Chapter 9 - The Man Adrien Trusted Most
Gabriel was furious when I showed him Dominic’s note.
“You cannot go.”
“That seems to be everyone’s opinion.”
“Because everyone except you has functioning judgment.”
I stared at him.
He was pale from blood loss, one side of his face swollen.
“You’re lying in my guest bed because Dominic tortured you.”
“And somehow you think that qualifies as evidence that meeting him alone is a good idea?”
“He wants the card.”
“He wants more than the card.”
“What?”
Gabriel looked toward the doctor.
“Leave.”
The doctor hesitated.
“Now.”
When the door closed, Gabriel slowly sat upright.
“My uncle has always wanted control.”
“Of what?”
“Everything.”
“That isn’t an answer.”
“The families. The businesses. The politicians. The ports.”
He grimaced.
“Dominic spent thirty years making powerful men believe he was harmless because he never wanted the title.”
“And?”
“He didn’t want the title because titles create targets.”
I understood.
“He wanted people like my father in front.”
“Yes.”
“And later me.”
Gabriel nodded.
“He advised both Moretti and Vieri interests.”
“He claimed neutrality.”
“He sold neutrality.”
I walked toward the window.
“Mateo discovered it.”
“Part of it.”
“What part didn’t he discover?”
Gabriel remained silent.
I turned.
“What?”
“My father.”
Gabriel rarely spoke about his father.
Antonio Russo died when Gabriel was sixteen.
Official story: heart attack.
“He didn’t die naturally,” Gabriel said.
“Dominic killed him.”
My eyes narrowed.
“Why?”
“Because my father discovered what Dominic was building.”
“Proof?”
Gabriel reached beneath the pillow and removed a small metal key.
Elena had described a key.
I stared.
“Where did you get that?”
“Mateo.”
“No.”
“Yes.”
“Mateo gave Elena a key.”
“He had two.”
Gabriel turned it between his fingers.
“The night before he died, he gave one to me.”
“And you kept it seven years?”
“I didn’t know what it opened.”
“Until now.”
“Yes.”
“What does it open?”
“A private vault Dominic has maintained since the nineties.”
“Where?”
“Old Union Station.”
I laughed once.
“That building has been abandoned for twelve years.”
“Exactly.”
“What’s inside?”
“Records.”
“What records?”
“Everything.”
He looked at me.
“Payoffs. Judges. police. shipments. murders. names.”
“And you know this because?”
“Dominic told me while he had me tied to a chair.”
That surprised me.
“Why?”
“Because he thought I would die.”
Gabriel’s voice became quiet.
“He wanted me to know our entire family had been built on his secrets.”
I looked at the key.
“Then why did he let you escape?”
“He didn’t.”
“You escaped from a man who has survived forty years by never leaving loose ends?”
Gabriel’s eyes hardened.
“Yes.”
I did not believe him.
Not completely.
He saw it.
“You think I’m working with him.”
“I think I don’t know anything anymore.”
“That makes two of us.”
A knock interrupted us.
Marco entered.
He looked from Gabriel to me.
“We have a problem.”
“What?”
“One of the guards is missing.”
“Who?”
“Ethan Cole.”
I knew the name.
Young.
Twenty-nine.
Three years on security.
Former military.
“Last seen?”
“Near the east wing.”
“When?”
“Thirty minutes ago.”
“Search.”
“Already happening.”
Gabriel asked, “Did he have access to the children?”
“Not directly.”
“That means yes,” I said.
Marco did not argue.
We found Ethan’s security jacket in the greenhouse.
Blood stained one sleeve.
No body.
Footprints led toward the outer wall.
Then disappeared.
Another missing man.
Another possible victim.
Or traitor.
At 6 p.m., Luca brought the most disturbing discovery yet.
“The devices weren’t activated randomly.”
He displayed timestamps.
Every acoustic pulse matched moments when specific adults left the nursery.
The pattern was deliberate.
The emitters became strongest when the children were alone or only one nanny remained.
“Someone was watching live,” Luca said.
“From the passage?”
“Maybe.”
“Or cameras?”
“I found a microcamera hidden in the smoke detector.”
I stared at him.
“We searched the nursery.”
“It’s disguised as part of the detector board.”
“Feed?”
“Wireless.”
“To Dominic?”
“Likely.”
“Can we reverse it?”
Luca smiled.
For the first time, I liked that expression.
“I already did.”
He turned the laptop.
A live camera feed appeared.
But not from my nursery.
From another receiver connected to the same network.
Dark room.
Concrete walls.
Metal table.
Someone moved across frame.
Marco leaned closer.
“Freeze.”
Luca stopped the video.
The man turned slightly.
Ethan Cole.
Alive.
No blood visible.
He was carrying equipment.
Not restrained.
Not frightened.
Working.
My missing guard was not a victim.
He was part of it.
Marco’s face became stone.
“I hired him.”
“Who recommended him?” I asked.
Silence.
Then Marco answered.
“Dominic.”
Of course.
Ethan walked out of frame.
A moment later, another figure entered.
Damien Rusk.
Older than the last photograph.
Beard.
Black jacket.
Same raven ring.
“Can you locate them?”
Luca typed.
“Signal bounced.”
“Try.”
He did.
Nothing.
Then the camera shifted.
Damien approached it.
Looked directly into the lens.
As if he knew we were watching.
He smiled.
Then held up a photograph.
Sophie.
Elena inhaled behind us.
I turned.
She had entered without my noticing.
Damien flipped the photograph.
Words were written across the back.
WE KNOW WHICH CHILD FOUND THE CARD.
My vision narrowed.
Marco looked at Elena.
“Get Sophie.”
We moved toward the safe room.
Two guards stood outside.
Inside, the triplets were playing.
Elena searched.
“Sophie?”
No answer.
“Sophie!”
Bathroom.
Empty.
Closet.
Empty.
My pulse stopped.
One window stood cracked open.
Impossible.
The safe room was on the second floor.
Then I saw it.
The decorative vent panel beside the floor had been removed.
Another service passage.
A pink bow lay beside it.
Elena made a sound I will never forget.
Not a scream.
A mother’s breath breaking.
I grabbed my gun.
Marco blocked the opening.
“Adrien.”
“Move.”
“They want you moving without thinking.”
“I said move.”
“Look.”
He pointed at the floor.
Sophie’s doll lay beside the vent.
Its repaired seam had been opened again.
Inside was a folded note.
My hands shook when I unfolded it.
MIDNIGHT HAS BEEN MOVED UP.
BRING THE CARD AND GABRIEL’S KEY.
YOU HAVE ONE HOUR.
I looked at the clock.
6:17 p.m.
Dominic had changed the game.
He no longer needed to frighten my children.
May you like
He had taken the one child who discovered his secret.
And somewhere inside or beyond the walls of my estate, four-year-old Sophie was alone with the men who had killed her father.
