Pearce Hudson: #1 My Italian Devil

Epilouge: Dante's Inferno

Months later...

"Mrs. Foreman, the members of the jury have you reached a verdict?" the judge asked. Silence fell across the court room. The media crew flashed their cameras. People shifted nervously in their seats. I shot a glance at Dante sitting defense bench. His hair had grown and slicked back. His orange prison jump suit made his hair looked darker. Orange was really his color.

Jake, seating next to me, squeezed my fingers.

"Yes we have your honor," the female juror stood up with a piece of paper in her hand.

"What say you?" the Judge smoothed out his robe and reached for his gavel because the moment the verdict was read, there would be ruckus in the courtroom.

"We, the jury find Dante Antonio Capaldi.....guilty of all charges."

The courtroom erupted in shouting and yelling. Cameras flashed even more. People pushed and shoved. Reporters threw out questions. The judge slammed his gavel, trying to quiet the crowd but clearly it was a vain attempt.

"Let's go please," I said to Jake.

He nodded.

We ducked out of the room. After all this time. After all the loses. He was going away for life. I crouched on my knees as Jake rubbed my back. It was done.

The red ledger or rather the tablet, proved to me immensely helpful. Dante had records of all his bribes, murders and tortures. All the corrupt Boston cops, judges and whoever else Dante bribed was arrested. They all testified against him.

Peter met me out in the hallway. He was dressed in a suit and his gun strapped to his holster. After Dante's arrest, Peter joined the FBI academy and became a FBI agent, easily because of his military background.

"He's going away for good," Peter smiled at me.

"He is," I replied.

When Ross and I had been captured, the team had plans of leaving Boston but Jake convinced them otherwise. Jessica had gone to Peter for help to find me but it was Paul who gave the location of the warehouse. The warehouse we were tortured in was the closest warehouse in the docks, where Dante's cargo got shipped from.

Paul had really come through. He was running Lux now, after dad had gone to jail. Surprise, surprise. He profited from helping Dante's, so therefore he was charged with the illegal trafficking. But that wasn't all for my dad. He was pending trial for the hit he put out on Alessandra. That night Alessandra left the house, she left with papers from dad's illegal business she discovered in the study. To save his skin, dad put a hit out on her. Detective Esposito had squeezed the confession out of dad, when I shared Alessandra's file with him. Her body was never found because it was dumped in the Boston Main Channel was probably lost at sea.

After dad was incarcerated none of us had gone to see him. None of us will ever go to see him.

Brad Green came running down the hallway, he too was in a suit. "I heard. Is it true?"

I nodded. Green's arms wrapped around me. I hugged him back.

Green and I were never that close but we had become after he spent most days with me in the hospital. My health was restoring and in fact I was back at Quantico from medical leave. I never got the full story about what happened to me but the bits and pieces I had heard, told me it wasn't pretty. I had apparently, died on the way to the hospital and was dead for a few hours, with life support keeping my heart pumping. With the amount of trauma on my body the doctors had no idea if they should cut or sew. After 5 days in a coma, I was taken off life support and regained consciousness.