Chapter 4 - The Safe Beneath the Cellar
Dante didn't let Piper or Josie leave. Within twenty minutes, the entire private club was locked down. Outside, black SUVs with tinted windows blocked the alleyways of East Market Street.
Josie was sitting in a leather armchair in Dante’s private office on the second floor, sipping hot tea while two armed guards stood outside the heavy oak door. She looked terrified, but the sight of high-end Italian leather and unlimited espresso seemed to be keeping her panic at bay.
In the adjoining library, Dante stood before a massive wall of mahogany bookshelves. He pressed a hidden catch behind a leather-bound volume of Dante Alighieri’s Inferno. With a quiet click, a section of the shelving swung inward, revealing a steel safe embedded in the reinforced brick wall.
""What is that?"" Piper asked, standing near the antique desk.
""My father’s private ledger,"" Dante replied, spinning the combination dial with practiced ease. ""Before he died three years ago, he warned me that the river alliance was rotting. He said one of our old partners had made a deal with an outside cartel to flood the shipping routes with contraband. When my father refused to participate, his car went off the Clark Memorial Bridge.""
Piper caught her breath. The official police report three years ago had ruled the elder Moretti’s death an unfortunate accident caused by black ice.
""They murdered him?"" she whispered.
""They did,"" Dante said coldly, pulling a thick, worn leather journal from the safe. ""And my father had one ally who kept records for him. A civilian who owned a network of refrigerated transport vans that could move goods without suspicion.""
Piper’s world tilted on its axis.
Refrigerated transport vans.
""Monroe Florals,"" Piper whispered, her voice trembling. ""My father.""
Dante opened the ledger and turned to a page filled with handwritten dates and addresses from five years ago. At the bottom of each page was a signature she would recognize anywhere: Walter Monroe’s elegant, flourishing script.
""Your father wasn't involved in our business, Piper,"" Dante said gently, seeing the horror washing over her face. ""He was a good man. When he realized that Marcus Vance’s shell companies were using floral distribution routes to smuggle illegal narcotics into the state, he came to my father to blow the whistle. They gathered evidence together. But before they could take it to federal prosecutors, my father was killed.""
""And then... then my dad got sick,"" Piper said, tears stinging the corners of her eyes. ""His memory started fading so fast. The doctors called it early-onset Alzheimer's. But... was it?""
Dante looked at her with profound sorrow in his gray eyes. ""We found traces of heavy neurotoxins in my father’s autopsy. Subtle. Undetectable unless you specifically screen for industrial solvents. Whoever silenced my father likely targeted Walter too. They didn't want him dead immediately; they just needed his mind destroyed so he couldn't testify.""
A wave of white-hot fury erupted inside Piper’s chest, burning away every ounce of fear she had harbored since stepping into Dante’s orbit. Her father hadn't just been stolen by tragic biology; he had been targeted, poisoned, and systematically ruined by monsters who wanted to protect their shipping empire.
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""Camille,"" Piper choked out, the puzzle pieces clicking together with sickening precision. ""Camille Everly bought my father’s client list for pennies on the dollar when we went bankrupt. She took over all his corporate contracts. And today... she personally insisted that I take this event.""
Dante closed the ledger with a heavy thud. ""Camille isn't just an event planner. She’s Marcus Vance’s sister.""
