Chapter 13 - A Traitor at My Table
Gabriel's recording lasted twenty-eight minutes.
Elias listened twice.
Nobody interrupted.
Gabriel explained that the car fire had been staged after Samuel's men pulled him from the wreckage.
He survived with burns, broken ribs, and brain trauma.
Samuel realized Gabriel might know where the archive was hidden.
So he kept him alive.
Interrogation became imprisonment.
Imprisonment became years.
Gabriel refused to reveal where Elena and the twins were.
What he didn't know was that Samuel already had Rose.
“He used to show me pictures of her,” Gabriel said in the recording.
“Told me she called him Father.”
Rose left the room during that section.
Elias understood.
Gabriel continued.
He had eventually escaped with help from an Ashford nurse.
Rosalind found him eight years after the original car fire.
By then Gabriel was dying from untreated complications and years of poor medical care.
“I wanted to call you,” Gabriel said.
“But every time I pictured it, I saw you bringing an army.”
Elias almost smiled through tears.
Accurate.
“Rosalind promised she'd find Michael and Rose first.”
She did.
Too late for Gabriel to see them together.
But he learned both were alive.
That was enough, he said.
Near the end, Gabriel's voice became softer.
“One thing you need to know.”
Elias leaned forward.
“Vincent didn't betray me.”
Across the room, Vincent closed his eyes.
“He made mistakes. Big ones. But he didn't betray me.”
Elias looked at the older man.
“Matteo didn't either.”
Matteo was absent, still at the Ashford facility under guard.
Gabriel continued.
“The leak came from someone closer.”
A pause.
“Someone who ate at our father's table.”
Elias felt cold.
“Our cousin Dominic.”
Dominic Serra.
Vincent had named him earlier as a suspect.
Dominic died ten years ago.
Or supposedly.
Elias nearly laughed.
Death certificates had become worthless paper.
Gabriel continued.
“Dominic worked for Samuel because Samuel had evidence against his son.”
Elias remembered Dominic's son.
Anthony.
Twenty at the time.
Drug problems.
Later disappeared.
“Dominic fed him information about Elena, the twins, Falcone shipping routes, everything.”
Then Gabriel said:
“But Dominic wasn't the only one.”
Elias waited.
“There was someone else.”
Static distorted the audio.
For several seconds the recording broke.
Then returned.
“…still alive.”
The name was missing.
Elias swore.
Rose came back in.
“Can we recover it?”
Rafael examined the file.
“Maybe.”
“Do it.”
The lodge suddenly felt unsafe.
If another traitor from thirteen years earlier remained alive, that person might be nearby.
Elias looked around the room.
Vincent.
Henry.
Elena.
Bernadette.
Rafael.
Rose.
Evelyn upstairs.
Who had eaten at the Falcone table thirteen years ago?
Dozens.
But family table?
Far fewer.
Elias's father had hosted Sunday dinners.
Vincent.
Dominic.
Several capos.
Matteo occasionally as junior security.
Bernadette serving.
Rosalind later.
One man Elias hadn't thought about in years.
Father Sebastian Cole.
Family priest.
Close to Gabriel.
Close to Elias's parents.
Still alive.
Retired to a monastery.
Could a priest be the traitor?
Possible.
But Gabriel said “someone who ate at our father's table.”
Could be literal or metaphorical.
Rafael worked on the audio.
Then the lodge phone rang.
Everyone stared.
The landline had not rung in years.
Elias answered.
Samuel.
“Enjoying family history?”
“How did you get this number?”
“I've known about that lodge since your father bought it.”
Elias looked at Vincent.
Vincent shook his head.
“Where are you?”
“Closer than you think.”
“Original.”
Samuel laughed.
“You have three pieces.”
“You have one.”
“So Rosalind told you.”
“Yes.”
“She always was arrogant.”
“Smarter than you.”
“That depends on whether dead people can be called smart.”
Elias gripped the phone.
Samuel continued.
“I need the rings.”
“No.”
“I have Evelyn's locket.”
“Congratulations.”
“And something else.”
A pause.
“Matteo.”
Elias looked toward Rafael.
“What?”
“He left Ashford ten minutes ago.”
“Impossible. Our men—”
Samuel's laugh came through the phone.
“They weren't your men.”
Elias turned toward Rafael.
“Contact Ashford.”
Rafael tried.
Nothing.
Samuel continued.
“You keep confusing uniforms with loyalty.”
