Chapter 5 - THE PRICE OF THE TRUTH
I lunged toward the screen as if I could reach through it.
“Maria!”
Dominic caught my arm.
I ripped away.
“Don’t touch me.”
His hand dropped instantly.
Maria looked terrified.
Her wrists were tied behind the chair.
Derek stepped into frame.
“Don’t worry, Stell. She’s alive.”
“You son of a bitch.”
His smile disappeared.
There.
For one second, I saw the Derek I remembered.
The man whose anger could turn a room cold.
“You always did get brave when somebody else was around.”
My stomach tightened.
Dominic stepped between me and the screen.
“Talk to me.”
Derek laughed.
“This isn’t about you.”
“You entered my mother’s home and kidnapped an employee from my restaurant. It became about me.”
“Account 617.”
“I heard you.”
“Midnight.”
“How do we contact you?”
“I’ll contact Stella.”
The screen went black.
I turned on Dominic.
“We open the account.”
“We will.”
That surprised me.
“No argument?”
“A woman is tied to a chair.”
He looked toward Anthony.
“Find the signal.”
“Working on it.”
“We go to the bank first thing.”
Anthony hesitated.
“There’s another issue.”
“What?”
“Account 617 is at Mercantile Federal.”
“So?”
“It was frozen after your father died.”
Dominic stared.
“Who controls access?”
Anthony checked his phone.
“A trustee.”
“Name.”
Anthony looked up.
“Gabriel Voss.”
The silence that followed felt like a gunshot.
Of course.
Gabriel.
Always Gabriel.
Dominic called him.
No answer.
Again.
Nothing.
“We find him.”
Anthony nodded.
I looked at Dominic.
“What if Derek and Gabriel are working together?”
“They probably are.”
“Then why would Derek need us?”
“Because Gabriel can authorize access, but only the beneficiary can open the archive.”
“You.”
“Yes.”
I stared at the dark screen.
“Derek planned this.”
“Likely.”
“Everything?”
Dominic looked at me.
“What do you mean?”
“Meeting me.”
“Yes.”
“Dating me.”
“Yes.”
“Hurting me?”
Dominic’s expression changed.
“That wasn’t strategy.”
“How do you know?”
“Because men like Derek always tell themselves violence is necessary.”
His voice had become quiet.
“They start with a reason. Then eventually the reason becomes that they enjoy control.”
I looked at him.
There was something personal behind those words.
“You’ve known men like him.”
Dominic smiled without humor.
“I was raised by them.”
We left the pavilion.
By dawn, Dominic’s people had located Gabriel.
Or what remained of him.
His car sat abandoned near Red Hook.
Blood covered the driver’s seat.
No body.
At nine, we reached Mercantile Federal.
The branch manager looked ready to faint when Dominic gave his name.
We were escorted underground.
A lawyer joined us.
Then a security officer.
Account 617 wasn’t a safe-deposit box.
It was an entire private vault.
The door opened.
Inside were shelves.
Documents.
Photographs.
Hard drives.
And one sealed envelope.
DOMINIC.
His father’s handwriting.
Dominic stood staring at it.
“You should open it,” I said.
He didn’t move.
“Dominic.”
He picked it up.
Inside was a letter.
He read silently.
Then handed it to me.
Son,
If you are reading this, Gabriel has either failed me or betrayed me.
Daniel Bennett was innocent.
The theft was mine.
I looked up.
“What?”
Dominic continued reading over my shoulder.
Not theft for profit.
Twenty-eight million dollars had been secretly removed from Russo accounts to fund an escape network.
I read the next paragraph twice.
Vincent Russo had been helping witnesses, abused women, families of informants, and people trying to disappear from criminal organizations.
Daniel had discovered the transactions.
He joined him.
Gabriel believed they were stealing from the family.
Carlos Martinez discovered the truth.
Then he tried to take the money.
The final lines made my hands shake.
Daniel has the ledger.
I gave him the only copy because I trusted him more than myself.
If Daniel is dead, protect his wife and daughter.
They may never know why.
I lowered the letter.
“Your father knew.”
Dominic looked devastated.
“He knew my father was in danger.”
“He tried to protect you.”
“He failed.”
“So did mine.”
We stood silently.
Anthony searched the shelves.
“No ledger.”
I looked around.
“What are all these files?”
Dominic opened one.
Names.
Payments.
New identities.
Evidence of lives saved.
His father’s secret operation.
Everything I believed about the Russo family became more complicated.
Not clean.
Never clean.
But complicated.
My phone rang.
Derek.
I answered.
“Where’s Maria?”
“You found the archive.”
“Yes.”
“And?”
“There’s no ledger.”
Silence.
“Don’t lie to me.”
“I’m not.”
“Put Dominic on.”
I handed him the phone.
“Martinez.”
Derek spoke loudly enough that I heard him.
“Your father killed mine.”
“No.”
“He ordered it.”
“No.”
“Gabriel told me.”
Dominic’s eyes sharpened.
“Gabriel lied.”
“He raised me after my father died.”
There it was.
The connection.
Gabriel hadn’t simply known Derek.
He had shaped him.
“Where is Gabriel?” Dominic asked.
Derek paused.
“You tell me.”
“He disappeared last night.”
Another pause.
For the first time, Derek sounded uncertain.
“That’s impossible.”
“Is it?”
Silence.
Dominic pressed.
“He used you.”
“Shut up.”
“He put you on Stella.”
“Shut up.”
“He told you her father had the ledger.”
“I said shut up.”
“And now that you’ve done the work, he doesn’t need you.”
The line went dead.
I looked at Dominic.
“He didn’t know Gabriel disappeared.”
“No.”
“Then Maria might be with Derek alone.”
“Maybe.”
My phone rang again.
Video call.
Derek.
I answered.
His face appeared.
Blood ran from his forehead.
Behind him, chaos.
The chair where Maria had been sitting was empty.
“What happened?”
Derek looked terrified.
Not angry.
Terrified.
“He took her.”
“Who?”
“Gabriel.”
My stomach dropped.
Derek looked behind him.
“He was never helping me.”
Dominic leaned into frame.
“Where are you?”
Derek ignored him.
“Stella, listen to me.”
“Where is Maria?”
“I don’t know.”
“You kidnapped her!”
“To trade her!”
His voice broke.
“I wasn’t going to hurt her.”
“You expect me to believe you?”
“No.”
For once, Derek looked ashamed.
Then a sound came from somewhere behind him.
He froze.
“Derek?”
His face changed.
“He’s back.”
“Who?”
Derek whispered.
“Gabriel.”
A gunshot exploded.
The phone fell.
The image spun.
I heard Derek scream.
Then Gabriel Voss picked up the phone.
His face filled the screen.
He smiled at me.
“Hello, Stella.”
My blood froze.
“Where’s Maria?”
“Alive.”
“What do you want?”
“The same thing I have wanted for twenty-two years.”
“We don’t have the ledger.”
Gabriel smiled.
“Yes, you do.”
“No.”
“Your father made sure of it.”
He leaned closer.
“Ask yourself why Daniel Bennett taught his thirteen-year-old daughter a song nobody else had ever heard.”
My heart stopped.
Because suddenly I remembered.
A song.
May you like
My father singing beside my bed.
The night before he died.
