Chapter 3 - The Enemy Inside the House
Nobody moved.
Alfred’s gun remained aimed at Lev.
“Start talking.”
Lev lifted both hands.
“Three weeks ago I learned someone inside the organization was selling information.”
“Who?”
“I didn't know.”
“So you put a tracker in Mina’s belongings?”
“I needed to know whether whoever was watching her would move when she moved.”
Mina stared at him.
“You used me as bait?”
Lev’s expression tightened.
“I was trying to keep you alive.”
“Without telling me?”
“If the leak knew you were aware, they would change tactics.”
Alfred stepped forward.
“You should have told me.”
“I couldn't.”
Alfred’s eyes became colder.
“Choose your next words carefully.”
Lev swallowed.
“Because I suspected someone close to you.”
The silence changed.
Not an outside enemy.
Someone inside Alfred’s circle.
“Name,” Alfred said.
“I had three.”
“Who?”
Lev looked toward Mina.
“Carlo. Vincent. And your uncle.”
Alfred’s face hardened.
“Salvatore?”
Lev nodded.
Mina knew the name.
Salvatore Costello had helped raise Alfred after his father was murdered. He had spent decades building the Costello organization.
If Alfred was its king, Salvatore was the man who had taught the king how to survive.
“Why would Salvatore care about Mina?” she asked.
Lev looked uncomfortable.
“Because of succession.”
Mina’s hand moved toward her stomach.
Alfred understood first.
“A child.”
Lev nodded.
“An heir changes things.”
Mina felt sick.
“This isn't a monarchy.”
“In families like ours,” Lev replied, “sometimes it’s worse.”
Alfred lowered the gun slightly.
“Evidence.”
“I have records.”
“Show me.”
They moved to the study.
Lev opened encrypted files on a laptop.
Payments.
Messages.
Phone records.
Mina read them faster than either man.
Numbers had always made sense to her when people didn't.
One transfer caught her attention.
“Wait.”
She pointed.
“This account.”
“What?”
“I've seen it before.”
Alfred leaned closer.
“Where?”
“In the dock audits.”
Mina opened another file.
She compared routing numbers.
A pattern emerged.
Someone had been siphoning money from Costello operations for almost eighteen months.
Millions.
Hidden beneath legitimate losses.
Alfred stared at the screen.
“How did we miss this?”
Mina answered quietly.
“Because whoever did it understood our accounting system.”
Lev looked at her.
“How many people understand it?”
Mina’s stomach dropped.
“Three.”
“Names.”
“Me. Alfred.”
She looked toward the door.
“And Vincent.”
Vincent Hale.
Alfred’s financial director.
The man who had hired Mina four years earlier.
The man who knew every account she touched.
The man who had congratulated her when she looked tired and joked that perhaps she needed a vacation.
Alfred took out his phone.
“Bring Vincent in.”
Lev called downstairs.
Nobody answered.
He tried again.
Then his face changed.
“What?”
“The garage camera is offline.”
Alfred moved immediately.
They reached the security room two minutes later.
One guard lay unconscious.
Another was missing.
Vincent’s car was gone.
Alfred slammed his fist against the desk.
Mina stared at the monitors.
Then she noticed something.
“Go back.”
Lev rewound the footage.
Vincent entered the garage twenty minutes earlier.
He carried a briefcase.
He wasn't alone.
A woman followed him.
Mina leaned toward the screen.
Her heart stopped.
“No.”
Alfred looked at her.
“You know her?”
Mina couldn't answer.
The woman turned toward the camera.
Older.
Dark hair streaked with gray.
A face Mina had not seen in fourteen years.
“My mother.”
Alfred stared at her.
“You told me your mother was dead.”
“I thought she was.”
Mina’s knees weakened.
Her mother, Elena Vale, had disappeared when Mina was fourteen.
Police found her abandoned car near the harbor.
Blood inside.
No body.
After seven years, she was legally declared dead.
Mina had built her entire adulthood around that absence.
But there she was.
Alive.
Walking beside the man who had betrayed Alfred.
Mina watched the recording again.
Her mother paused before entering Vincent’s car.
She looked directly into the security camera.
Then raised one hand.
Three fingers.
Mina gasped.
“What?”
“That was our signal.”
“For what?”
“When I was little, if she couldn't speak safely, three fingers meant one thing.”
Alfred waited.
Mina’s eyes filled with tears.
“Run.”
The footage ended.
An alarm sounded downstairs.
Lev grabbed his weapon.
“What now?”
A guard rushed in.
“Boss, we found something outside.”
“What?”
“A package.”
Alfred’s expression hardened.
“Who delivered it?”
“Nobody saw.”
The package sat on the lobby desk.
No return address.
Alfred opened it carefully.
Inside was a burner phone.
It rang.
Alfred answered.
“Costello.”
A man laughed softly.
“Congratulations.”
Alfred’s face went still.
“Who is this?”
“You’re going to be a father.”
Mina felt the blood drain from her face.
The caller continued.
“Unfortunately, not for long.”
Alfred’s hand tightened around the phone.
“What do you want?”
“Something your father stole from mine.”
“My father has been dead for twenty years.”
“Yes.”
A pause.
“So has mine.”
“Name.”
The caller ignored him.
“Midnight. Pier Nine. Bring the ledger.”
“What ledger?”
“The one you couldn't find today.”
Mina and Alfred looked at each other.
The old ledger.
The reason Alfred had opened the safe.
It hadn't been coincidence.
The caller had known.
Everything that happened today had been engineered.
“If you don't bring it,” the voice continued, “Mina learns what really happened to her mother.”
The line went dead.
Mina stared at Alfred.
“You said you needed the ledger.”
“I did.”
“Why?”
“An anonymous message this morning told me it contained evidence of theft.”
“So someone wanted you to open that safe.”
“Yes.”
“To find my ultrasound.”
Alfred’s expression hardened.
“Yes.”
Mina suddenly understood.
This wasn't merely blackmail.
Someone wanted Alfred to discover the baby.
Someone wanted him emotional.
Distracted.
Predictable.
Mina looked at the phone.
“Whoever this is knows both of us.”
Alfred nodded.
“And they know our history.”
Lev interrupted.
“There's another problem.”
He had been examining the burner phone.
“What?”
“The call wasn't routed from Pier Nine.”
“Where?”
Lev slowly raised his eyes.
“From inside this building.”
Alfred turned toward the hallway.
Every guard outside suddenly became a suspect.
Then the lights went out.
Darkness swallowed the penthouse.
Mina heard glass break.
A gunshot.
Alfred grabbed her.
“Down!”
Another gunshot exploded through the room.
Mina fell behind the desk as Alfred covered her body with his.
Emergency lights flickered red.
Someone screamed downstairs.
Then Mina felt something wet against her hand.
She looked down.
Blood.
Not hers.
“Alfred?”
He didn't answer.
“Alfred!”
His body shifted.
A bullet had torn through his shoulder.
He looked at her through clenched teeth.
“I'm fine.”
“You're bleeding.”
“Stay down.”
Footsteps approached.
Alfred raised his gun.
The study door opened.
A silhouette appeared.
Mina held her breath.
The emergency light illuminated the face.
Salvatore Costello.
Alfred’s uncle.
He looked at Alfred’s wound.
Then at Mina.
Then slowly raised his weapon.
But he didn't point it at Alfred.
He pointed it behind them.
A shot exploded.
Someone collapsed in the darkness.
Salvatore lowered the gun.
“You've got a traitor in your house, nephew.”
Alfred stared at him.
Salvatore’s next words were worse.
May you like
“And if you think Vincent is the one running this, you're already losing.”
---
