Chapter 17 - Dominic Chose Evidence Over Revenge for the First Time

Victor expected Dominic to arrive angry.

So Dominic arrived disciplined.

At ten the next morning, he sat with Agent Chen, Eleanor Price, Salvatore Moretti, Marco, and Sadie in a federal operations room. A live map of Pier 17 covered one wall.

Chen had arranged tactical teams around the perimeter.

No one would move until Rosa was confirmed alive.

Dominic hated every second of waiting.

“Victor asked for the original ledgers,” Price said.

“He gets copies,” Dominic replied.

“He may check.”

“He can check.”

Sadie looked at the case on the table.

The copies were nearly perfect, aged paper reproduced from high-resolution scans. The real ledgers were already in federal custody.

The compromised-phone decoy worked.

At 10:18, a surveillance team reported two vehicles positioned along the southern route Dominic was supposedly taking.

Victor had men waiting.

“That confirms he is still monitoring the old phone,” Chen said.

Dominic nodded.

Salvatore leaned against the wall.

“You could end him today.”

Chen glared.

“Legally,” Salvatore added.

“No,” Dominic said. “I could have ended him a dozen times if ending meant killing.”

Sadie looked at him.

The words mattered.

At 10:43, Victor sent a video.

Rosa sat in a chair inside a warehouse office at the pier. Her hands were tied in front of her, but she appeared conscious.

A newspaper beside her showed that morning’s date.

Victor’s voice came from behind the camera.

“Bring the books. Come alone. Noon.”

Rosa looked directly into the lens.

“Dominic, do not bring the blue coat. It was your father’s and I never liked it.”

The video ended.

Dominic stared at the blank screen.

“What does that mean?” Chen asked.

“I don’t know.”

Sadie did.

She had spent three days listening to Rosa tell stories while recovering. One had involved Michael wearing a blue work coat when Dominic was a boy. Rosa hated it because its inside pocket had torn, and Michael kept losing keys through the lining.

“Pocket,” Sadie said.

Dominic looked at her.

“The blue coat. She is telling you to look for a pocket.”

“On what?”

“In the video.”

They replayed it.

Rosa’s hands rested in her lap.

Behind her hung a worker’s jacket.

The left pocket bulged.

Chen enlarged the image.

A radio antenna protruded from it.

“Good,” she said. “She is telling us there is a radio in the room.”

A technician identified the likely frequency band.

Agents began scanning.

Within minutes, they picked up encrypted traffic from Pier 17.

Victor’s men were discussing positions.

One voice mentioned “the fuel line.”

Another said, “If Castile stalls, light the east bay.”

Sadie’s stomach tightened.

Another fire.

Victor had returned to the same method because destruction had always served him: destroy evidence, kill witnesses, create chaos, blame the enemy.

Chen mapped the transmissions.

“We have at least nine armed men.”

Marco looked at Dominic.

“Still want to wait?”

“Yes.”

Salvatore raised an eyebrow.

Dominic ignored him.

At 11:20, Price received confirmation that arrest warrants had been signed for Victor, Bellini, Vassallo, and three others on conspiracy, attempted murder, arson, bribery, and racketeering charges.

The legal net closed.

Dominic read the warrant bearing his uncle’s name.

His first instinct was not satisfaction.

It was grief.

Victor had taught him to drive.

Victor had stood beside him at his father’s funeral.

Victor had been the man Dominic called when a decision felt too large.

None of that was erased by what Victor had done.

That was the worst part.

Sadie stood beside him.

“You can love who someone was to you and still stop who they became.”

He looked at her.

“Rosa said something similar.”

“She is smarter than both of us.”

“No argument.”

At 11:42, Dominic put on a wire.

Chen checked it.

“You follow the plan.”

“Yes.”

“You do not pursue if Victor runs.”

Dominic did not answer fast enough.

“Mr. Castile.”

“I heard you.”

“That is not what I asked.”

Sadie crossed her arms.

Dominic looked from one woman to the other.

“Yes.”

Chen nodded.

Sadie handed him the case of copied ledgers.

His fingers brushed hers.

“Bring her back,” she said.

“I will.”

“Bring yourself back too.”

That made him pause.

For most of his life, Dominic had understood protection as something he did for other people.

Sadie had just asked him to survive as if his life belonged partly to a future beyond the organization.

He closed his hand around the case.

Then walked toward Pier 17 without a gun.

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For a man raised to believe power meant always carrying one, that was the most radical choice he had made.

At the door, Dominic looked back once. Sadie was standing beside the map, not asking him to be fearless and not pretending the danger was smaller than it was. She simply expected him to honor the choice he had already made. Strange as it felt, that expectation steadied him more than any weapon ever had.