Chapter 6 - THE MAN AT THE DOOR
I looked up.
Marco was running toward me.
My entire body reacted before my brain did.
I stepped back.
Dominic reached us first.
“What happened?”
I handed him the photograph.
He read the back.
His face went still.
Marco stopped ten feet away.
“What is it?”
Dominic turned the photograph around.
Marco stared at it.
Then laughed.
Not nervously.
Angrily.
“That’s not funny.”
“Is it your name?” I asked.
“Yes.”
“Then explain.”
Marco looked at Dominic.
“You believe this?”
“I believe Daniel wrote it.”
“Daniel Carter hated me.”
“Why?” I asked.
Marco looked at me.
“Because I told Dominic not to use him.”
Silence.
“Why?”
“Because he had a family.”
That answer landed differently.
Marco continued.
“Your father wasn’t trained for this. He was a construction foreman with a wife and a daughter.”
Dominic looked away.
Marco pointed at him.
“I told him Daniel would get killed.”
Dominic’s voice was low.
“And I didn’t listen.”
Marco looked back at me.
“Your father blamed me for something else. He thought I leaked a meeting location.”
“Did you?”
“No.”
“Can you prove it?”
“No.”
At least everyone in Dominic’s world was consistent.
Nobody could prove anything.
The fire department eventually gave us access to what remained of Unit 317.
Almost everything was destroyed.
Metal shelves.
Boxes.
Furniture.
But the far wall had collapsed inward.
Behind it was a small steel compartment.
The fire chief opened it.
Inside sat a black lockbox.
Untouched.
My key fit.
Dominic stared at me.
“Your father was smarter than all of us.”
Inside were three flash drives.
A notebook.
And a digital recorder.
I picked up the recorder.
Battery dead.
Marco handed me a portable charger from the SUV.
A light appeared.
I pressed play.
Static.
Then Dad’s voice.
I nearly dropped it.
“If you’re listening to this, something went wrong.”
My chest closed.
Dominic lowered his head.
Dad continued.
“Linda, I’m sorry.”
Mom’s name almost broke me.
“Avery, if you ever hear this, I need you to know I wasn’t trying to be a hero.”
Tears filled my eyes.
“I was trying to make sure you grew up in a world where men like these didn’t get to decide what everyone else was worth.”
I wiped my face angrily.
Then his voice changed.
“There’s a leak. Someone told Salvatore about the federal meeting.”
Dominic looked at Marco.
Marco’s jaw tightened.
Dad continued.
“I first suspected Marco Bellini.”
Marco whispered, “Of course.”
“But I was wrong.”
Everyone froze.
“The leak is someone much closer.”
Static cracked.
Then Dad said the name.
“Richard Whitmore.”
Vanessa’s father.
I stared at Dominic.
The recording continued.
“And I think his daughter knows.”
Vanessa.
She had been twenty-two.
Maybe old enough.
Then headlights swept across the burned-out unit.
Marco turned.
Too late.
Gunfire exploded through the doorway.
Dominic shoved me behind the steel wall.
Marco fired back.
Glass shattered.
Someone screamed outside.
I dropped to the ground.
Dominic pulled a pistol from his coat.
“Stay down!”
Another burst of gunfire.
Then silence.
Marco leaned around the doorway.
“They’re moving.”
Dominic looked at me.
“You okay?”
I nodded.
Then I saw blood.
Not mine.
His.
A dark stain spread across Dominic’s side.
“You’ve been shot.”
He looked down.
“Damn.”
Then a voice came from outside.
Vanessa.
“Avery!”
I froze.
“I know where your mother is.”
My heart stopped.
Dominic looked at me.
“You said she was safe.”
Marco checked his phone.
His face changed.
The safe apartment’s security feed was black.
Vanessa called again from the darkness.
“Come outside, Avery.”
May you like
Then she laughed.
“Or Linda dies before sunrise.”
