The Silent Order

by Melanie Dobson

  “You can leave too, Antonio. Right now.”

  “I can’t.”

  “One day, you’ll be the one found in a lake or shot in the head.” She didn’t care that she was begging. He had to understand. “And it won’t be worth it.”

  He rested his hand on her shoulder, his face resigned, and she knew there was nothing else she could say. Only death could end this life he’d chosen.

  “It’s good to see you, Nikki.”

  She nodded. She’d never gotten to say good-bye to him when she ran all those years ago. Never got to thank him.

  “You were the one who stopped them, weren’t you?” she asked.

  “Stopped them?”

  “From killing me at Mangiamo’s.”

  His gaze fell to the ground. “I’m not the same person anymore.”

  “But you are still my brother.”

  A black automobile drove up the driveway, and Antonio didn’t speak again until it parked beside three other vehicles. The driver and one other man tipped their hats to Antonio as they walked toward the barn.

  They must wonder what Antonio was doing, talking in the yard with an Amish woman, but they didn’t comment on it. Her brother waited until the screen door slammed before he spoke again.

  “I tried to stop them,” he mumbled. “From hurting both of you.”

  For a moment, she caught the glimpse of sorrow in his eyes. The guilt. It was the same burden she’d carried with her for almost a decade. If she’d told her sister she wouldn’t go with her to the restaurant, Liz wouldn’t have gone alone. And if she hadn’t run that night, she might have stopped them from killing her.

  His voice was barely above a whisper when he spoke again. “There are some men inside that house who wouldn’t hesitate to kill you if they realized who you are. I didn’t help you back then so they could kill you today.”

  “Come with me,” she offered one more time, but Antonio shook his head.

  He kissed both of her cheeks, and she watched her brother walk away.

  *

  At the north side of the barn, Rollin threw a second rock toward the stone springhouse and the soldiers guarding the door finally noticed. His hand on his gun, one of the men moved away from the door to inspect the sound. Rollin threw one more rock for good measure and then ran toward the tree.

  Swinging himself onto the first limb, he climbed the rest of the tree as quickly as he could. And carefully. The daylight blew his cover, and if the Cardano men found him now, the entire night would be ruined. In 1926 they’d had dozens of police officers trailing the Mafia elite through their city, but now it was just him. If Antonio and the others discovered he was alone, he wouldn’t be the one doing the chasing.

  When he stepped through the window, he scanned the loft, and his gaze rested on where Katie spent the night beside him, asleep on his chest. He would never let Katie come with him tonight, but he wished she were here. He didn’t want to be in this fight without her.

  If he survived tonight, he would have to make a decision and so would she. A decision that could change the direction of both their lives.

  Moving to the corner, he sat down in the pile of hay. Katie was so young when she became pregnant with Henry. If her boyfriend was such a good man, why did she leave him? It didn’t make any sense. If Katie had been his, he never would have left her.

  A pigeon flew across the loft and startled him. It flew to the other side of the gables and then back toward him again as his mind wandered to what it might be like to marry Katie Lehman. He’d never seriously considered marriage after he proposed to Liz, and especially not since he became a detective. But he’d never met a woman like Katie before.

  Would she ever consider leaving the Amish community to be with him? And if she did, could they marry?

  He tipped his head back against the hay and closed his eyes, thinking about what it would be like to wake up with Katie in his arms every morning. And go to bed with her every night.

  She’d grown up with a father who’d manipulated and mistreated her, but if she’d have him, he would treat her with the kindness she deserved. He would love her with all his heart.

  He shifted onto his side, trying to focus his mind back on his work tonight, but his mind wandered back to its dangerous dance of possibilities. He thought about Katie swinging on a porch alongside him. Their porch. They were holding hands and laughing together as they watched Henry chase fireflies in the front yard.

  If he ever married Katie, he wouldn’t just become a husband overnight. He would be a father as well. The thought of rearing a boy like Henry should overwhelm him, but it didn’t. Instead, it exhilarated him. The responsibilities of fatherhood aside, he would revel in the role. He could fish with Henry and play softball with him and perhaps even climb trees. He could even find someone who could take him and Henry flying.

  He shook his head. He was fooling himself to think it would work.

  First of all, Katie hated any idea of aggression or progress, and he represented both. She would never allow him to take Henry flying or talk to him about his work. Second, he couldn’t risk having a wife or a child with his line of work. Even though some of the detectives had wives and children, they were forever afraid of what could happen to their loved ones.

  A hay straw poked his face when he moved again, and he pushed it away.

  Even if Katie were willing to allow him in her and Henry’s life and even if he ignored the risks of marrying her, he could never take her back to Cleveland with him. He might put both Club Cardano and his son in jail tonight along with Malloy. But there were plenty of others who would seek revenge on their behalf.

  As long as he was a detective in Cleveland, he had to remain a single man.

  CHAPTER 30

  Henry rested his head on her shoulder, and Katie savored the moment. It was their nightly ritual to sit on the ottoman and read from the Bible, but the past few days had been anything but normal for them.

  This afternoon she’d known it would take a miracle for Antonio to ride away with her, but she believed in miracles. She also believed God gave second chances to people who were willing to forsake their sins and ask forgiveness.

