Chapter 6 - The Man Standing Behind Them
Nobody moved.
Bella slowly turned.
Bryce stood ten feet behind Blake.
His face had gone completely still.
Blake’s hand moved toward his jacket.
“Explain.”
Bryce looked at Elena.
“You don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Yes, I do.”
Bella felt sick.
“Bryce?”
He looked at her.
For the first time since she had known him, the easy professionalism disappeared.
“Bella, don’t listen to her.”
Elena stepped forward.
“His name isn’t Bryce Dalton.”
Blake’s voice became deadly.
“Then what is it?”
Elena answered.
“Bryce Romano.”
Bella’s breath caught.
Blake drew his weapon.
Security followed.
Bryce slowly raised his hands.
“Boss.”
“Don’t call me that.”
“Blake, listen.”
“Start talking.”
Bryce looked at Bella.
“My mother was Vincent Romano’s sister.”
Bella remembered the photograph from the security system.
Anthony Romano.
Vincent.
A family larger and more tangled than she understood.
“Why hide it?” Bella asked.
“Because I left them.”
Blake’s gun remained steady.
“When?”
“Eleven years ago.”
“And Bella’s father?”
Bryce’s face tightened.
“I didn’t kill him.”
Elena spoke.
“But you were there.”
Bella turned.
“What?”
Bryce closed his eyes.
“Yes.”
The word destroyed whatever trust remained.
Bella stepped backward.
“You knew my father?”
“Yes.”
“You let me sit beside you for eight months and never said anything?”
“I was ordered not to.”
“By Blake?”
“No.”
Everyone became quiet.
“By your father.”
Bella stared.
Bryce slowly lowered his hands only when Blake allowed it.
“Your father contacted me because he knew I wanted out of Romano’s organization. I helped him collect evidence.”
“The ledger?”
“Yes.”
“He trusted you?”
“He saved my life.”
Bella laughed bitterly.
“Apparently my father spent his spare time saving dangerous men.”
Even Blake almost smiled.
Bryce continued.
“The night he died, I was following him too.”
“Why?”
“He called me. Said someone had betrayed us.”
“Who?”
“I didn’t know.”
Elena stepped closer.
“I did.”
Everyone looked at her.
“My brother Vincent discovered the ledger.”
Bella’s chest tightened.
Elena continued.
“I tried warning your father. He refused to run without you.”
“Then why didn’t he take me?”
“Because he believed you were safer living normally.”
Bella wiped tears from her cheek.
“He was wrong.”
“Yes.”
Elena’s voice broke.
“He was.”
Blake lowered his weapon slightly.
“Who caused the crash?”
Elena looked toward Bryce.
“Anthony.”
Bryce nodded.
“I arrived seconds afterward.”
Bella covered her mouth.
“You saw him?”
“Yes.”
“Was he alive?”
Bryce’s eyes filled with something Bella had never seen there before.
Pain.
“For about two minutes.”
Bella’s knees weakened.
Blake caught her.
This time she didn’t push him away.
“What did he say?”
Bryce swallowed.
“He asked whether you were safe.”
Bella began crying.
“He made me promise nobody would tell you until the danger was gone.”
Bryce’s voice cracked.
“I kept waiting for it to be gone.”
Bella stared at him.
“It never was.”
“No.”
Silence filled the hallway.
Then Elena removed something from her purse.
A second flash drive.
“The other half.”
Blake looked at it.
“Together?”
“They prove everything.”
Bella wiped her eyes.
“Then we end this.”
Elena shook her head.
“You don’t understand.”
“What?”
“Vincent doesn’t want the ledger anymore.”
“Why not?”
“Because he knows copies exist.”
Bella frowned.
“What does he want?”
Elena looked at her daughter.
“You.”
Blake stepped closer.
“Why?”
“Because Bella’s father built the encryption.”
Bryce understood first.
“The password.”
Elena nodded.
“He designed it around something only Bella would know.”
Bella shook her head.
“I don’t.”
“You do,” Elena said. “You simply don’t realize it.”
Bella thought of the message from her father.
She knows where the ledger is. She just doesn’t know that she knows.
Everything had been hidden inside memories.
