Chapter 7 - THE TRAITOR’S LAST MISTAKE
Derek’s statement changed everything.
Dominic crouched in front of him.
“What other copy?”
Derek leaned his head against the warehouse wall.
“My father photographed every page.”
“Where?”
“Gabriel has been looking for it for twenty years.”
“That doesn’t answer the question.”
“Because I don’t know.”
I stared at Derek.
“You said Gabriel made a mistake.”
“He did.”
“How?”
“He thinks the ledger gives him leverage. It doesn’t.”
Derek winced as the medic tightened the bandage around his shoulder.
“The people named in that book aren’t his biggest fear.”
“What is?”
“My father kept recordings.”
Anthony looked over.
“Of Gabriel?”
“Of everybody.”
Dominic’s eyes narrowed.
“Insurance.”
“Exactly.”
“Where?”
Derek laughed weakly.
“If I knew, do you think I would’ve spent three years dating Stella?”
The words hit me.
Three years.
So casual.
As if my life had been a job.
Dominic saw my face.
His expression turned lethal.
Derek saw it too.
“I know.”
Dominic stepped toward him.
I stopped him.
Not physically.
“Dominic.”
He looked at me.
“Don’t.”
His jaw tightened.
“He deserves—”
“I decide what he deserves from me.”
Something changed in Dominic’s face.
Then he stepped back.
“Okay.”
One word.
No argument.
Derek watched us.
“You trust him?”
I looked at Derek.
“More than I ever trusted you.”
That hurt him.
Good.
We had four hours until midnight.
Dominic wanted me nowhere near Pier Forty-Seven.
I wanted Elena alive.
We compromised.
I would go.
But we would control what Gabriel saw.
Anthony made a copy of the ledger.
The original went into a secure case.
Dominic contacted a federal prosecutor his father’s network had once protected.
That surprised me.
“You trust the FBI?”
“No.”
“Then why call them?”
“Because evidence is useless if everyone who has it gets killed.”
Fair point.
The prosecutor agreed to receive encrypted copies.
For the first time, Gabriel’s secret wasn’t held by one person.
It was everywhere.
At eleven forty-seven, we arrived at the pier.
Fog rolled across the Hudson.
Cargo containers created dark corridors.
Dominic wore no visible weapon.
Neither did I.
Anthony and his men stayed hidden.
Derek remained under guard.
At least, he was supposed to.
Gabriel stood beneath a floodlight.
Elena sat in a chair beside him.
Her hands were bound.
She looked furious rather than frightened.
“That’s my mother,” Dominic murmured.
“I can tell.”
Gabriel smiled.
“Bring the book.”
I held it up.
“Let her go.”
“Not yet.”
“You asked for the ledger.”
“And I’ll have it.”
“You’ll have it when she’s beside us.”
Gabriel studied me.
“You look like Daniel.”
“So everyone keeps telling me.”
“He was stubborn too.”
“You murdered him.”
“Carlos murdered him.”
“You ordered it.”
Gabriel smiled.
“Technical distinctions.”
Dominic’s body went rigid.
I kept my eyes on Gabriel.
“Why?”
“Your father discovered something that wasn’t his business.”
“He discovered you were selling innocent people.”
“Innocent.”
Gabriel laughed.
“Nobody around the Russos was innocent.”
“My father was.”
“No.”
“He was.”
I surprised myself with how certain I sounded.
“He made mistakes. He lied to protect me. He worked for criminals. But when he found out people were being killed, he tried to stop it.”
Gabriel’s smile disappeared.
“You sound exactly like him.”
“Good.”
I tossed the ledger halfway across the concrete.
Gabriel’s eyes followed it.
“Release Elena.”
He gestured.
A man cut Elena’s restraints.
She stood.
“Walk.”
Elena started toward us.
Ten feet.
Twenty.
Thirty.
Then a gunshot cracked.
Elena fell.
Dominic shouted.
I screamed.
Chaos exploded.
Dominic ran toward his mother.
Anthony’s men emerged.
Gabriel grabbed the ledger.
I dropped beside Elena.
“Where are you hit?”
She looked offended.
“I’m not.”
“What?”
She opened her coat.
A bullet had torn through the fabric.
No blood.
Dominic reached us.
“You’re okay?”
“I told you I wanted the vest.”
Dominic closed his eyes.
“Ma.”
“Later.”
Gunfire echoed between containers.
Anthony shouted through the radio.
“Gabriel’s moving east!”
Dominic looked at me.
“Stay with her.”
I grabbed his sleeve.
“Don’t get killed.”
His eyes held mine.
“I’ll try.”
Then he ran.
Elena sat up.
“Go.”
“What?”
“Go after him.”
“I’m not leaving you.”
“I am seventy-two, not seven.”
“You were just shot.”
“At.”
Another gunshot.
Then silence.
Too much silence.
I stood.
Elena pulled a tiny pistol from her boot.
I stared.
“What?”
“You think I survived forty years married to Vincent Russo carrying breath mints?”
We moved between containers.
Then I heard a voice.
“Stella.”
Derek.
He emerged from the fog.
I stepped backward.
“How did you get out?”
“Guard underestimated me.”
“Stay away.”
“I’m not here for you.”
He held something.
A small recorder.
“My father’s insurance.”
My heart jumped.
“You found it?”
“Gabriel had it.”
“How?”
“He found it years ago. He just couldn’t decrypt the files.”
“Why bring it here?”
“Because he needs your father’s ledger to decode it.”
Of course.
Numbers in the ledger.
Keys to the recordings.
Then Derek looked behind me.
His face changed.
“Down!”
He lunged.
A gunshot exploded.
Derek hit me.
We fell.
Another shot.
Derek jerked.
Blood spread across his shirt.
Gabriel stood twenty feet away.
Elena fired.
Gabriel disappeared behind a container.
Derek collapsed against me.
“Oh God.”
His blood covered my hands.
“Derek.”
He coughed.
“Funny.”
“What?”
“I spent three years making you afraid of me.”
His eyes found mine.
“And now I’m dying trying to save you.”
“Don’t make this into redemption.”
He laughed painfully.
“Wouldn’t dare.”
I pressed my hand against the wound.
“You’re not dying.”
“Stella.”
“No.”
“I’m sorry.”
I looked at him.
For years, I had imagined hearing those words.
They didn’t fix anything.
They didn’t erase bruises.
They didn’t give me back the nights I slept with furniture against my door.
But they mattered in one small way.
He finally knew what he had done.
“I believe you’re sorry.”
His eyes filled.
“That’s all I can give you.”
He nodded.
“Fair.”
Anthony’s men reached us.
Medics pulled Derek away.
Then Dominic appeared from the fog.
He was bleeding.
My heart stopped.
“Dominic.”
“Not mine.”
He grabbed my shoulders, then immediately loosened his grip.
“You okay?”
“Yes.”
“Gabriel?”
“Escaped.”
Anthony cursed.
“But we have this.”
I showed Dominic the recorder.
His expression changed.
Then every light on the pier went out.
Darkness swallowed us.
A phone rang somewhere.
Mine.
I answered.
Gabriel whispered:
May you like
“You should have stayed invisible, Stella.”
Then a red laser appeared on Dominic’s chest.
