Chapter 9 - The Night They Escaped the Basement
Gabriel did not reach for his weapon.
That probably saved his life.
He placed both hands on the dashboard.
“Your father kept files on everyone.”
Dominic stared at him.
“Why are you in the archive?”
“Because twenty-one years ago, I worked for him.”
“I know that.”
“Not the part you're thinking.”
Gabriel looked back.
“I investigated Marcus's mother.”
Dominic went still.
Elena watched both men.
“Why?”
“Your father believed she was stealing from him.”
Dominic's face hardened.
“Was she?”
“No.”
Gabriel's answer came immediately.
“She was trying to escape.”
Silence.
Gabriel continued.
“Your father ordered me to find her and bring her back.”
“What did you do?”
“I found her.”
Dominic's voice dropped.
“And?”
“I gave her money and told your father she'd crossed into Canada.”
Dominic stared.
Gabriel swallowed.
“She lived another eleven years in Oregon.”
Dominic's expression changed.
“Marcus thinks she died after leaving Boston.”
“She wanted him protected from your father.”
“Did Marcus know you helped her?”
“No.”
Elena understood.
“The archive contains proof.”
Gabriel nodded.
“Probably.”
Dominic slowly lowered his weapon.
“Why didn't you tell me?”
“Because I was ashamed it took me that long to do one decent thing.”
Dominic looked away.
Nobody spoke until they reached the safe house.
Noah was still asleep.
Elena checked on him immediately.
Only after seeing him breathing peacefully did she allow herself to think about what had happened.
Derek.
Marcus.
The archive.
Gabriel.
Everything was connected to old choices.
Old secrets.
People trying to escape the consequences of things done years earlier.
Dominic entered the room quietly.
“Noah okay?”
“Yes.”
He nodded.
Elena looked at his hands.
One knuckle was bleeding slightly.
“You're hurt.”
“Barely.”
“Sit.”
“Elena.”
“Sit.”
He obeyed.
She cleaned his hand.
Dominic watched her.
“You could have died tonight.”
“So could you.”
“You weren't supposed to leave the vehicle.”
“You weren't supposed to get kidnapped by your brother. We all make mistakes.”
Dominic almost smiled.
Then his expression became serious.
“Derek.”
Elena's shoulders tightened.
“He won't get another chance.”
“What does that mean?”
Dominic said nothing.
Elena stopped wrapping his hand.
“Dominic.”
“He endangered you and Noah.”
“Yes.”
“And there are consequences.”
“Legal consequences.”
Dominic looked at her.
“Don't.”
“Don't what?”
“Ask me to become something I'm not.”
Elena held his gaze.
“I'm asking you to decide what you want to be.”
That landed harder.
Dominic looked away.
Elena continued softly.
“You spent your life saying your father created Marcus.”
“I never said that.”
“You practically did.”
“I said he damaged him.”
“Fine.”
She tied the bandage.
“What damages Noah if he grows up believing every dangerous man deserves to disappear?”
Dominic looked toward the bedroom.
Elena stepped closer.
“You want to protect him?”
“Yes.”
“Then show him power can stop before cruelty.”
For a long moment Dominic said nothing.
Finally he picked up his phone.
Called Gabriel.
“Derek Walsh.”
Pause.
“No. Don't hurt him.”
Another pause.
“Collect evidence connecting him to Marcus. Send it anonymously to the police and his probation officer.”
He looked at Elena.
“Legal consequences.”
Elena nodded.
“Thank you.”
Dominic ended the call.
“You make my life unnecessarily complicated.”
“Your life involved secret tunnels and basement chains before me.”
“Fair.”
They returned to the archive.
The brass key numbers were one portion of the authentication.
The second portion required a phrase.
Dominic believed his father had hidden it in the mansion.
Elena remembered the chapel.
The Saint Michael painting.
Something about it bothered her.
“What?”
Dominic asked.
“The painting.”
“What about it?”
“The compartment wasn't original.”
“How do you know?”
“Dust.”
Dominic stared.
“Dust?”
“The frame had years of dust. The interior compartment didn't.”
Gabriel leaned forward.
“Someone accessed it recently.”
Elena nodded.
“Marcus?”
“Maybe.”
Dominic considered.
“But if Marcus knew about the key, he wouldn't have been surprised when you found it.”
“So somebody else opened the compartment.”
They returned to camera records from the mansion.
Marcus had erased most footage.
But backups existed off-site.
Two weeks before Dominic's capture, someone entered the chapel.
A woman.
Older.
Silver hair.
Elegant posture.
Dominic leaned toward the screen.
“No.”
Elena looked at him.
“Who is she?”
Dominic's face had lost color.
“Evelyn Shaw.”
“Who?”
“My father's attorney.”
Gabriel whispered, “She's been missing for three months.”
The footage showed Evelyn removing the painting.
Opening the compartment.
But she did not take the key.
Instead she placed something inside.
A tiny folded piece of paper.
Elena remembered.
When she found the key, there had been no paper.
“Marcus got there before us,” she said.
“No.”
Dominic zoomed the image.
Evelyn placed the paper underneath the key.
Elena had removed the key quickly.
Maybe the paper had fallen.
Dominic stood.
“We go back.”
Gabriel shook his head.
“Marcus controls the mansion.”
Dominic nodded.
“Which is why he'll never expect us.”
Elena stared at him.
“That logic is terrible.”
“Yet historically effective.”
She sighed.
“When?”
Dominic looked at the clock.
“Tonight.”
At 2:00 a.m., they entered through the tunnel again.
Elena felt strangely emotional when they reached the basement.
The restraint still hung from the wall.
Dominic stopped.
For several seconds he stared at it.
Elena touched his arm.
“You're not there anymore.”
He looked at her.
“No.”
They climbed to the chapel.
The paper lay beneath a cabinet exactly where Elena suspected.
She unfolded it.
Three words.
Where brothers began.
Dominic frowned.
Elena asked, “What does it mean?”
Then Dominic's eyes changed.
“I know.”
“Where?”
“Our childhood home.”
“Is it still standing?”
“Yes.”
“Who owns it?”
Dominic looked at her.
“Marcus.”
And across the city, Marcus sat alone in his office holding another copy of the same message.
Because Evelyn Shaw had never trusted either brother enough to give only one of them the clue.
May you like
The next key to the Crane empire waited in the house where Dominic and Marcus had first learned to hate each other.
---
