Chapter 173 Coming Clean

Chapter 173 Coming Clean
Marco found Dante in the office late in the evening, knocking softly on the doorframe even though the door stood open. "Got a minute?" he asked.

Dante looked up from the papers spread across his desk, something guarded settling into his expression before he waved him in. "Sit."

Marco sat, hands folded tightly in his lap, and for a moment neither of them said anything. "Garza called me today," Marco said finally.

Dante's whole posture changed, sharpening instantly. "When."

"Two hours ago." Marco pulled out his phone, hands steady despite the obvious effort it took. "I didn't answer at first. I let it go to voicemail so I could figure out what to do."

"What did he want."

"To tell me the debt's still open," Marco said. "That losing the fight Friday doesn't change what I owe him. If anything, he made it sound like it's gotten bigger now that his plan failed."

Dante's jaw tightened. "What did you tell him."

"Nothing yet." Marco set the phone down on the desk between them. "That's why I'm here, before I called him back, before I did anything. I wanted you to hear it from me first, this time."

Something in Dante's expression shifted slightly at that, the guardedness easing just a fraction. "This time," he repeated.

"I know I didn't do that before," Marco said. "I know I let this go on for months without telling you anything, and it cost people. I'm not asking you to forget that."

"I haven't forgotten it."

"I know." Marco held his gaze. "But I'm here now. Before doing anything else, that has to count for something, even if it's small."

Dante studied him for a long moment. "It counts," he said finally. "Play the voicemail."

Marco pulled it up and set the phone between them, Garza's voice filling the quiet office, calm and unhurried in a way that made the threat underneath it land even harder.

"Friday didn't go the way I planned, but that doesn't erase what you owe me, Marco. If anything, you should be more motivated to help me now, not less. I'll call again tomorrow. I expect you to actually pick up this time."

The recording ended. Dante sat back slowly, processing it. "He thinks he still owns you," Dante said.

"He does, in a way," Marco admitted. "The money's real. I did borrow it, that part was never a lie."

"How much do you actually still owe him."

Marco told him the number, and Dante's expression didn't change, though something behind his eyes sharpened further. "That's not small," Dante said.

"No," Marco agreed. "It's not."

"If I paid it off," Dante said slowly, working through something. "Cleared the debt directly, would that end his claim on you?"

Marco looked at him, surprised. "You'd do that?"

"I'm considering it," Dante said. "It removes his leverage. If the debt's gone, whatever hold he thinks he has on you goes with it."

"He might not accept payment," Marco said carefully. "He's not just after money at this point. Friday made this personal for him. He might want something else now. Information, access, anything that helps him regroup after losing the fight."

Dante was quiet for a long moment. "Then we need to know exactly what he asks for tomorrow, before we decide anything."

"I agree."

"You'll answer the call," Dante said. "But not alone. I want to hear exactly what he says, in real time."

Marco nodded slowly. "That's fair."



The call came the next afternoon while Marco sat in Dante's office, phone on speaker, Dante and Cade both listening quietly from across the desk.

"You picked up this time," Garza's voice came through, faintly amused. "Progress."

"What do you want," Marco said, keeping his voice steady.

"Same thing I always wanted. What you owe me." A pause. "Though I'll admit, my priorities have shifted a little since Friday."

"Shifted how."

"I lost good men Friday," Garza said, something harder entering his tone now.

"I want information. Where your club's weak points actually are, not the ones you've been feeding me through Sofia for the past few months. Real weaknesses, enough to make sure the next attempt doesn't end the same way."

Marco's eyes flicked to Dante, who gave a small, controlled nod, urging him to keep talking. "That's not the debt we agreed on," Marco said carefully. "That's a different thing entirely."

"The debt's whatever I say it is," Garza said. "You're not really in a position to argue terms, Marco."

Dante leaned forward slightly, and Marco understood the signal. "What if I paid it off," Marco said. "The actual money. All of it, in full, this week."

There was a pause on the line, something calculating in the silence. "Where would you get that kind of money."

"Does it matter," Marco said. "You want the debt closed or not."

Another pause, longer this time. "Money doesn't fix what happened Friday," Garza said finally. "But it's a start. Bring it yourself, alone. I'll tell you where."

"No," Dante said quietly, close enough to the phone that Garza might have caught it.

"Who's that," Garza's voice sharpened immediately.

Marco's jaw tightened, but he answered honestly. "Dante's here. He's the one considering paying your debt off."

Silence stretched on the line. "Interesting," Garza said finally, something unreadable in his tone now. "The man himself, cleaning up his brother's mess personally."

"The debt gets paid through proper channels," Dante said, taking the phone directly now. "Not some private meeting where you decide you want more than what's actually owed."

"You don't get to set my terms."

"I don't need to set your terms," Dante said, steady and unbothered. "I just need to tell you mine. The debt gets paid, publicly enough that there's no ambiguity about it being settled. After that, Marco owes you nothing, and any further contact with him gets treated as exactly what it would be. A new provocation, separate from anything that happened before."

Garza was quiet for a long moment. "You think Friday was the end of this."

"I think Friday told you what happens when you push us," Dante said. "I'm giving you a clean way to close this particular chapter without pushing further. Take it or don't."

The line went dead without an answer.

Marco looked at Dante, something uncertain in his expression. "You think he'll take it?"

"I don't know," Dante admitted. "But now it's clear, at least. If he comes after you again after the debt's paid, that's not about money anymore. That's just war, plain and simple."

Cade, who'd been quiet through the whole exchange, finally spoke. "You're really going to pay it."

"I am," Dante said. "Not for Marco's sake alone, for the club's. A clean line matters, especially with everything else we're trying to build right now."

Marco looked at his brother for a long moment. "Thank you," he said quietly. "For hearing me out today, for not just cutting me off."

Dante studied him, something old and complicated still sitting behind his eyes, but softer now than it had been in weeks. "You came to me first this time," he said. "That's what mattered most. Don't make me wait for it again."

"I won't," Marco said.