THE MAFIA'S OBSESSION

Chapter 2

Gabriel Reyes had spent six months preparing to enter the De Luca empire.

Six months of studying family photographs, financial records, shipping manifests, security arrangements, and police reports that had mysteriously disappeared from official databases.

Six months learning which members of the organization could be bribed, which could be threatened, and which would rather die than betray their employer.

He had memorized Alessandro De Luca's daily routine, his business associates, his known enemies, and the names of every person who had disappeared after crossing the family.

He knew Alessandro's favorite restaurant, the brand of his watch, and the fact that he never entered a room without identifying its exits.

What Gabriel had not prepared for was the man's smile.

It was an inconvenient detail.

An extremely inconvenient detail.

“You're distracted,” Elena Moretti observed.

Gabriel sat at the kitchen table, surrounded by photographs and printed documents.

His handler stood beside the window, her arms crossed.

“I'm working.”

“You've been staring at the same photograph for ten minutes.”

Gabriel turned the picture facedown.

“It's an important photograph.”

“It's a photograph of Alessandro De Luca.”

“Exactly.”

Elena sighed.

“You are not the first operative to find a target attractive.”

“I don't find him attractive.”

“Of course not.”

“He's arrogant.”

And he certainly had no intention of letting the son of a criminal family make him question the mission that had consumed the last year of his life.

Unfortunately, fate appeared to have other plans.

Three days later, Gabriel received an invitation.

It arrived at his apartment in a black envelope bearing a silver crest.

Inside was a single card.

Mr. Gabriel Reyes,

Mr. Alessandro De Luca requests the pleasure of your company at a private dinner this evening. Transportation will be provided.

At the bottom, in handwriting that was unmistakably Alessandro's, were six additional words.

Try not to disappear this time.

Gabriel stared at the invitation.

Then he called Elena.

“He found me.”

“Who?”

“Your favorite criminal.”

“Alessandro?”

“He sent an invitation.”

“Wonderful.”

“It's not wonderful.”

“Did you expect him to forget you?”

“I expected him to mind his own business.”

Elena laughed.

“Go to dinner.”

“Absolutely not.”

“You need access to the family. He's offering it to you.”

“He's offering me a trap.”

“Then don't walk into it unprepared.”

Gabriel looked at the invitation again.

He could refuse, but doing so would attract suspicion. Accepting meant entering the home of a man whose family had spent decades building an empire through violence.

It also meant getting closer to the evidence he needed.

He would attend.

He would remain professional.

He would collect information.

And he would leave before Alessandro's charm became another problem.

That evening, a black car collected Gabriel outside his apartment.

The De Luca mansion stood on a hill overlooking the sea, its pale stone walls illuminated by carefully positioned lights. Security cameras watched the driveway. Armed guards stood near the entrance.

Gabriel counted twelve visible guards before stepping inside.

He suspected there were twice as many hidden from view.

Alessandro waited in the entrance hall.

He wore a black suit, an open-collar white shirt, and a silver watch. His dark hair was neatly styled, and his expression suggested he had been expecting Gabriel for considerably longer than necessary.

“You came,” Alessandro said.

“I was curious.”

“About the dinner?”

“About the trap.”

Alessandro smiled.

“You wound me.”

“I doubt it.”

“Come. Dinner is getting cold.”

Gabriel followed him through the mansion.

The interior was luxurious without being ostentatious. Paintings decorated the walls, antique furniture occupied the spacious rooms, and large windows overlooked the dark sea.

Yet Gabriel noticed the security arrangements immediately.

The guards were positioned strategically. The doors had electronic locks. The study at the end of the corridor had a separate security system.

That study would be his primary target.

Alessandro noticed his attention.

“Something interesting?”

“Expensive paintings.”

“You're looking at the security panel.”

“Perhaps I admire the craftsmanship.”

“Perhaps you're a terrible liar.”

Gabriel turned toward him.

“Perhaps you invite strangers to dinner because you enjoy interrogating them.”

“Only the interesting ones.”

They entered the dining room.

A table had been prepared for two.

Gabriel stopped.

“Where is everyone?”

“Everyone?”

“Your family. Your associates. Your army of terrifying men.”

Alessandro pulled out a chair.

“Tonight, you're having dinner with me.”

“Why?”

“Must everything have a complicated explanation?”

“When a mafia boss invites me to his mansion, yes.”

Alessandro's expression changed slightly.

“Do you think I'm going to hurt you?”

Gabriel met his gaze.

“I think you could.”

For a moment, neither spoke.

Then Alessandro nodded.

“That is a fair answer.”

They sat.

The first course arrived, followed by wine Gabriel barely touched. Alessandro asked about his work, his family, and his reasons for moving to Palermo.

Gabriel answered carefully.

His cover story was simple. He was a financial consultant who had recently arrived in Sicily to explore business opportunities.

Alessandro listened without interrupting.

Too carefully.

“And your family?” Alessandro asked eventually.

“Gone.”

“I'm sorry.”

Gabriel looked down at his plate.

His parents had died when he was twenty, killed in a fire that investigators later connected to an illegal weapons operation. His younger brother, Daniel, had survived the fire but disappeared three years afterward.

Gabriel had never found him.

The agency had given him a purpose when grief had nearly destroyed him.

He rarely spoke about his family.

“It's a long story,” he said.

“I understand.”

Alessandro did not press him.

That surprised Gabriel more than any question could have.

After dinner, Alessandro offered him a tour of the mansion.

Gabriel accepted because refusing would have been suspicious.

They passed a library, a music room, and several locked offices. Alessandro explained the history of the estate, occasionally making jokes about his father's terrible taste in furniture.

For a few minutes, he seemed almost ordinary.

Then they reached the study.

The door was locked.

“Your office?” Gabriel asked.

“My father's.”

“Does he still work here?”

“No.”

Something in Alessandro's voice discouraged further questions.

Gabriel studied the lock.

Alessandro watched him.

“Are you planning to steal something?”

“Should I?”

“You'd have to get past me.”

Gabriel smiled faintly.

“Perhaps I'd enjoy the challenge.”

Their eyes met.

The silence became uncomfortable for reasons neither acknowledged.

Alessandro stepped aside.

“It's getting late. I'll have my driver take you home.”

Gabriel nodded.

As they walked toward the entrance, Alessandro spoke again.

“Gabriel?”

“Yes?”

“Whatever you're running from, you don't have to face it alone.”

The words struck harder than Gabriel expected.

He wanted to laugh, to make another sarcastic remark, to remind Alessandro that they were practically strangers.

Instead, he said nothing.

The car carried him home.

Inside his apartment, Gabriel immediately opened his laptop and connected to the agency's secure system.

He had collected several useful details about the mansion's security. He had also discovered that Alessandro kept his father's old business records in the locked study.

But the most important discovery was something he had not expected.

Alessandro had given him a genuine opportunity to return.

No guards followed him. No threats arrived. No demands accompanied the invitation.

The man had simply offered him dinner.

Gabriel rubbed his face.

This was precisely why he needed to remember the mission.

He opened the folder containing the original evidence against the De Luca family.

Photographs appeared on the screen.

Shipping containers.

Weapons.

Dead men.

Among the documents was a photograph of a warehouse fire taken eleven years earlier.

Gabriel stopped breathing.

The image showed a building surrounded by emergency vehicles. A young man stood behind a police barrier, his face blurred by the camera's movement.

Gabriel enlarged the image.

The young man was Alessandro De Luca.

And suddenly, Gabriel wondered whether the man he had been ordered to destroy was also a victim of the empire he had inherited.