Chapter Seven: The Betrayal
Her brother arrived the next morning.
Michael Vance was six-foot-four, built like a linebacker, and had the kind of face that made people confess to things they hadn’t done.
He took one look at Dante and stopped walking.
“You,” Michael said.
“Me,” Dante agreed.
Elena stepped between them. “Michael. Listen to me.”
“I don’t need to listen. This is the man who broke your heart. Who disappeared without a word. Who made you cry for six months.”
“He left to save my life.”
Michael’s eyes narrowed.
“Show him the video,” Dante said quietly.
Elena pulled up the recording on her phone. Handed it to her brother.
Michael watched. His expression shifted from anger to confusion to something Elena had never seen before.
Guilt.
“I didn’t know,” he said when the video ended. “About the accident. The fire. The shooting. I thought it was random.”
“It wasn’t random,” Elena said. “And Marcus Valdez is going to kill us all if we don’t stop him.”
Michael looked at Dante.
“Why should I trust you?”
“You shouldn’t,” Dante said. “But you should trust your sister. And she trusts me.”
Michael’s jaw worked.
“I’ll make the call,” he said finally. “To my friend at Justice. But if this goes wrong—if anyone gets hurt because of you—”
“They won’t.”
Michael stared at him for a long moment. Then he nodded.
“Fine.”
He walked out of the room to make the call.
Elena let out a breath she didn’t know she’d been holding.
“That went better than expected.”
Dante almost smiled. “He still wants to kill me.”
“Probably. But he’ll wait until Marcus is in prison first.”
“Priorities.”
Elena laughed. It was the first time she’d laughed in days.
It felt good.
It felt dangerous.
It felt like falling in love again.