  Her brother wasn’t willing to accept this gift, but tonight she prayed silently that Rollin would take it. And that as God’s forgiveness poured over him, he also would forgive others, because vengeance against those who’d wronged him could never be satisfied, no matter how long or hard he fought. Only forgiveness would satisfy.

  Henry picked the Bible off the coffee table in front of them and handed it to her.

  “Can you read about David?” he asked. “David and Goliath.”

  She flipped through the pages. “I’d rather read the story of Ruth and Boaz.”

  “Please, Mamm,” he persisted.

  “Boaz was a strong man too.”

  “But I like King David.”

  Sighing, she turned to the book of 1 Samuel. It was Henry’s favorite story in the Bible, and she couldn’t tell him she wouldn’t read it. After all, it was God’s story about a warrior who’d served him. A man who’d failed God in terrible ways and yet he was still called a man after God’s own heart.

  Even as she began to read the story of David flinging his stone at Goliath, her mind wandered. Long before she came to live with the Lehmans, she abhorred violence. So many men had been killed at her father’s hands, and even as a girl, she hated the rare times that her father patted her head or her shoulder. It was like the blood that contaminated his hands contaminated her as well.

  Jesus said the peacemakers would be blessed, not the warriors, but as she read the story of David again to her son, she wondered if some people had to make peace by going to war. David had to kill Goliath so the Philistines would flee instead of conquering the rest of the Israelites.

  Did Rollin have to defeat the Cardano family to keep thousands of others on the east side of Cleveland safe from harm? To keep the peace?

  As Goliath fell under David’s solitar
y stone in the story, she thought of Rollin alone at the barn tonight. Fighting the mighty Cardanos with the equivalent of a stone. He could never defeat them with his own power, but with God’s strength behind him, perhaps he could defeat them alone.

  After she finished the story, she led Henry upstairs to the mat beside her bed again and scratched his back until he fell asleep.

  Rollin told Isaac that he was keeping the predators away, like Isaac did when one attacked his animals. If God could use a warrior like David to protect those He loved, why couldn’t he use a man like Rollin Wells?

  If only he would let go of his anger and surrender his pain—and his life—to the God who loved him. The God who could offer him peace and forgiveness and take away the guilt that crippled his heart.

  Rollin might fight his battle with pistols and shotguns, but she had a different weapon.

  In the darkness she knelt beside her bed.

  She didn’t pray for protection for Rollin Wells. She prayed he would surrender.

  *

  The men were gathered in the barn across the driveway to hear his father’s proposal. Some of them had been waiting for hours, but his father still didn’t bother to come down the stairs. Everyone knew how much Salvatore liked to make people wait. Time was power, and he believed no one’s time was as valuable as his.

  Antonio didn’t want the men to wait. He wanted them to work.

  He paced across the living room floor again and glanced up at the mantel clock. It was almost eleven, and all the pieces were in place. Raymond was waiting in a separate bedroom upstairs and Heyward Malloy was hidden in one of the automobiles. His henchmen were by the doors, watching for trouble. All the guests had agreed to leave their weapons in their vehicles for the meeting, but most of them would probably try to sneak in a pistol…or two. His guards agreed to search everyone except Raymond…and Salvatore.

  His father would have a weapon, but he wouldn’t be prepared to use it on his brother.

  After Raymond got rid of Salvatore, Antonio was ready to explain the new vision for their union. A vision that would take them through the next decade. As long as he was alive.

  Salvatore didn’t know Raymond and Heyward were here, nor did he know all that encompassed this new direction for the union. It would be good for him to be surprised. And once he found out what was happening, it would be too late for Club Cardano to do anything except run.

  The clock chimed, and Antonio stopped walking. He sat down on the piano bench and pounded a few notes on the keys.

  Nothing had prepared him for the surprise he received today when Nikki walked back into his life. He’d never expected to see his sister again, and then she was there in front of him, wearing the garb of an Amish woman.

  He shook off the fear that it was a bad omen to have Nikki near. The last time he’d seen her, everything went amuck. He couldn’t risk failure tonight.

  But at least, after all these years, he knew Nikki was all right. And Henry. Almost every day, he’d thought about her and wondered where she had gone. And whether she’d taken Henry with her or if Salvatore had taken the boy’s life.

  His parents had never spoken of Nikki or Liz again, at least he didn’t hear them mention their names. After the funeral, they all pretended both Cardano girls were dead.

  That night at Mangiamo’s, he’d told Heyward and his uncles to stop, but no one listened to him. He wasn’t the one who saved Nikki’s life. It was Liz who stepped in front of her and told her to run.

  In the confusion, they’d shot Liz and started to chase Nikki, but he blocked the entrance to the storm door so they could make a plan before they went blazing through Murray Hill, waking up the neighbors. Heyward was so desperate to stop Nikki from telling anyone she’d seen him with the Cardanos, he’d almost shot Antonio, but even as Liz lay dying on the ground before them, Heyward finally listened to reason.

  Heyward said he would catch Nikki by himself and convince her not to talk, but none of them believed he would let her live. Not after what she’d seen. And his father didn’t do a thing to stop Heyward.

