Chapter 6 - BURIED WITH MY FATHER
Tony threw his shoulder into the mausoleum door.
Nothing.
I put Luca on speaker.
“You locked us in?”
“No.”
“Convenient.”
“Dom, listen to me.”
“I buried an empty coffin because of you.”
“I know.”
“You let me think you were dead.”
“I had no choice.”
“There’s always a choice.”
“Dad gave me two.”
His voice changed.
“Disappear or watch Elena die.”
I said nothing.
Tony stopped hitting the door.
Luca continued.
“I found out Dad was laundering money through charities. Not our normal business. Something worse.”
“How much worse?”
“Political money. Judges. Police pension funds. Hospital construction contracts.”
I knew parts of it.
Not all.
“Marco helped you?”
“Yes.”
“Then why steal six million?”
“To finance leaving.”
“Why come back?”
“Because Dad’s system never died with him.”
My eyes moved toward my father’s coffin.
“Vivien.”
“Vivien and Marco.”
“Marco told me to ask about Emma.”
“Marco’s playing both sides.”
That sounded right.
“Where are you?”
“Close.”
“Come get us out.”
“I can’t.”
“Why?”
Silence.
Then gunfire cracked through the phone.
Luca cursed.
The call dropped.
Tony looked at me.
“Fantastic family reunion.”
I approached my father’s coffin.
Something bothered me.
The note said check his grave.
Not Luca’s.
We had focused on the wrong coffin.
I opened my father’s.
His remains were there.
But beneath the lining, my fingers found metal.
A key.
Old brass.
Engraved with one number.
17.
Tony found a service hatch behind the crypt wall.
The key opened it.
Inside was a narrow maintenance tunnel.
We crawled out fifty yards downhill.
When we emerged, one of our cars was gone.
My driver lay unconscious beside the second.
Alive.
Someone had been waiting.
Tony checked his pulse.
“He’ll make it.”
My phone buzzed with a photo.
Elena and Emma inside the panic room.
The picture had been taken through the interior camera.
Text beneath it:
SAFE FOR NOW.
Then:
DON’T TRUST TONY.
I looked at the man beside me.
Tony was helping the driver sit up.
Twenty years of loyalty.
But loyalty was the currency everyone seemed to be counterfeiting.
I slipped the phone into my pocket.
“Tony.”
“Yeah?”
“Who knows the panic-room camera password?”
He looked at me.
“You. Me.”
“And?”
He hesitated.
“Your father set it up.”
“That was twelve years ago.”
“Then probably whoever maintained his old server.”
“Marco?”
Tony’s expression tightened.
“Possibly.”
We drove back separately.
When I arrived, Ravenwood was quiet.
Too quiet.
The power had returned.
The staff were gathered in the kitchen.
Vivien appeared at the top of the staircase wearing sweatpants and a cream sweater.
Barefoot.
Hair loose.
She looked terrified.
“Dominic!”
She ran down and wrapped her arms around me.
“I’ve been looking everywhere!”
I didn’t move.
She pulled back.
“What’s wrong?”
I stared into the eyes of the woman I loved.
Maybe had loved.
“Where were you?”
“In the guest wing. The door jammed when the power went out.”
“Your engagement ring is upstairs.”
She blinked.
“I took it off to shower.”
“You were wearing it at three.”
Her face went still.
One second.
Two.
Then she sighed.
The performance ended.
“All right.”
Tony’s hand moved toward his jacket.
Vivien looked at him.
“You should tell Dominic.”
Tony froze.
“Tell me what?”
May you like
Vivien smiled.
“That he’s known about Luca for three years.”
