Chapter 6 - What He Chose to Keep
Mia counted bolts in the ceiling.
Thirty-two.
Then started again.
It gave her something to do besides imagine dying.
Anthony Romano sat across from her in the abandoned terminal office.
He was nearly seventy.
Silver hair.
Perfect suit.
Calm eyes.
He looked less like a criminal mastermind than somebody’s retired university dean.
That bothered Mia.
“You don’t look surprised,” Anthony said.
“I work in accounting.”
“What does that mean?”
“People who steal millions usually look boring.”
He smiled.
“I understand why Gabriel likes you.”
Mia’s pulse jumped.
“He doesn’t.”
“Please.”
Anthony poured coffee.
“He has twenty armed men who would gladly die for him. Yet when you vanished, he abandoned Damian Sterling halfway through an interrogation.”
“You have people watching him.”
“I have people everywhere.”
“That worked well with Daniel.”
Anthony’s smile disappeared.
Mia knew she had hit something.
“You shouldn’t speak about things you don’t understand.”
“You killed him.”
Anthony looked toward the window.
“I corrected a problem.”
“He was your nephew.”
“He was sentimental.”
Mia stared.
“That’s your justification?”
“He would have destroyed everything my brother built.”
“By stopping you from stealing it?”
Anthony laughed softly.
“You think businesses like ours survive because everyone behaves morally?”
“No.”
“Then spare me judgment.”
Mia leaned back despite the pain in her wrists.
“I’m not judging your morality.”
“What are you judging?”
“Your math.”
Anthony frowned.
“You started a financial war with Sterling, murdered Daniel, kidnapped Leo, exposed half your shell companies and forced Gabriel to investigate transactions nobody had noticed.”
She smiled faintly.
“That’s terrible risk management.”
Anthony stared.
Then laughed.
“You really are an accountant.”
“Yes.”
“And you think Gabriel will save you.”
Mia looked him straight in the eye.
“No.”
That surprised him.
“I think Gabriel will try.”
“And the difference?”
“I don’t need to sit here waiting.”
Mia had spent forty minutes working the plastic tie around her left wrist against a sharp screw beneath the chair.
Her skin was bleeding.
The restraint was almost through.
Anthony didn’t notice.
Because once again, everybody assumed the accountant was harmless.
At eleven fifty-eight, Gabriel arrived.
Alone.
At least that was what Anthony believed.
Gabriel entered the terminal carrying Daniel’s archive drive.
Anthony smiled.
“Nephew.”
“Don’t call me that.”
“You always were dramatic.”
“Where is she?”
Anthony gestured.
Mia sat twenty feet away.
Bruised.
Alive.
Gabriel’s entire body changed at the sight of her.
Mia saw it.
Anthony saw it too.
“Interesting.”
Gabriel held up the drive.
“You want this.”
“Yes.”
“Let her go.”
“You understand I can copy files?”
“The encryption key is separate.”
Anthony studied him.
“Daniel taught you something after all.”
Gabriel’s face tightened.
Anthony continued.
“Your brother was weak.”
“Say his name again.”
“You still react emotionally. Exactly like him.”
Gabriel’s voice dropped.
“You killed him because he found your accounts.”
“I killed him because he intended to hand those accounts to federal investigators.”
Mia stared.
That was new.
Gabriel looked equally surprised.
Anthony smiled.
“Daniel wanted to dismantle the company.”
“No.”
“He told me himself.”
Gabriel shook his head.
“You’re lying.”
“Am I?”
Anthony produced a recording.
Daniel’s voice.
“I don’t care what happens to the organization anymore. If Gabriel won’t listen, I’ll take it outside the family.”
Gabriel’s face changed.
Anthony watched him.
“He betrayed you.”
Mia understood what Anthony was doing.
“He didn’t.”
Anthony looked at her.
“You weren’t invited.”
“You edited the recording.”
“I did not.”
“No. But you stopped it.”
Anthony’s eyes narrowed.
Mia continued.
“Play the rest.”
Silence.
Gabriel looked at Anthony.
“Play it.”
Anthony smiled.
“No.”
That answered everything.
Gabriel understood.
Daniel had threatened to go outside the family because he wanted to stop Anthony.
Not destroy Gabriel.
Anthony had spent eighteen months feeding Gabriel guilt.
Now he was trying to turn it into resentment.
Mia felt the restraint snap.
She kept her hands behind her back.
