Chapter 7 - Sophie Heard What No One Else Did
We traced Gabriel’s call to an industrial district near the river.
By the time Marco’s men reached the location, the warehouse was empty.
Almost.
They found Gabriel’s car.
His phone.
Blood on the concrete.
And a chair with plastic restraints cut open beside it.
No body.
That gave me something I had not possessed for the previous hour.
Hope.
Small.
Unreliable.
But alive.
“If they wanted him dead, why leave evidence?” Marco asked.
“To make us believe he is.”
“Or because he escaped.”
“Find him.”
While Marco organized the search, Luca continued analyzing Mateo’s card.
It contained years of secrets.
Some I recognized.
Some I wished I didn’t.
Damien had been selling security routes long before I caught him.
But the payments from Raven Holdings were only part of the story.
Money entered Raven accounts.
Then moved somewhere else.
A second company.
Talon Group.
Registered overseas.
The owner information was hidden.
Luca looked frustrated.
“I need time.”
“You keep saying that.”
“Because computers don’t become faster when you threaten them.”
Marco almost smiled.
I did not.
Sophie sat nearby drawing.
I had resisted keeping her in the room.
Elena refused to leave her alone.
And after what happened, I trusted no nursery, bedroom, or employee enough to separate them.
The triplets were downstairs with two doctors and four guards.
Every room had been manually searched.
Every mattress removed.
Every toy inspected.
No more devices.
For now.
Sophie hummed quietly.
Then stopped.
She looked toward Luca’s laptop.
“What?”
She pointed.
“That sound.”
All of us went still.
“What sound?”
“The clicking man.”
Luca stared at his speakers.
“I didn’t play a click.”
Sophie walked closer.
“There.”
He replayed the audio.
Mateo’s recording.
Voices.
Static.
Cars.
Then Sophie pointed.
“There.”
Luca stopped.
“What did you hear?”
She tapped the desk twice.
Click.
Click.
I heard nothing except background noise.
Luca put on headphones.
Then handed them to me.
I listened.
At first, nothing.
Then faintly, buried beneath Gabriel and Mateo talking—
tap.
tap.
A ring against glass.
Sophie smiled because we finally understood.
“The clicking man does that.”
Marco’s face changed.
“You heard someone doing that downstairs?”
“Yes.”
“Who?”
She frowned.
“I don’t know his name.”
I pulled up photographs of every male staff member.
One by one.
“No.”
“No.”
“No.”
She rejected Victor.
Guards.
Drivers.
Gardeners.
Chefs.
Then we reached older photographs.
Former employees.
Sophie shook her head.
She could not have known men who left before she began visiting the estate.
Then Marco opened a photograph from a charity event three months earlier.
Several people stood behind me.
Businessmen.
Lawyers.
Politicians.
Sophie leaned close.
Her finger touched the screen.
“Him.”
I stopped breathing.
She was pointing at a man near the back.
Tall.
Silver hair.
Expensive dark suit.
Black signet ring.
His name was Dominic Russo.
Gabriel’s uncle.
And my father’s oldest surviving friend.
Dominic had known me since I was a child.
After my father died, Dominic advised me.
He never officially joined my organization.
He did not need to.
Men listened when he spoke.
He had introduced Gabriel and me when we were teenagers.
Marco whispered, “No.”
Sophie nodded confidently.
“He clicks.”
I enlarged the image.
Dominic’s ring.
Black onyx.
A raven.
I had seen it hundreds of times.
But so had Damien.
The ring Damien wore had been nearly identical.
I suddenly remembered why.
Dominic had given rings to several young men who once worked under him.
A symbol of loyalty.
A raven.
Damien had been one.
So had Gabriel.
But Gabriel stopped wearing his years ago.
“Dominic was here three days ago,” Marco said.
“I know.”
“For dinner.”
“I know.”
“He knows the house.”
“I know.”
“He knows every old code.”
“I know.”
The last words came out harder than necessary.
Marco became silent.
My father used to say betrayal hurt most when the knife carried fingerprints you recognized.
I had always considered that theatrical.
Now I understood.
“Find Dominic.”
Marco called.
No answer.
House.
No answer.
Driver.
No answer.
Estate manager.
Finally someone answered.
Marco listened.
Then looked at me.
“Dominic left yesterday morning.”
“For where?”
“They don’t know.”
“Check airport records.”
Luca was already typing.
No commercial flight.
No registered private departure.
That meant nothing for someone like Dominic.
Elena stood beside Sophie.
“What would he want with my husband?”
I did not know.
Then I remembered something Mateo had said.
“Someone close to you was betraying you.”
Close.
Not employed by me.
Close.
