Victor Kane Asked for No Forgiveness
Chapter 09 - Victor Kane Asked for No Forgiveness
Victor agreed to meet in a church.
Stella chose the location.
Jonah objected.
Then remembered he had agreed to stop making every decision.
The church was empty except for a woman arranging flowers near the altar.
Victor entered alone.
No wet coat this time.
No armed men.
The scar across his throat looked older in daylight.
Jonah faced him from the center aisle.
Stella stood several feet away.
Frankie remained outside.
Victor looked at the wheelchair.
Not mockingly.
Sadly.
“You saw the footage.”
Jonah’s voice was flat.
“Yes.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“You wouldn’t have believed me.”
“Try.”
Victor almost smiled.
“You were raised by Anthony Navarro.”
“That is not an answer.”
“It is part of one.”
Jonah’s hand tightened.
Stella watched his breathing.
Controlled.
Good.
Victor sat in the pew opposite.
“I knew your mother.”
Jonah looked at him.
“How?”
Victor stared at the stained glass.
“I loved her.”
Silence.
“Was I yours?”
Victor’s face changed.
“I don’t know.”
Jonah laughed once.
“Convenient.”
“She refused a test.”
“Anthony?”
“Knew we had been together.”
“Why raise me?”
“Because by then she had chosen him.”
Victor’s eyes settled on Jonah.
“And because Anthony never surrendered what he considered his.”
Stella felt the cruelty in the sentence.
Jonah absorbed it without moving.
“The shooting.”
Victor nodded.
“I asked you to meet because I had proof Luca was selling harbor routes.”
“Why help me?”
“Because Luca had started working with men even I would not work with.”
“That sounds like a low bar.”
“It was.”
“Matteo?”
“Alive.”
“You knew.”
“Yes.”
Jonah’s eyes hardened.
“Everyone did but me.”
“Not everyone.”
“Enough.”
Victor accepted it.
“Matteo contacted me a month before the shooting.”
“Why?”
“He needed access to Luca’s outside network.”
“You gave it.”
“Yes.”
“And then invaded my house six months later.”
Victor looked toward Stella.
“That was theater.”
Stella almost stood.
“The guns seemed committed to the role.”
“They were unloaded.”
She stared.
“What?”
“The chambers were empty.”
“Frankie had a pistol pointed at him.”
“No round chambered.”
“You expect me to be grateful?”
“No.”
Good answer.
Victor continued.
“I needed Luca’s observer inside your house to report that I had come for the harbor ledgers.”
Jonah became still.
“You knew there was an observer.”
“Yes.”
“Who?”
“I didn’t know.”
“Then you risked Stella.”
Victor looked at her.
“Yes.”
There it was.
Stella leaned forward.
“Do not apologize unless you understand what for.”
“I used your fear to sell a story.”
“Yes.”
“I assumed Jonah’s security would contain it.”
“You assumed.”
“Yes.”
“And if they hadn’t?”
Victor looked away.
“That is the part I cannot excuse.”
Good.
Jonah’s voice went cold.
“If you ever use her again—”
Stella looked at him.
Jonah stopped.
Corrected.
“If you ever use anyone in my house again, you deal with me.”
Better.
Victor nodded.
“The key I gave you.”
“Locker 317.”
“Yes.”
“Why Patrick’s locker?”
“Because Luca never found what was inside.”
Frankie had found it empty.
Stella frowned.
“Frankie said it was cleared.”
“It was.”
Victor looked at her.
“The locker was a decoy.”
“Then the key?”
“Opens the false back panel.”
Stella stared.
Of course.
Patrick Quinn.
Fishing rods.
Audits.
Hidden compartments.
“Where is the key now?”
Victor looked at Jonah.
“You had it when Frankie found you.”
Jonah’s eyes narrowed.
“I remember waking in surgery.”
“You were conscious in the ambulance.”
“I don’t remember.”
“The midazolam.”
Stella felt cold.
Somebody had sedated Jonah after he received the key.
“Who was in the ambulance?” she asked.
Victor answered.
“Frankie.”
Jonah’s face changed.
Stella felt the room tilt again.
“Frankie took the key.”
“No.”
Victor shook his head.
“I saw him hand it to a paramedic.”
“Name?”
“Couldn’t see.”
Jonah took out his phone.
Called Frankie.
No answer.
Again.
Nothing.
Stella’s pulse climbed.
Frankie never ignored Jonah.
Victor stood.
“You need to go.”
“Why?”
“Because if Frankie is not answering, Luca knows we met.”
Jonah looked at Stella.
She was already moving.
Outside, Frankie’s SUV remained at the curb.
Empty.
Driver door open.
Phone on the pavement.
No blood.
No struggle.
On the passenger seat sat a red plastic tag.
317.
But no key.
Stella picked it up with a handkerchief.
Then Jonah’s phone rang.
Unknown number.
He answered.
A man said:
“Jonah.”
Not Frankie.
Luca Navarro.
“I have your security chief.”
Jonah’s face became stone.
Luca continued.
“And I finally have Patrick Quinn’s key.”
Stella stared.
Then Luca added:
“Bring me the woman.”
Jonah looked at Stella.
His eyes changed.
“No.”
Luca laughed softly.
“Then Frankie dies.”
Jonah’s hand tightened on the phone.
Stella understood exactly what the old Jonah would have done.
Choose.
Trade one person to save another.
Control the board.
Move the pieces.
Instead Jonah looked directly at her and said:
May you like
“It is not my decision to make.”
And Stella realized he had finally learned the lesson everyone else in their lives had failed.
