Chapter 4 - Echoes of Boston
Two hundred miles to the northeast, inside a mahogany-paneled study overlooking the Boston harbor, Uncle Gino poured himself a glass of twenty-year-old scotch. The room was dead silent except for the rhythmic ticking of a grandfather clock.
Standing before the mahogany desk was Sal "The Hammer" Marcone, Gino’s most brutal enforcer, sweating profusely despite the cool air conditioning.
“You mean to tell me,” Gino said softly, his voice barely above a whisper, “that my nephew—the heir to the entire Castellano empire—vanished into thin air, and none of my people can find him?”
“Boss, we checked every airport, every train station, every highway camera between here and Chicago,” Sal stammered, wringing his fedora in his massive hands. “He left his phone, his cards, his cars. It’s like he evaporated.”
Gino took a slow sip of his scotch, his eyes narrowing into cold, calculating slits. He remembered the look on Rocco’s face the night Ray Kesler died. He remembered the strange panic that had flashed across his own mind when Rocco mentioned Ray’s final letter.
“He didn't evaporate, Sal,” Gino said, his voice dripping with venom. “He went looking for ghosts.”
“Ghosts, boss?”
“Ray Kesler wasn't just a driver,” Gino muttered, setting his glass down with a sharp clack. “Thirty years ago, before I took over the family, Ray smuggled a newborn baby out of Boston during the war with the Irish syndicate. He swore on his mother’s grave that the kid was dead, that the bloodline was wiped clean.”
Gino stood up, walking slowly toward the floor-to-ceiling windows.
“If Rocco found Ray’s old safety deposit box, he found out the truth. He knows he isn't a Castellano by blood. He knows why his real parents were murdered.”
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Sal’s eyes widened in horror. “If the families find out he’s an outsider... the whole empire splits wide open.”
“Exactly,” Gino hissed, turning around with a face carved from granite. “Find him, Sal. Go to West Virginia. Check every small, forgotten mountain town in the Alleghenies. If Rocco is digging up the past, bury him before he tells the world whose blood is really on this family’s hands.”
