Chapter 10 - THE MAN WHO REFUSED TO DIE
Sophia screamed.
The SUV rolled forward.
Roman grabbed the wheel.
Another shot shattered the rear window.
“Down!”
Sophia threw herself over Gabriel.
Roman shoved Marcus’s body aside and slammed his foot onto the gas.
A black sedan appeared behind them.
Another shot.
Roman cut across traffic, clipped a taxi, then took a hard right down a service road.
Sophia looked at him.
“You drive like a psychopath!”
“I’ve been told.”
“By people who survived?”
“Some.”
Despite herself, she almost laughed.
Then Gabriel cried.
Reality returned.
They abandoned the SUV in a parking garage and moved through a maintenance exit.
Roman called no one.
Sophia noticed.
“You don’t trust your own people.”
“Not anymore.”
“Then where do we go?”
Roman looked at her.
“To someone who hates my father more than I do.”
They ended up in Brooklyn inside a closed boxing gym owned by Samuel Redd, a retired federal investigator.
Samuel looked at Roman.
“You look terrible.”
“Good to see you too.”
Then Samuel saw Sophia and the baby.
His expression changed.
“Whose kid?”
Roman said, “My brother’s.”
Samuel stared.
“Your dead brother?”
“He got better.”
Samuel swore.
They told him everything.
Samuel listened without interrupting.
When Roman mentioned his father might still be alive, Samuel stood.
“Arthur Callaway died three years ago.”
“Apparently not.”
Samuel walked to a locked cabinet.
He removed a file.
“I investigated your father twenty years ago.”
Roman’s eyes narrowed.
“You never told me.”
“You were twenty.”
“I was old enough.”
“You were your father’s son.”
That landed hard.
Samuel opened the file.
Inside were surveillance photographs of Arthur Callaway meeting foreign brokers, lawyers, doctors, and private adoption agents.
Then one photograph made Sophia gasp.
It showed Daniel.
Vincent.
Taken five years ago.
Standing beside Arthur.
Roman’s face went cold.
“He was working with him.”
Samuel shook his head.
“Maybe.”
“What does maybe mean?”
“This photograph came from an undercover operation.”
He pointed at another man beside them.
“He was helping me.”
Roman stared.
“Vincent?”
Samuel nodded.
“Your brother has spent years trying to dismantle your father’s network.”
Sophia looked stunned.
“Then why didn’t he tell Roman?”
Samuel looked at Roman.
“Because Arthur’s best protection wasn’t money.”
“What was it?”
“You.”
Roman frowned.
Samuel slid over one final sheet.
A list of Callaway Strategic assets.
Roman Callaway’s name sat at the top.
Beside it:
SUCCESSOR — CONDITIONED / UNAWARE.
Roman stared.
“What does that mean?”
Samuel met his eyes.
May you like
“It means your father didn’t build an empire for you.”
“He built you for the empire.”