  In those short minutes that they’d talked about what to do with Nikki, his sister disappeared, and somehow she’d managed to take Henry with her. After the fire, he’d searched Murray Hill alongside the rest of the men, but even as he tramped through the trees looking for her, he secretly celebrated Nikki’s escape. Somehow she’d broken free from the clutches of their silence and disappeared into a different kind of order.

  He played a few notes of a jazz tune and then spun around on the seat.

  This afternoon Nikki had come to him with the offer that he could break free as well. He’d thought about running before, but he was too close to the top to walk away. Tonight the entire organization would be under his control, and he’d put the fear of God into anyone who dared question his authority.

  He stood up, and with a glance out the window, he saw more than a dozen black automobiles lined up beside the barn. These men would be leaving long before daylight, with a new direction for the future. And new leadership.

  Most of the men hated Salvatore, but they’d had no choice but to work with him on some level. Tonight all of that would change. Tonight they would organize like his father suggested, but not on his father’s terms.

  He would cement in their minds that he wasn’t going to mess around in this new union. His father would be gone after tonight, and so would Uncle Ray. He’d be the only one left standing, and after the fall-out, he would be in charge of the corn sugar racket in Cleveland.

  Footsteps pounded down the stairs, and his father’s presence overpowered the living area. “You can’t play a lick of piano,” Salvatore clipped.

  “I wasn’t playing for you.”

  His father stepped toward the door. “Is everyone here?”

  “They are.”

  “Then why are you standing there like an idiot?”

  Antonio opened the front door and his father bumped him as he pushed by.

  The door slammed behind them, and Antonio smiled. The lion was leading himself to the slaughter.

  *

  Cigar smoke tickled Rollin’s nose, and the barn was an eerie quiet as he stretched his arms. The black of night jelled into the cracks above him and light glowed below, but there was no sound of voices or shuffling of chairs or even the clearing of a throat. Gilbert and the Sugarcreek police were someplace in the blackness outside. Or at least he hoped they were. Without them, he would be dead.

  Rollin snuck to the side of the loft. Below him about thirty men sat in stony silence, a cloud of smoke hovering above their heads. At the far end of the barn was a platform and podium, and directly under him, Rollin could see part of a table overflowing with food. None of the men moved toward the food.

  He moved away from the edge, back into the shadows. These men weren’t friends. They were competitors, forced together under the leadership of a floundering union that pitted one man against another. An eye for an eye. Each of them was probably packing at least one gun under his suit, and if someone started shooting, the aftermath would be devastating.

  He fingered his gun. Maybe he should be the one to start the shooting.

  Isaac Lehman had questioned Rollin’s motives for capturing the Cardanos, and the man was right to ask. He wasn’t seeking only justice for the Cardanos. He wanted revenge.

  Something clicked—not in the barn below but in his mind. Something he’d heard as a boy, seated between his parents on the rare Sunday they went to church. The preacher had said that in God’s eyes, there was no difference between someone hating his brother and killing them. Both hatred and murder were sins, and the reverend said they were all sinners.

  All of them were sinners.

  How he’d hated the Cardanos over the years, enough to kill them if he hadn’t been a cop seeking his revenge for Liz’s death instead. He wanted to do more than see one or two of them die. He wanted to see the entire Cardano kingdom destroyed and their racketeering networks ripped apa
rt.

  What if the reverend was right? Salvatore and Antonio and the others had cheated, killed, and thumbed their noses at the laws of their land, but they weren’t the only ones who needed God’s forgiveness. All the anger that burned within him needed to be forgiven as well.

  But who was he apart from this anger? Apart from the man who’d spent his life intent on crushing the Cardano family?

  Below him, several of the men looked toward the door, and Rollin caught his breath as Club Cardano strode into the room with Antonio in his shadow. The barn doors closed.

  Rollin hadn’t seen Salvatore since his appearance in the courtroom. His shoulders were high, the notorious walking stick secure in his hands. He commanded the attention of everyone in the room without saying a word.

  Still, he’d aged since Rollin saw him last, like he’d spent the last three years doing hard labor instead of running his organization.

  Salvatore shook the hands of the men on the front row as he walked toward the platform with Antonio close behind him. On the stage, Salvatore handed his walking stick to his son and put both hands on the podium.

  “We meet tonight as men of honor who know the power of an alliance.”

  The men of honor sat in silence as Salvatore presented his plan to organize the loose ties of their organization. Several men nodded as he talked about increasing each of their businesses, but others leaned back, crossing their arms. If they organized, there would be much discussion about who would take charge of the entire state. Rollin had no doubt Salvatore would nominate himself as boss.

  The barn doors shook at the side of the room, and Rollin’s eyes shifted to the left along with the rest of the men. When the elusive Raymond Cardano stepped into the room, the men gasped. But Uncle Ray didn’t look the least bit afraid of his big brother.

  CHAPTER 31

  “Glad to hear you’re finally going to organize.” Uncle Ray’s voice was an eerie calm as he walked toward the platform.

  Salvatore laughed. “I thought you’d gotten yourself killed by now,” he said to his brother. “Are you planning to join up with us?”