The air in the garage went thin.

Nico was supposed to be forty miles off the Virginia capes by midnight. That was the deal we made in the holding room behind the kitchen while Emma was upstairs watching cartoons: Nico took the fall for the falsified dock manifests, signed the transfer papers for the waterfront leases, and vanished to Buenos Aires before the grand jury unsealed the indictments. In exchange, his mother’s mortgage in Queens stayed paid, and Sofia and the girl were guaranteed five thousand dollars a month delivered in cash to an account Dante couldn't touch.

"Who flagged him?" I asked.

"Port Authority," Dante said, stepping closer. "He didn't clear security. Walked into the terminal, bought a ticket for Miami under an alias, and then walked right back out into the taxi line. Left his bag on the bench."

"Why Miami?"

"He isn't going to Miami," Dante said, his voice dropping into that low, paternal register he used whenever he was preparing to clean up a mess. "He came back for the girl. Or for whatever Sofia took from your father's vault before they moved her to Crestview."

Dante took another step, his shoulder nearly brushing mine as he reached for the door handle of the Suburban.

"I'll have Mateo drive the truck around to the wash bay," Dante said, his hand resting on the chrome handle. "Search it properly. In case Sofia hid something in the upholstery before she left. You shouldn't be standing out here in the damp, boss. Your skin looks gray."

"Leave the truck," I said.

Dante didn't pull his hand away immediately. For two seconds, the tension hung between us like a pulled wire. His grip on the handle was tight enough to whiten the skin over his knuckles.

"Alejandro," he whispered, turning his head so close I could smell the sharp, medicinal clove on his breath. "Your father trusted me with the things he couldn't tell his sons. If there's something in this vehicle that belongs to the company, it needs to be in my safe before the feds show up with the search warrants at dawn."

"The feds don't have warrants for this house," I said.

"They will by six o'clock," Dante replied. "Carlo started talking an hour ago."