Giant Black Dog Found A Paralyzed Mafia Boss Near D.eath In The Snow—What Happened Next Amazed Many

Chapter 11

The second twist came the next morning, in the form of a phone call from Veto.

Roman took it on the landline while Mara stood in the doorway, listening.

Veto had found something. A connection between Silas Crane and a fire that had destroyed a warehouse on the edge of Hollow Creek — two years earlier.

The fire that had killed Caleb Whitlock.

“I traced the call that sent the firefighters in,” Veto said. “It was a burner. But I followed the money behind it. Silas had a man in Hollow Creek — a small-time enforcer who was hiding something in that warehouse. When he caught wind that the building was going to be inspected, he burned it himself. But he needed a distraction. So he called in a false report — said someone was trapped inside.”

Roman’s blood turned to ice.

“The fire department responded,” Veto continued. “One of them went back in for the victim Silas’s man claimed was there. He died in the collapse. His name was Caleb Whitlock.”

Roman’s hand was shaking as he set the phone down.

He looked at Mara across the room. Saw her face — she had heard enough.

“It was Silas,” he said. “Silas killed Caleb.”

The words fell into the space between them like stones into still water.

Mara did not scream. Did not cry. She stood perfectly still, her face unreadable.

Then she said: “The same man who killed your brother.”

“Yes.”

“The same man who put you in that chair.”

“Yes.”

She walked to the window. Stared out at the snow-covered clearing. The place where Bear had found him. The trail of drag marks that had led from the ravine to her door.

“The man who destroyed both our lives,” she said slowly, “is the same person.”

Roman said nothing. There was nothing to say.

She turned.

“Then what are you going to do about it?”

—

It took him three more days to walk.

The first step was the hardest thing he had ever done. His legs screamed. His body shook. Mara stood in front of him, her hands ready to catch him when he fell.

He fell six times.

Every time, he got back up.

On the third day, he crossed the room without holding onto anything. It was only twelve steps. But it was twelve steps more than he had taken since the night Bear found him in the snow.

He stood at the window, breathing hard, his hands braced on the sill.

Behind him, Bear padded over and sat down, his tail sweeping the floor once.

Mara watched from the doorway. “When do you leave?”

“Tonight.”

She nodded. Her face was calm, but her hand gripped the doorframe a little too tightly.

“Will you come back?”

Roman was silent for a long moment.

“If I survive,” he said, “there’s nowhere else I’d rather go.”