Chapter 5 - THE NIGHT THE FALCONE BROTHERS WENT TO WAR
Victor gave us one hour.
No police.
No federal agents.
No security convoy.
No games.
Bring the key to an abandoned shipping warehouse outside Newport, or Chloe would die.
Roman listened without interrupting.
Declan punched a hole through my apartment wall.
Gabriel, communicating through an encrypted call from Falcone House, became quieter than I had ever heard him.
That frightened me most.
The brothers were dangerous when angry.
Gabriel became dangerous when he stopped joking.
Victor ended the call.
I immediately stood.
“We're going.”
Roman blocked the doorway.
“No.”
I stared at him.
“Move.”
“No.”
“He has Chloe.”
“I heard him.”
“Then move.”
“You think I am letting you walk into a warehouse controlled by a man who murdered your mother?”
“I don't need permission.”
Declan stepped between us.
“Both of you stop.”
I looked at him.
He pointed toward my hand.
“The key. What does it open?”
“I don't know.”
“Victor thinks you do.”
“Obviously.”
Gabriel's voice came from Roman's phone.
“He doesn't actually need Maeve.”
Roman looked down.
“Explain.”
“He needs the key.”
“That's what he said.”
“No. Think about it. If he believed Maeve knew where the evidence was, he would have taken her too. He only took Chloe.”
Roman understood.
“He doesn't know what the key opens.”
“Exactly.”
I looked between them.
“How does that help my sister?”
Gabriel answered.
“It means he can't kill her until he confirms the key works.”
I hated the logic.
But it gave us something.
Time.
Roman looked at Declan.
“Can you trace the call?”
“Already trying.”
“Victor will know.”
“Probably.”
Roman turned toward me.
“Give me the key.”
“No.”
“Maeve.”
“No.”
His eyes hardened.
“So help me—”
“What are you going to do? Fire me?”
Declan actually snorted.
I stepped closer to Roman.
“This is the only reason Chloe is alive.”
“And the reason Victor will kill you.”
“Then I hold it.”
“Absolutely not.”
“You don't own me.”
“I know that.”
“Then stop acting like you do.”
Something cracked in his control.
“Because I cannot lose another person to that family!”
The room went silent.
Roman looked as surprised by the words as I was.
Declan looked away.
Gabriel said nothing.
I stared at Roman.
His voice lowered.
“My father. My mother. Men who worked for us. Maybe yours. Maybe Nora.”
He swallowed.
“I am done burying people.”
My anger weakened.
“Roman.”
He stepped closer.
“I knew you for two days before you made Declan clean his own wall.”
Declan muttered, “We don't have to keep telling that story.”
Roman ignored him.
“You walked into a house everyone feared and treated us like three annoying men who happened to leave too much laundry around.”
“You do leave too much laundry around.”
His mouth twitched.
Then the expression disappeared.
“You shouldn't matter to me this quickly.”
My heartbeat stumbled.
“But you do.”
I couldn't breathe.
Declan quietly left the room.
Gabriel disconnected the call.
For once, his timing was excellent.
Roman and I stood alone in my destroyed apartment.
“I don't know what you want me to say,” I whispered.
“Nothing.”
“That is very convenient.”
“I am serious.”
“You usually are.”
He looked down at me.
“So are you.”
I thought of Chloe.
I thought of the warehouse.
I thought of all the reasons this moment was impossible.
Then I reached up, caught Roman Falcone by his coat, and kissed him.
For approximately two seconds, he did not move.
Then his hand came around the back of my neck.
The kiss changed.
Not wild.
Not careless.
Something far more frightening.
Careful.
As if he understood exactly how breakable the moment was.
I pulled away first.
Roman rested his forehead against mine.
“That was a terrible idea.”
“Yes.”
“We should probably do it again.”
“Absolutely not.”
He almost smiled.
Then Declan shouted from the hall.
“I can still hear you.”
I closed my eyes.
Roman sighed.
“Triplets.”
“I've noticed.”
Twenty minutes later, we had a plan.
Not the plan Victor expected.
I would go.
Roman hated it.
I held the key.
Roman hated that more.
But Gabriel had discovered the warehouse sat beside an old Falcone maritime property connected to tunnels constructed during Prohibition.
Declan knew the northern entrance.
Roman knew Victor would expect him to attack from there.
So they would give him exactly what he expected.
Almost.
The car dropped me fifty yards from the warehouse.
Rain whipped off Narragansett Bay.
The building stood black against the water.
