Chapter 6 - THE MAN VINCENT TRUSTED MOST
Vincent reached the maintenance van in less than three minutes.
The door stood open.
Two guards lay unconscious.
Michael was waiting beside them.
“Where is she?”
“We don’t know.”
Vincent slammed him against the van.
Guards raised weapons.
Michael lifted one hand.
“Stand down.”
Nobody moved.
Vincent’s face was inches from his.
“Samuel says you’re Crown.”
Michael stared at him.
Then laughed.
Not nervously.
Sadly.
“Of course he does.”
Vincent tightened his grip.
“Give me one reason not to kill you.”
“Because Isabella called me seven minutes before she disappeared.”
Vincent stopped.
Michael reached slowly for his phone.
“Play it.”
Michael did.
Isabella’s voice filled the van.
“Michael, don’t tell Vincent yet. I saw Victoria near the east tunnel. I think she’s meeting someone. I’m following her.”
The recording ended.
Vincent released Michael.
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“She said not to.”
“And since when do you take orders from my wife?”
Michael almost smiled.
“Since tonight.”
Samuel arrived behind them.
The moment Michael saw him, his expression changed.
“You.”
Samuel backed away.
Vincent stepped between them.
“Someone explains now.”
Michael pointed at Samuel.
“That man stole ninety million dollars from your father.”
Samuel snapped, “To keep Crown from taking it.”
“You disappeared.”
“Because Antonio ordered me to.”
“You let Vincent believe you were dead.”
“To keep him alive.”
Vincent rubbed his forehead.
Again.
Everybody protecting him.
“Enough.”
Both men became silent.
“Michael, why does Samuel think you’re Crown?”
Michael removed his jacket.
A scar crossed his shoulder.
“Because twenty years ago I was.”
Vincent stared.
Michael continued.
“Not willingly.”
His father had owed money to men associated with Crown.
At nineteen, Michael was recruited as a courier.
By twenty-two, he was moving money.
At twenty-four, Antonio discovered him.
“I thought your father would kill me,” Michael said.
“Instead?”
“He gave me a choice. Prison or work for him.”
Vincent remembered when Michael joined the family.
Antonio had introduced him as a driver.
Michael had eventually become Vincent’s closest friend.
“You were Father’s informant.”
“Yes.”
Samuel nodded reluctantly.
“He helped us investigate.”
“Then why accuse him?”
“Because Michael disappeared the night Antonio was poisoned.”
Michael’s jaw tightened.
“I was following the killer.”
“Who?”
“I never saw the face.”
“Convenient.”
Vincent’s phone rang.
Isabella.
He answered immediately.
“Where are you?”
Silence.
Then breathing.
“Vincent?”
“I’m here.”
Her voice trembled.
“I found Victoria.”
“Where?”
“Your father’s old warehouse.”
“Stay hidden.”
“It’s too late.”
A man’s voice appeared in the background.
“Mrs. Moretti.”
Vincent went cold.
“Isabella?”
The phone fell.
Footsteps.
Then Victoria screamed.
The call ended.
Vincent was already moving.
The old Moretti warehouse stood beside the Chicago River.
It had been abandoned for thirteen years.
Michael drove.
Samuel sat in the back.
Vincent said almost nothing.
Twenty minutes later they arrived.
No lights.
No guards.
Too easy.
Vincent entered through a side door.
“Isabella!”
Nothing.
They moved deeper.
Then lights snapped on.
Victoria sat tied to a chair.
Isabella was beside her.
Untied.
Vincent stopped.
Isabella looked at him.
“Don’t come closer.”
A laser dot appeared on Vincent’s chest.
Sniper.
Michael reached for his weapon.
“Don’t,” Isabella warned.
A voice echoed from speakers.
“Welcome home, Vincent.”
Vincent recognized it.
Not the voice itself.
The confidence.
Someone who knew him.
“Show yourself.”
A man walked from behind stacked shipping containers.
Tall.
Gray suit.
Silver hair.
Vincent stared.
“Uncle Robert.”
Robert Moretti smiled.
Antonio’s younger brother.
The man who had supposedly died in a boating accident fifteen years earlier.
“Hello, nephew.”
Vincent almost laughed.
Apparently death meant very little in his family.
“You look good for a corpse.”
“And you look exactly like Antonio.”
Robert’s smile vanished.
“I always hated that.”
Samuel whispered, “Crown.”
Robert bowed slightly.
“At last.”
Vincent looked at Isabella.
“You okay?”
“Yes.”
“Victoria?”
Victoria was crying.
“I’m sorry.”
“For what?”
She looked at Robert.
“He made me do it.”
Robert sighed.
“Everyone says that eventually.”
Vincent’s eyes hardened.
“Let them go.”
“Soon.”
“What do you want?”
“The ledger.”
“You stole it.”
“A copy.”
Vincent frowned.
Robert smiled.
“Antonio never trusted paper. The real ledger is encrypted.”
“The keys.”
“Exactly.”
Samuel stepped forward.
“You have the watch.”
Robert reached into his pocket.
He held it up.
“And now I have the first key.”
Vincent looked at Isabella.
“The second?”
Robert smiled at her.
“Mrs. Moretti knows.”
Isabella shook her head.
“I don’t.”
Robert walked toward her.
“You’ve spent six years pretending not to understand Antonio’s final gift.”
“I gave Samuel what he gave me.”
“No.”
Robert touched her wedding ring.
Vincent took one step forward.
The sniper laser moved to Isabella.
He stopped.
Robert looked at the ring.
“Antonio gave Vincent this ring before their wedding.”
Vincent remembered.
His father had insisted he use a particular family ring.
Robert smiled.
“Take it off.”
Isabella did.
Robert examined the inside.
Tiny engraving.
I.M. — V.M. — SEMPRE.
Always.
Robert twisted the band.
It separated.
A microscopic key slid out.
Vincent stared.
His father had hidden the second key in Isabella’s wedding ring.
For more than a decade.
Robert laughed.
“Antonio was clever.”
“Not clever enough,” Vincent said.
Robert’s smile faded.
Vincent continued.
“He knew you.”
Robert froze.
“He knew you were Crown.”
Silence.
Samuel stared.
Michael looked toward Robert.
Vincent saw confirmation in Robert’s eyes.
“You killed him.”
Robert’s face hardened.
“Antonio chose outsiders over blood.”
“Samuel was his blood.”
“A bastard.”
Samuel stepped forward.
Robert drew a gun.
Vincent moved between them.
“Careful.”
Robert smiled.
“There he is. The famous Vincent Moretti.”
He held both keys.
“You know what these unlock?”
“Tell me.”
“Not money.”
Robert’s eyes gleamed.
“An empire.”
He turned toward Victoria.
“Your sister helped me for four years.”
Victoria sobbed.
“No.”
Vincent looked at her.
Robert continued.
“She gave me schedules. Passwords. Account access.”
Victoria shook her head desperately.
“I didn’t know who he was.”
“You knew enough.”
“I thought he was helping Daniel!”
Daniel.
Vincent’s expression changed.
“Where is Daniel?”
Robert smiled.
“That is an excellent question.”
A screen behind them switched on.
Daniel appeared.
He was sitting inside Vincent’s mansion.
Beside Catherine.
Neither was tied.
Daniel looked directly into the camera.
Then Catherine spoke.
“Vincent.”
Her voice was calm.
Too calm.
“You need to listen carefully.”
Vincent stared at the screen.
Catherine continued.
“Robert isn’t the person you should be afraid of.”
May you like
Behind her, Daniel slowly raised a gun.
And pointed it at his mother’s head.
