Chapter 3 - THE BROTHER IN THE DARK
Alina watched the video again.
Then again.
On the fourth time, Marcus reached over and stopped it.
“That’s enough.”
She slapped his hand away.
“Don’t touch it.”
“He’s being tortured.”
“I can see that.”
“Watching it twenty times won’t change what happened.”
Her eyes snapped toward him.
“You don’t know anything about what happened.”
Marcus didn’t answer.
That made her angrier.
“He was nineteen,” she said. “He hated formal dinners. He played guitar too loud. He used to sneak into the kitchen at midnight because palace food was terrible.”
Her voice broke.
“I watched his car go over a cliff.”
Rovan looked down.
“We found evidence six months ago that another vehicle left the crash site.”
“Six months?”
Alina turned sharply.
“You knew for six months?”
“We had to verify it.”
“You should have told me.”
“I was trying to protect you.”
She laughed bitterly.
“That sentence has destroyed my entire life.”
Rovan accepted the blow without defending himself.
Marcus studied the frozen video frame.
“When was this recorded?”
“Eleven days ago,” Rovan said.
Marcus looked at him.
“So why reveal Alina tonight?”
“I did not intend to.”
Alina narrowed her eyes.
“You bowed in front of three hundred people.”
Rovan looked ashamed.
“I thought you were dead. I saw you and forgot where I was.”
For the first time, Alina’s anger softened.
Then Marcus pointed toward the wall.
“Vale clearly expected her.”
Alina turned.
He was right.
Richard’s response had been too fast.
The gunmen had already been inside the hotel.
Rovan’s face hardened.
“Someone knew I was coming.”
A heavy silence settled over the room.
Marcus looked around.
“How many people knew?”
“Four.”
“Names?”
Rovan hesitated.
“Three of them are loyalists in Europe.”
“And the fourth?”
Rovan looked at Marcus.
“Me.”
Marcus gave a humorless laugh.
“Great. So either one of your trusted people sold you out, or you accidentally emailed Richard Vale your travel schedule.”
Suddenly Alina remembered something.
“The medals.”
Rovan frowned.
“What?”
“At the party. You were wearing your old service medals.”
He touched his chest.
“A habit.”
“No. You haven’t worn those publicly since the coup. Anyone watching hotel cameras could identify you.”
Rovan’s face changed.
Marcus walked to a laptop.
“Vale didn’t know Alina was there. He knew you were there.”
Alina looked toward the window.
“And when you bowed, you gave him the answer.”
Rovan sat heavily.
“I’m sorry.”
Alina could see the guilt tearing through him.
She put one hand on his shoulder.
“We’re alive.”
“For now,” Marcus said.
Rovan shot him an irritated look.
“What? I’m just trying to keep expectations realistic.”
A laptop suddenly beeped.
Rovan moved to it.
A message had arrived through an encrypted channel.
Only six words.
THE BOY DIES AT MIDNIGHT TOMORROW.
Attached was an address.
Marcus leaned closer.
“That’s in Manhattan.”
Rovan’s face went pale.
“It’s a trap.”
“Obviously,” Marcus said.
Alina picked up her coat.
Rovan blocked the door.
“No.”
“My brother is there.”
“Maybe.”
“If there’s even a one-percent chance—”
“That is exactly what they want you to think.”
Alina stared at him.
“Then they finally understand me.”
She checked the pistol.
“I’m going.”
Marcus sighed.
“Of course you are.”
She looked at him.
“You’re not.”
“I was shot at because I stood next to you for thirty seconds. My evening is already ruined.”
“This isn’t your fight.”
Marcus’s expression turned cold.
“Richard Vale destroyed my father’s company fifteen years ago, bribed regulators, and drove him into bankruptcy. My father killed himself six months later.”
Alina said nothing.
Marcus picked up his jacket.
“So yeah.”
May you like
He looked at Vale’s photograph.
“It kind of is.”