Dominic fit.
He had information because I gave it to him.
My father had trusted him.
I had trusted him.
Gabriel trusted him most of all.
Luca suddenly spoke.
“I found Talon Group.”
We gathered around the screen.
The corporate trail crossed three countries.
Five shell companies.
Then finally led to a trust.
Beneficiary:
Dominic A. Russo.
Nobody spoke.
Elena sank into a chair.
“My husband died because of him.”
“Looks that way,” Marco said.
I stared at the name.
“Why?”
Luca opened another folder.
A letter.
Written by Mateo.
Never sent.
Adrien,
If you find this, I was right.
Damien is not the top. He reports to D.R.
I don’t know how long this has been happening.
They’re moving money from both sides of the war.
Every time Moretti loses men, they profit.
Every time Vieri loses men, they profit.
Someone is feeding both families enough information to keep the fighting alive.
If I disappear, protect Elena and Sophie.
They know nothing.
I read the final line twice.
Protect Elena and Sophie.
I had failed Mateo without even knowing he asked.
But I would not fail again.
Then the door opened.
A guard rushed inside.
“Boss.”
“What?”
“We found Gabriel.”
I stood.
“Alive?”
“Yes.”
“Where?”
“North service road. He collapsed near a gas station.”
“Condition?”
“Bad.”
“Bring him.”
“He’s already coming.”
Twenty minutes later Gabriel was carried into my estate.
Bruised.
Bloodied.
One eye swollen closed.
His shirt torn.
But alive.
A doctor began treating him in the guest room.
I waited until Gabriel could speak.
Then I entered.
He saw my face.
“Adrien.”
“Dominic.”
His eye closed.
That was answer enough.
“You knew.”
“For three days.”
“Three days?”
“I found financial records.”
“And instead of telling me, you ran?”
“I was trying to confirm them.”
“You disabled my cameras?”
“No.”
“You used my office?”
“Yes.”
My hand tightened.
“Why?”
“To copy security logs.”
“Why?”
“Because I suspected your system was compromised.”
“You could have told me.”
“I didn’t know who you could trust.”
“You could trust me.”
He laughed weakly.
“Could I?”
The question angered me because part of me understood it.
“Did you know about Mateo?”
Gabriel’s face changed.
“I knew he suspected Damien.”
“Did you send him to that warehouse?”
“No.”
“Your voice is on the recording.”
“I told him not to go.”
“You also told him not to tell me.”
“I wanted to catch Damien.”
“And Mateo died.”
Pain crossed Gabriel’s face.
“Yes.”
“Then you helped hire his widow into my house.”
“I recognized Elena immediately.”
“Why hire her?”
“Guilt.”
Elena stood at the doorway.
Gabriel saw her.
“I’m sorry.”
She did not answer.
“Why did Dominic target the triplets?” I asked.
Gabriel looked toward Marco.
“He didn’t intend to kill them.”
“That does not make me feel better.”
“He wanted to frighten you.”
“Why?”
“Because Mateo’s card disappeared.”
“After seven years?”
“Dominic learned Elena had it.”
“How?”
“Damien saw the music box when he broke into her apartment six months ago.”
Elena stared.
“My apartment?”
“He couldn’t find the card. So Dominic decided fear would force her to reveal where Mateo hid it.”
“And the doll?”
“Damien planted it near the laundry because he wanted Sophie to pick it up.”
My blood became ice.
“He used a four-year-old.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because Dominic knew Elena would trust something her daughter found before she trusted anything delivered directly.”
I looked away.
“And the devices beneath my children?”
Gabriel swallowed.
“To create panic. Then the doll would react. Sophie would notice. Dominic expected Elena to become terrified enough to remember Mateo’s hidden evidence.”
“Instead Sophie found the transmitter.”
“Yes.”
Gabriel looked at me.
“Dominic underestimated her.”
Everyone had.
Then Gabriel forced himself upright despite the doctor’s protest.
“Adrien, there’s something else.”
“What?”
“Dominic knows you have the card now.”
“How?”
“He asked me before I escaped.”
The room became silent.
“What did you tell him?”
“Nothing.”
“Then why are you worried?”
“Because he said he didn’t need me anymore.”
Gabriel looked toward the window.
“He said the next time you heard the click, it wouldn’t be coming from a toy.”
At that exact moment, an alarm sounded downstairs.
Not fire.
Not intrusion.
One of the security sensors.
Marco grabbed his radio.
“What happened?”
Static.
Then a guard’s voice.
“Movement detected in the old east corridor.”
I frowned.
“That corridor is sealed.”
The guard answered.
“It was.”
May you like
A pause.
“Someone opened it from inside the wall.”
