Chapter 9 - The Trap at Dawn
“Emergency brake,” Alexander said.
“It’s electronic.”
“Not anymore.”
He reached beneath the console and tore away a panel.
“What are you doing?”
“Something expensive.”
The speedometer climbed.
The road curved sharply ahead.
Alexander pulled two wires loose.
Every warning light on the dashboard illuminated.
Vincent shouted through the radio.
“Take the service road!”
“I can’t slow down!”
“You don’t need to. It rises.”
I saw it.
A narrow maintenance road climbed toward the hotel loading dock.
I turned hard.
The armored sedan nearly rolled.
Alexander braced one hand against the dashboard.
We shot uphill.
Speed dropped.
Sixty.
Fifty.
Forty.
The road ended at a chain-link gate.
“Hit it,” Alexander said.
I hit it.
Metal exploded across the hood.
The car continued into an empty parking lot.
Thirty.
Twenty.
I aimed toward a row of landscaping barriers.
The sedan crashed through two bushes and stopped against a dirt embankment.
Silence.
My hands remained locked around the steering wheel.
Alexander looked at me.
“You drive well.”
I stared at him.
“Are you insane?”
“A little.”
Vincent’s vehicle screeched to a stop beside us.
He jumped out.
Julian followed.
“You two alive?”
I pushed open my door.
“I’m reconsidering it.”
Alexander climbed out more slowly.
He looked toward the hotel.
Someone had deliberately sabotaged the car assigned to us.
Which meant the enemy knew exactly which vehicle Vincent would select.
Again.
Inside information.
The abandoned hotel stood against the gray Atlantic like a skeleton.
We entered from the rear.
No electricity except the top floor.
No guards.
No resistance.
That frightened Vincent more than an ambush would have.
On the tenth floor we found one chair.
One television.
One envelope.
No Emily.
The television turned on automatically.
Nathan Cole appeared.
He looked exhausted.
“If you’re watching this, Alexander, then I have failed.”
Julian moved closer.
“Where is my daughter?”
Nathan continued.
“I worked for Sebastian Vale for twenty-seven years.”
Alexander’s face remained still.
“I helped him move money. I forged ownership records. I believed he was protecting the Romano organization from itself.”
Nathan looked down.
“I was wrong.”
The recording jumped.
“Three months ago Sebastian ordered me to prepare documents transferring the reserve trust after your death.”
Another pause.
“I refused.”
“So why run?” Vincent muttered.
Nathan answered as if he heard him.
“Because Sebastian threatened my family.”
I looked at Alexander.
Same method.
Keller’s daughter.
Julian’s daughter.
Always family.
“But there is something Sebastian doesn’t know,” Nathan said.
“Someone else has been watching him.”
The television displayed a photograph.
Gabriel.
“He approached me six months ago. He wanted evidence against his father.”
Nathan looked into the camera.
“If Gabriel is alive, trust him carefully.”
Julian cursed.
“Where is Emily?”
Nathan continued.
“The girl is not with Sebastian.”
Julian froze.
“She was taken by Elena.”
The image changed.
Elena stood beside Emily near a marina.
The child appeared frightened but unharmed.
“Elena Romano has spent thirty-five years believing Vittorio stole her son, her inheritance and her life.”
Eleanor had told us only part of the truth.
Vittorio hadn’t simply paid Gabriel to disappear.
He had taken Gabriel away from Elena when the boy was fourteen after discovering Sebastian was involving him in criminal operations.
Elena never forgave him.
Nathan continued.
“Sebastian wants control. Elena wants revenge.”
Two conspiracies.
One house.
Two different enemies occasionally helping each other and occasionally sabotaging each other.
That explained contradictions that had bothered us from the beginning.
Sebastian poisoned Alexander for money.
Elena took the music box to prevent Sebastian from getting it.
Gabriel returned it to me.
Elena kidnapped Emily—not necessarily to hurt her, but to force Julian away from Sebastian.
“What does she want?” I whispered.
The recording answered.
“Elena wants Gabriel publicly recognized as Vittorio Romano’s heir.”
Alexander shook his head.
“Vittorio wasn’t Gabriel’s father.”
“No,” Eleanor had explained.
But blood still connected them through Alexander’s mother.
The television went black.
Then a live video appeared.
Emily sat at a table eating cereal.
Julian rushed toward the screen.
“Emily!”
She couldn’t hear him.
Elena entered.
Older, elegant, tired.
She looked into the camera.
“Alexander.”
“Where is she?” Julian shouted.
Elena ignored him.
“I have no intention of hurting the child.”
“Then return her.”
“When Gabriel receives what was stolen from him.”
Alexander stepped forward.
“What?”
“The Romano name.”
Gabriel himself appeared behind Elena.
He looked furious.
“I told you I don’t want it.”
Elena turned toward him.
“You don’t know what you want.”
“I want Emily returned.”
“You sound like Vittorio.”
Gabriel’s face tightened.
“I’ll take that as a compliment.”
Elena slapped him.
Julian surged toward the television as though he could cross through it.
Alexander caught him.
Elena looked back at the camera.
“Midnight tomorrow. Old Romano shipyard.”
The feed ended.
Julian turned on Alexander.
“We go.”
“We will.”
“No tricks.”
“We’ll use many tricks.”
“She has my daughter.”
“And walking into a trap without a plan doesn’t help Emily.”
Julian looked ready to hit him.
Instead he turned away.
I watched Alexander.
His fever was returning.
He tried to hide it.
I noticed his hand shaking.
“Sit down.”
“I’m fine.”
“You’re not.”
He sighed.
“Claire.”
“Sit.”
Vincent looked fascinated.
“Nobody talks to him like that.”
Alexander sat.
“Apparently one person does.”
I checked his temperature.
Too high.
Rebecca had warned us his body was still recovering.
I handed him the correct medicine.
He stared at the tablet.
Something passed through his eyes.
Fear.
A strange thing to see in Alexander Romano.
“You don’t trust it,” I said.
He looked at me.
“I trust you.”
He swallowed it.
Three words.
That was all.
But after days in a house where trust could get people killed, they meant more than any declaration.
We left the hotel.
Outside, dawn was breaking.
Vincent received a call.
His face changed.
“What?”
He looked toward Alexander.
“Dr. Keller escaped.”
“That’s good.”
“No.”
Vincent lowered the phone.
“He says Sebastian let him escape deliberately.”
“Why?”
“To deliver a message.”
“What message?”
Vincent stared at me.
“Sebastian says Claire’s mother didn’t die from cancer.”
My entire world stopped.
“What?”
“He says Margaret Bennett was murdered.”
And suddenly the case was no longer only about saving Alexander.
May you like
It was about discovering what had really happened to my mother.
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