Then the line went dead.
Rafael's face hardened.
“Teams don't answer.”
Elias looked at Vincent.
“If Samuel has Matteo…”
“He can force information.”
“Does Matteo know where we are?”
“Yes.”
Wonderful.
“We move.”
Within minutes the lodge became organized chaos.
Evelyn bundled baby Rosalind.
Elena refused to leave Rose.
Henry complained he was too old for constant relocation.
Bernadette told him, “Then you should have made better decisions when you were young.”
Elias almost liked her more every hour.
Before departure, Rafael suddenly raised a hand.
“Wait.”
His laptop beeped.
“Audio restoration.”
Everyone stopped.
The damaged section of Gabriel's recording replayed.
“…Dominic wasn't the only one. There was someone else. Someone Samuel trusted enough to leave inside our house.”
Static.
Then clearer.
“Avery called him…”
More distortion.
“…Quinn.”
Elias froze.
Bernadette's surname.
Quinn.
Everyone looked at her.
Bernadette went white.
“No.”
Elias stared.
“Who?”
“I don't know.”
“Your husband?”
“My husband died thirty years ago.”
“Children?”
Bernadette's face tightened.
“I had a son.”
Elias had never known that.
“What was his name?”
“Patrick.”
“Where is he?”
“Dead.”
Of course.
“How?”
“Car accident.”
“When?”
“Fourteen years ago.”
Before Gabriel's death.
“Any other relatives?”
Bernadette sat.
“My younger brother.”
“Name.”
“Malcolm.”
Vincent inhaled.
“I remember him.”
Elias looked at Vincent.
“Who was Malcolm Quinn?”
“Security consultant.”
“For my father?”
“Briefly.”
“Where is he now?”
Bernadette whispered, “Canada.”
“When did you last speak?”
“Twenty years ago.”
Rafael searched.
No Canadian records.
No death record.
No tax history.
Malcolm Quinn had vanished.
Elias felt the pattern.
Not dead.
Hidden.
“Photograph?”
Bernadette thought.
“In an album at the estate.”
“We don't have time.”
Rafael searched older Falcone personnel files.
A scanned badge appeared.
Malcolm Quinn.
Forty at the time.
Tall.
Thin.
Narrow face.
Elias stared.
He had seen the man recently.
Not as Malcolm.
As someone else.
“Victor Hale.”
Rose leaned closer.
The resemblance was clear.
The intruder captured at the estate.
Victor Hale was Malcolm Quinn.
Bernadette covered her mouth.
“My brother.”
Elias understood.
Malcolm had deliberately entered the estate and allowed capture.
He knew Bernadette.
Knew the house.
Knew the old systems.
Possibly planted transmitters.
But who did he work for?
Samuel?
Rose?
Henry?
Himself?
“Where is Victor being held?” Elias asked.
Rafael's face changed.
“At the estate.”
Alone now except for reduced security.
Elias dialed.
No answer.
Again.
Nothing.
Then a message arrived from the estate system.
One image.
Victor standing inside Rosalind's greenhouse.
Free.
Holding the missing torn page from her notebook.
Beneath the photograph:
IF YOU WANT THE NAME OF THE REAL TRAITOR, COME HOME.
A second line appeared.
AND BRING BERNADETTE.
Bernadette stared.
Elias looked at her.
“No.”
She stood.
“He's my brother.”
“He may be working with Samuel.”
“Then I want to hear him say it.”
“Bernadette—”
“For forty years I have watched Falcones make decisions for women and call it protection.”
Rose covered a smile.
Bernadette grabbed her coat.
“I'm going.”
Elias sighed.
“Fine.”
As they prepared to leave, another message appeared.
This one from Samuel.
A live video.
Matteo sat tied to a chair.
Bruised but conscious.
Behind him stood Samuel.
Samuel smiled toward the camera.
“Midnight tomorrow.”
Then he held up Evelyn's locket.
“One archive.”
He moved a knife near Matteo's throat.
“One exchange.”
The video ended.
Elias looked around the room.
Everyone wanted a different rescue.
Matteo.
The archive.
The truth.
Bernadette's brother.
Rose's mother.
Evelyn's future.
And Elias finally understood the trap.
Samuel wasn't trying to defeat them.
He was trying to divide them.
Just as he had divided the family thirteen years earlier.
Elias turned to Rafael.
May you like
“This time, nobody goes alone.”
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