Chapter 7 - I WALKED INTO THE TRAP ALONE
Richard tore the photograph in half.
I stared at him.
“Did you seriously just do that?”
“It was bait.”
“It was evidence.”
“It was bait pretending to be evidence.”
“You don’t know that.”
“I know whoever placed it wanted you separated from me.”
“Maybe because you’re lying.”
His face hardened.
“I have lied by omission.”
“That distinction matters mainly to people doing the omitting.”
“Elena.”
“I need air.”
“You are not leaving this building alone.”
“I wasn’t asking.”
He stepped closer.
For a moment I thought he might try to physically stop me.
He didn’t.
He simply said, “If you go to that address tonight, someone will take you.”
“You sound certain.”
“I am.”
“Why?”
“Because that is what I would do.”
I stared at him.
Sometimes Richard’s honesty was more disturbing than his secrets.
We returned to Lancaster House just before noon.
I avoided him.
That became difficult because he seemed to be everywhere without ever entering the same room.
At lunch, Max asked whether married people could be angry before getting married.
“Yes,” I said.
Richard, standing near the window, looked at me.
Max nodded thoughtfully.
“Good.”
“Why good?”
“Because Dad is always angry.”
“I am not always angry,” Richard said.
Alex looked up from his sandwich.
“You kind of are.”
Traitorous amusement hit me.
Richard’s sons were the only people alive who could insult him without consequences.
Possibly because they were the only people he loved more than power.
That realization made the decisions ahead harder.
At seven thirty that evening, I changed into black jeans and a sweater.
I had no intention of obeying Richard.
I also had no intention of walking blindly into a trap.
I left my phone in the bathroom.
Then I borrowed one from Teresa.
“Do I want to know?” she asked.
“No.”
She handed it over anyway.
“I worked for Isabella for eleven years.”
I stopped.
“She trusted you?”
“With her children.”
“Did she trust Dominic?”
Teresa’s mouth tightened.
“Until the final year.”
“And Gabriel?”
“Never.”
“Why?”
“Because Gabriel believed love was ownership.”
She looked toward the hall.
“Richard has many faults. But he has never confused the two.”
That stayed with me.
I sent Richard a message from my phone saying I was taking a bath.
Then climbed from my bathroom window onto the lower terrace.
It was the stupidest thing I had done in my life.
It was also surprisingly easy.
Richard’s security system was apparently designed to prevent people from entering, not determined fake fiancées from escaping.
Twenty minutes later, Teresa’s old sedan was carrying me toward Manhattan.
The address led to an abandoned church in Hell’s Kitchen.
Of course it did.
Apparently mysterious criminals never invited people to well-lit bookstores.
I parked half a block away.
Before going inside, I activated the voice recorder on Teresa’s phone and sent Richard a delayed email containing the address.
If I failed to cancel it within thirty minutes, it would send automatically.
I was reckless.
Not suicidal.
Inside the church, dozens of candles burned near the altar.
A man stood beneath a broken stained-glass window.
Dominic Caruso.
Silver snake cufflinks.
My heart sank.
He was older than Richard, perhaps late fifties, with carefully combed gray hair and a pleasant expression.
“You have your father’s courage.”
“And apparently his terrible judgment.”
Dominic smiled.
“You came.”
“Talk.”
“You want to know who killed Thomas.”
“Yes.”
“Sebastian Lancaster.”
The answer came too quickly.
I stared.
“Why should I believe you?”
“Because Sebastian discovered Thomas intended to expose accounts that would have destroyed the Lancaster family.”
“Richard says you were stealing from them.”
“Richard says whatever protects his father’s memory.”
“My father named you.”
Dominic’s smile faded slightly.
“Thomas misunderstood what he found.”
“He specifically recorded your name.”
“And Sebastian’s.”
True.
I hated that.
Dominic stepped closer.
“Richard was there that night.”
“I know.”
“He saw his father threaten Thomas.”
My stomach tightened.
“He told me he arrived after my father left.”
“Another lie.”
I said nothing.
Dominic continued.
“Sebastian demanded the ledger. Thomas refused. Richard argued with his father.”
“Why?”
“Because Richard was young enough to believe morality mattered more than family.”
That sounded like the man my father had described.
“What happened?”
“Richard left.”
“And?”
“Thomas disappeared.”
I stared at him.
“That still doesn’t prove Sebastian killed him.”
“No.”
Dominic reached inside his coat.
I tensed.
He produced an envelope.
Inside was a police photograph of my father’s wrecked car.
I nearly dropped it.
The driver’s side had been crushed.
“Look at the brake line.”
“I’m not a mechanic.”
“It was cut.”
My heart hammered.
“The official report said equipment failure.”
“The official report was rewritten.”
“By whom?”
“Sebastian owned a police captain.”
Cold nausea climbed my throat.
“Richard knew?”
“He learned later.”
“How much later?”
Dominic smiled sadly.
“Ask him.”
I hated Richard in that moment.
Because I believed at least part of it.
“Why are you helping me?”
Dominic’s expression changed.
“I am helping myself.”
There it was.
“What do you want?”
“The key.”
My blood froze.
“I don’t have it.”
“You are a poor liar.”
He moved closer.
“Your father hid the ledger. Isabella tried to find it. Now Richard wants it.”
“Why?”
“Because whoever possesses it controls what remains of the old Lancaster organization.”
I shook my head.
“No. Richard already controls it.”
“Publicly.”
Dominic’s eyes became colder.
“But there are men who still consider Sebastian’s old agreements sacred. The ledger proves who betrayed whom.”
He held out his hand.
“Give me the key.”
“No.”
His smile vanished.
“I had hoped you inherited Thomas’s intelligence.”
“Mostly his stubbornness.”
“Yes. That too.”
Movement sounded behind me.
Two men stepped from the shadows.
I backed away.
“So Richard was right.”
“About what?”
“This being a trap.”
Dominic sighed.
“Richard is right too often. It is irritating.”
I reached into my pocket.
Not for the key.
For pepper spray Teresa kept in the car.
I hit the nearest man directly in the eyes.
He shouted.
I ran.
The second grabbed my arm.
I kicked his knee.
Not elegantly.
Not effectively.
He barely moved.
Then headlights blasted through the church’s side windows.
Engines roared outside.
Dominic’s expression changed.
“How?”
I smiled breathlessly.
“Richard isn’t the only person who plans ahead.”
The doors exploded open.
Richard walked inside with six men.
He looked furious enough to burn the building down.
“Let her go.”
The man holding me released my arm instantly.
Dominic laughed.
“There he is.”
Richard’s eyes remained on me.
“Are you hurt?”
“No.”
“Good.”
His gaze shifted to Dominic.
“Because if she were, this conversation would be shorter.”
Dominic smiled.
“You always did become emotional over strays.”
Richard stepped forward.
“Elena is not a stray.”
The sentence hit something inside me.
Dominic noticed.
“So that is the complication.”
“No complication.”
“Isabella would be amused.”
Richard’s face changed.
“What did you say?”
“You still don’t know, do you?”
“Know what?”
Dominic looked at me.
Then at Richard.
“Isabella didn’t find Elena because of Thomas’s ledger.”
My heart pounded.
“Then why?”
Dominic’s smile returned.
“Because Isabella discovered Elena was family.”
Silence filled the ruined church.
I stared at him.
“What does that mean?”
Dominic’s eyes gleamed.
“Ask Richard’s dead wife who Elena Hart’s mother really was.”
Before anyone could move, the stained-glass window shattered.
A gunshot cracked through the church.
Richard slammed into me.
May you like
We hit the floor.
And when I opened my eyes, blood was spreading across his white shirt.
