Chapter 6 - THE ELEVATOR
I hit the elevator doors with both hands.
“LILY!”
Nothing.
Dominic grabbed the emergency panel.
“Override it!”
Marco ran toward us.
“Elevator is locked remotely.”
“Then unlock it!”
“I’m trying.”
I could barely breathe.
“Where does it go?”
Dominic looked at the floor indicator.
Basement.
“Garage.”
We ran for the stairs.
Three floors.
I don’t remember touching the steps.
All I remember is Lily screaming inside my head.
Little girls should forget things.
I reached the garage behind Dominic.
A black SUV was already moving toward the exit.
“Stop them!”
Security guards raised weapons.
Dominic shouted.
“Don’t shoot!”
The children were inside.
The SUV smashed through the side barrier.
Dominic grabbed a set of keys from a guard.
“Get in.”
I didn’t ask.
We jumped into an armored Range Rover.
Marco climbed into the back.
Dominic drove like a man with nothing left to lose.
“Track the SUV,” he said.
Marco opened a tablet.
“No signal.”
“Cameras?”
“Checking.”
I gripped the dashboard.
“What does he want with them?”
“The card.”
“Then give it to him.”
Dominic looked at me.
“Anna—”
“Give him the damn card!”
“If I give him the card, everyone named on it becomes vulnerable.”
“My daughter is three!”
My voice broke.
“I don’t care about judges or politicians or whatever other powerful men are afraid of their secrets!”
“I care about Lily too.”
“Then prove it.”
Dominic’s jaw tightened.
Marco interrupted.
“I have them.”
“Where?”
“Going south on Route Nine.”
Dominic accelerated.
My phone rang.
Unknown number.
I answered.
“Lily?”
Victor laughed.
“She’s loud.”
“Let me hear her.”
“Mommy!”
My eyes filled instantly.
“Baby, I’m here.”
“I want Bunny!”
“I know. I know.”
Victor pulled the phone away.
Dominic spoke.
“You wanted the ledger.”
“Yes.”
“Release the children.”
“No.”
“You have my word.”
Victor laughed.
“Your word?”
Then his voice changed.
“Your wife trusted your word too.”
Dominic gripped the steering wheel.
“What do you know about Elena?”
“More than you.”
“Who are you?”
“You really don’t remember me?”
Dominic’s expression shifted.
A long silence.
Then he whispered.
“Gabriel.”
Marco looked up sharply.
Victor—or Gabriel—laughed.
“There he is.”
Dominic looked like someone had punched him.
“You’re dead.”
“People kept saying that.”
“Who is Gabriel?” I demanded.
Dominic didn’t answer immediately.
“My brother.”
I stared at him.
“What?”
“Half brother.”
“You have a brother?”
“Had.”
Victor laughed through the speaker.
“Our father had two sons.”
Dominic’s eyes stayed on the road.
“One he was proud of.”
Gabriel finished the sentence.
“And one he buried.”
“Where are the children?”
“Pier Forty-Seven.”
“You said midnight.”
“I changed my mind.”
The line went dead.
Marco stared at Dominic.
“You never told me Gabriel survived.”
“I thought he didn’t.”
“Survived what?”
I asked.
Dominic’s voice was low.
“Seventeen years ago, my father ordered him killed.”
That was not the answer I expected.
“Why?”
“Gabriel was selling family information.”
“To who?”
“Federal agents.”
Marco shook his head.
“That doesn’t fit.”
“What?”
“If he was cooperating with law enforcement, why poison Ethan?”
Dominic’s face darkened.
“He wasn’t cooperating because he was good.”
I looked at him.
“Then why?”
“He wanted my father gone so he could take everything.”
The car fell silent.
Then Marco’s tablet beeped.
“The SUV stopped.”
“Where?”
He looked up.
“Not at the pier.”
“Where?”
“St. Matthew’s Cemetery.”
Dominic’s face changed again.
“Elena.”
I understood.
His wife was buried there.
We reached the cemetery twelve minutes later.
The SUV sat abandoned.
Doors open.
No children.
No Gabriel.
Only a phone on the driver’s seat.
It rang.
Dominic picked it up.
A video started automatically.
Lily and Ethan were tied to chairs.
Both crying.
Gabriel stepped into frame.
“Bring Elena’s card to the place where Dominic Moretti became king.”
The video ended.
I looked at Dominic.
“What place?”
He stared at the screen.
May you like
And for the first time since this began, I saw fear.
“Where my father died.”