The music box.
The key.
Perhaps the password too.
“What happens if we unlock it?”
Elena’s face became grave.
“Every transaction becomes traceable. Every official becomes identifiable. Every hidden account becomes visible.”
Blake looked toward the flash drives.
“And Romano loses everything.”
“Yes.”
Bella suddenly remembered something.
A phrase.
Her father used to say it whenever she became frightened as a child.
Count the stars, Bella. They always lead you home.
She whispered it aloud.
Elena froze.
“What?”
Bella looked at her.
“Dad used to tell me to count the stars.”
Elena began crying.
“Oh, Daniel.”
“What?”
“The music box.”
Bella frowned.
“What about it?”
“He carved stars into the bottom.”
Bella remembered.
Seven stars.
Different sizes.
Bryce opened his laptop.
They connected both drives.
An encryption screen appeared.
Seven numeric fields.
Bella’s heart raced.
“The stars.”
She remembered the order.
Her father had taught her a childhood game.
Biggest to smallest.
She entered the numbers corresponding to the points carved inside each star.
The screen paused.
Then unlocked.
Thousands of files appeared.
Nobody spoke.
They had it.
Everything.
Blake immediately began coordinating with attorneys and a federal contact he trusted outside the city.
For the first time, victory seemed possible.
Then every light on the hotel floor went out.
Blake reacted instantly.
“Security positions!”
Gunfire erupted from the stairwell.
Bella screamed.
Bryce shoved Elena behind the wall.
Blake grabbed Bella.
“Stay with me.”
Emergency lights flickered red.
Men flooded the hallway.
Blake’s security team returned fire.
Bella heard Elena shout.
Then Bryce fell.
“Bryce!”
Blood spread across his shoulder.
Bella moved toward him.
Blake pulled her back.
“No!”
A man appeared behind Elena.
Anthony Romano.
Bella recognized him immediately.
He pressed a gun against Elena’s head.
“Drop them.”
Everyone froze.
Anthony smiled.
“Hello, Isabella.”
Bella’s blood ran cold.
“Let her go.”
“Bring me the drives.”
Blake stepped in front of Bella.
“No.”
Anthony pressed the weapon harder against Elena.
Bella saw terror in her mother’s eyes.
“Blake.”
“No.”
“He’ll kill her.”
“He’ll kill you if you move.”
Anthony smiled.
“Caruso understands.”
Bella looked at her mother.
Then at Bryce bleeding on the floor.
Then at Blake.
There was no good choice.
Bella reached into her pocket.
The flash drives were there.
Blake whispered, “Don’t.”
Bella looked into his eyes.
For the first time, she understood something.
Blake was terrified.
Not of Anthony.
Not of losing his empire.
Of losing her.
Bella stepped around him.
“I’ll give you the drives.”
Anthony smiled.
“Smart girl.”
“But you let my mother go first.”
“Bella—” Blake warned.
Anthony considered it.
Then shoved Elena toward them.
At the same moment, Bella threw the flash drives—not toward Anthony, but toward the open elevator shaft beside him.
Anthony lunged.
Blake fired.
Chaos exploded.
Anthony disappeared behind the elevator door.
Security rushed forward.
Bella fell to the floor.
Blake reached her.
“Are you hit?”
“No.”
He grabbed her face gently.
“Are you sure?”
“Yes.”
Behind them, Bryce groaned.
Elena knelt beside him.
Blake looked toward the elevator shaft.
“The drives.”
Bella smiled through tears.
“Copies.”
Blake stared.
“What?”
“I made copies before we left New York.”
For several seconds, Blake Caruso—the man who always had an answer—said nothing.
Bella smiled.
“You taught me to be paranoid.”
And despite the blood, danger, and chaos around them—
Blake laughed.
Then he pulled her into his arms.
But over his shoulder, Bella saw Elena staring at Anthony’s abandoned phone.
The screen was still illuminated.
A message had arrived.
If Anthony fails, kill Caruso yourself.
The sender’s name made Elena go completely pale.
Because the message had come from someone they all believed was already dead.
Vincent Romano.
May you like
And according to Elena, Vincent wasn’t supposed to have survived the night before.
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