anywhere,” Thomas said.
“Security is moving you,” Victor replied.
“You don’t live here.”
“Neither will you for the next hour.”
Anna turned on Victor. “Stop.”
“He was threatened.”
“He is not luggage.”
Thomas pointed at her. “Thank you.”
“You’re still an idiot.”
“Less thank you.”
May you like
Victor forced his voice lower. “Agents want both of you relocated until they trace the number.”
Thomas folded his arms. “Every time something happens, people move me into a different room. Nobody asks what treatment I miss or whether the new place has a refrigerator for medication.”
