Chapter 34

Keres regains consciousness in a sterile room at the Moretti mansion, tethered to a drip, with Ace and Romeo at her bedside. Romeo reveals Kat sedated her and that both he and Lorenzo donated blood to save her. Ace confirms Keres’s partner Phoenix died, and that Father Mike performed a brief service and burial.

Lorenzo enters with Kat, who adjusts Keres’s medication. After Keres confirms Mia and the baby are safe, Lorenzo presses her about why she targeted his family. Keres explains she has watched the Morettis for years because she hates Salvatore Moretti, who sold her mother into slavery while pregnant with her. She identifies Salvatore as her father; Lorenzo is unsurprised and states Dante killed Salvatore.

Lorenzo challenges Keres on her basement choice, noting she put her guns down to save Mia rather than attack Moretti men. Keres admits she acted to protect innocents and to prevent Phoenix from adding innocent blood to her conscience. Lorenzo relays that Mia asked him to let Keres go, and though he calls himself a monster, he agrees to spare Keres at Kat’s urging and Mia’s plea.

When Keres asks about the shadowy trafficker and insists Ace knows the name, Lorenzo refuses to engage and withholds details about the past rescue tied to Keres’s hazy memory. He orders Keres to recover, then leave the house. As the drugs pull her under, Keres drifts into nightmares of Phoenix while fixating on the unresolved name she still needs.