Gabriel extended the drive.
Anthony stepped forward.
That was when Mia moved.
She shoved the chair sideways into the nearest guard.
He stumbled.
Gabriel dropped the drive and lunged.
Chaos erupted.
Marco’s team entered from two hidden access points.
Gabriel had never intended to come alone.
Gunshots shattered glass.
Mia hit the floor.
Anthony grabbed her.
A weapon pressed against her side.
“Stop!”
Everything froze.
Gabriel turned.
Anthony held Mia against him.
“Tell them to lower their weapons.”
Gabriel’s face became unreadable.
“Let her go.”
“Drive first.”
Gabriel picked it up.
Mia looked at him.
Don’t.
She didn’t say it.
She didn’t need to.
Gabriel saw.
Anthony tightened his grip.
“Give me the drive.”
Gabriel threw it.
Anthony instinctively tracked the movement.
For half a second, his attention left Mia.
She drove her heel backward into his knee.
Anthony cursed.
Gabriel moved.
He crossed the distance brutally fast.
Anthony’s gun fired.
Mia screamed.
Gabriel hit him.
The weapon slid away.
Marco restrained Anthony.
Then Mia saw blood.
“Gabriel.”
He looked down.
A dark stain spread across his side.
“Gabriel!”
He staggered.
Mia caught him despite the difference in size.
He almost fell on her.
“Stay with me.”
“I’m fine.”
“You’ve been shot.”
“I’ve had worse.”
“That is such a stupid thing to say.”
He laughed weakly.
Then collapsed.
Three weeks later, Gabriel woke in his own penthouse to the sound of Leo laughing.
He followed it.
Mia sat on the floor.
Leo was grabbing her hair.
She looked up.
“You’re supposed to be resting.”
“So are you.”
“I wasn’t shot.”
“You were kidnapped twice.”
“Fair.”
Gabriel sat carefully.
Anthony was alive.
In federal custody.
Sterling had testified.
Peter’s murder was linked to Anthony’s team.
Daniel’s death investigation had reopened.
Romano Maritime was under scrutiny.
Contracts were frozen.
Two banks had suspended lines of credit.
Board members were panicking.
Gabriel had lost nearly forty percent of his personal fortune in nineteen days.
Strangely, he slept better.
Mia watched him.
“What are you going to do with the company?”
“Sell pieces.”
She blinked.
“Really?”
“The clean divisions stay.”
“And the others?”
“Closed.”
“People will say you lost.”
“They already do.”
“Does that bother you?”
Gabriel looked at Leo.
“No.”
Mia smiled.
“You’re changing.”
“Don’t insult me.”
She laughed.
Gabriel watched her.
Then became serious.
“Mia.”
“What?”
“When this is over, you don’t owe me anything.”
She stopped smiling.
“No job.”
He continued.
“No loyalty. No staying because you think I protected you.”
“I know.”
“You can leave Chicago.”
“I know.”
“I’ll make sure your mother—”
“Gabriel.”
He stopped.
“I know.”
Silence.
Then Mia shifted closer.
“What if I don’t want to leave?”
Gabriel’s eyes held hers.
“That’s different.”
“Yes.”
He looked almost nervous.
Mia had never seen it.
She liked it.
“Good,” she said.
Leo suddenly sneezed.
Both of them looked down.
The moment broke.
Mia laughed.
Gabriel shook his head.
But danger was not finished with them.
Marco entered holding an envelope.
“No return address.”
Gabriel’s expression hardened.
“Anthony?”
“No.”
Mia opened it.
Inside was a legal document.
Daniel Romano’s handwriting covered the first page.
A private trust.
Created before Leo’s birth.
Attached to it was a letter.
Gabriel read the first line.
Gabe, if anything happens to me, I need you to do one thing you’ll hate.
Gabriel looked at Mia.
“What?”
He continued reading.
Then laughed.
Actually laughed.
Daniel had left Gabriel controlling responsibility for a charitable family trust.
Its purpose?
Community housing.
Scholarships.
Youth programs.
Everything Daniel once wanted the Romano name to become.
Mia read over his shoulder.
“He knew you’d hate it.”
“Yes.”
“He also knew you’d do it.”
Gabriel looked at Leo.
Outside, Chicago glittered beneath winter light.
May you like
For the first time since Daniel died, Gabriel did not feel as though his brother had vanished.
He felt as though Daniel had left him directions home.
