Buying the Don

My brother owed a debt. The Don offered to erase it — for a wife. I said yes because I had no other move, and I wrote a two-year exit clause into a marriage contract like it was a lease. Alessio Vitale wears a wedding ring like armor. He gives me stolen paintings to authenticate and dinners I have to smile through. He thinks he bought a wife with a clean reputation. What he bought was a witness. The night I recognize a forged Caravaggio — the one that disappeared the week my mentor died — I stop playing. I start collecting evidence. I start planning my exit. And then Alessio leans across the kitchen table and tells me he already knows who killed my mentor. It was his father. And he wants my help ending him.