Page 128 of The Hitman's Secret Baby
"Who said that?"
His voice cracks. "Everyone. The city. The eastern ports. Even the old hands in Sicily have stopped calling him by name. They say he's too old. Too slow. That Nuova Speranza isn't his anymore. That it belongs to ghosts now."
I reach out and grab him by the collar, yanking him toward me so fast he doesn't have time to react.
"Ghosts?" I snarl.
"Gotti," he gasps. "Cesare Gotti."
My grip tightens.
"You're sure of that name?"
"Yes," he chokes. "He's alive. He's building something. He's using our men. Our routes. Said someone on the inside is feeding him. I only heard pieces. I didn't know the whole picture. I swear it. I just wanted to survive."
My blade rests against his throat now. Not cutting. Not yet.
"You think betraying Luca Salvatore buys you survival?"
"I thought?—"
"You don't think," I cut him off. "You listen. And you beg."
He falls to his knees without being told. His hands tremble. He knows this is the end. But something in him still hopes. Still pleads.
"Please," he says. "Please, I can give you names. I can help."
"You've helped enough."
I pull the knife away from his neck.
For a moment, he thinks he's been spared.
Then I strike.
He slumps to the floor, blood blooming beneath him like a dark flower. I watch the light go out of his eyes. Only then do I let myself exhale. I take his phone, his ledgers, the keys to the lower docks. I wipe the knife clean with his sleeve and step over the body.
The cantina outside is quieter now. The sun has sunk into the ocean. The light is pale and cold. I walk down to the end of the dock, open the ledger beneath a rusted lamp, and scan the last shipments.
The marks are coded. Not official Salvatore inventory. But someone has forged the tags well. Whoever is behind this has help. From the inside.
Thirty years ago, Luca crushed the Gotti family. Dismantled them with surgical precision. They were too quiet, too clever, too greedy for their own good. Cesare vanished. Everyone assumed he was dead. But ghosts don't die. They wait. And now, one is walking through our house again.
I burn the ledger before I leave. Too dangerous to keep. But the truth is already scorched into memory.
By the time I return to the boat, it's full dark. The water churns low against the hull. I signal the pilot. Nuova Speranza rises against the night like a citadel built on bones. Lights glow faintly behind high windows. Guards nod as I pass through the gates, but their faces are drawn. Tired. I know that look. The estate is uneasy.
I make my way to the upper house. My boots echo through the marble halls. Luca is waiting in his study, the fire lit, the drink untouched. He looks up as I enter.
"Well?" he asks.
I close the door behind me and step into the firelight.
"Cesare Gotti is alive."
He says nothing, but his eyes go cold.
I continue. "Vasco was taking orders from an unnamed source. Shipments passed through under our seal, but they weren't ours. Arms. Documents. Possibly personnel. Vasco claimed the intel was coming from the inside. Someone is feeding Gotti information from within the estate."