One light burned above a steel door.
I walked alone.
My legs shook.
I refused to let anybody see it.
The door opened.
Daniel Rusk stood inside.
For fourteen years, he had existed only as a face in a video.
Now he was ten feet away.
Older.
Harder.
Alive.
“You look like Nora,” he said.
I stopped.
“You don't get to say her name.”
His expression barely changed.
“Give me the key.”
“Where's Chloe?”
“Inside.”
“I see her first.”
He almost smiled.
“You negotiate like your mother too.”
“Keep comparing me to her and I will make this unnecessarily difficult.”
That smile vanished.
Good.
He brought me inside.
The warehouse smelled of rust, ocean water, and old fuel.
Three men stood near the walls.
Victor Falcone waited beneath a hanging industrial lamp.
He looked nothing like the monster I had imagined.
Silver hair.
Expensive coat.
Elegant gloves.
He looked like a man who chaired museum fundraisers.
Chloe sat behind him, tied to a chair.
Her face was bruised.
My heart almost stopped.
She saw me.
“Maeve, don't—”
Victor struck the back of her chair.
“Quiet.”
Every instinct inside me screamed to run at him.
I forced myself to stay still.
Victor smiled.
“Maeve Carter.”
“You killed my mother.”
No greeting.
No pretending.
His smile faded.
“She made unfortunate decisions.”
“So that's a yes.”
“She confused morality with survival.”
“You confuse expensive coats with personality.”
Chloe made a strangled laugh.
Victor looked annoyed.
Apparently sarcasm was genetic.
“Where is the key?”
I held up my fist.
“Where does it go?”
His eyes sharpened.
“You don't know.”
I smiled.
For the first time that night, I had surprised him.
“You really don't know either.”
Rusk moved toward me.
Victor raised one hand.
He stopped.
“Your mother and Sebastian hid something,” Victor said. “An original financial archive. Documents capable of damaging hundreds of people.”
“Criminals.”
“Powerful people.”
“Criminals with better tailoring.”
Victor's jaw tightened.
“Sebastian was weak.”
“Was that before or after you killed him?”
Something dark crossed his face.
There.
Confirmation.
He had spent decades controlling the story.
He hated losing control of a sentence.
“I loved my brother.”
“You blew up his boat.”
His face changed.
Chloe stared at him.
Rusk looked uncomfortable.
I continued.
“And you killed our mother.”
“She was never supposed to be in that car.”
I stopped.
“What?”
Victor realized too late.
I took one step forward.
“Who was?”
Silence.
“Who was supposed to be in the car?”
Victor's eyes moved toward Rusk.
Rusk suddenly looked away.
Then I understood.
“My father.”
Victor said nothing.
“You were trying to kill my father.”
“Daniel had the key.”
My stomach turned.
“He survived because Mom borrowed his car.”
Victor's silence answered.
For fourteen years, my father must have carried that guilt.
No wonder he had hidden the key.
No wonder he never told us.
“You destroyed my family because of a piece of brass.”
“Because of what it unlocks.”
“Then you better hope I don't throw it into the ocean.”
Rusk grabbed Chloe.
I immediately raised the key.
“Stop!”
He pressed a gun against her side.
Victor extended his hand.
“The key.”
Outside, thunder rolled.
At least, Victor thought it was thunder.
I knew better.
It was the northern warehouse door.
Declan had arrived.
Victor smiled.
“You really thought your friends would surprise me?”
Men moved toward the north corridor.
Exactly as planned.
I looked at Chloe.
She looked at me.
She knew me well enough to understand the tiny nod.
I threw the key.
Not toward Victor.
Behind him.
Everyone turned.
Chloe dropped sideways with the chair.
I lunged.
Rusk grabbed for me.
A section of warehouse floor exploded upward.
Gabriel came through a maintenance hatch.
“You people throw terrible parties!”
Gunfire erupted.
Roman entered through the western loading bay.
Declan crashed into Rusk from the side.
I reached Chloe.
“Can you move?”
“Chair!”
“Right.”
I dragged her behind a concrete pillar.
Gabriel slid toward us.
“Miss me?”
Chloe stared at him.
“You took long enough.”
“She's definitely your sister.”
He cut her restraints.
Across the warehouse, Roman fought toward Victor.
Rusk broke free from Declan and raised his weapon.
I saw the line of his arm.
Straight toward Roman.
“ROMAN!”
Declan turned.
The gun fired.
Declan jerked backward.
“NO!”
Roman caught him before he hit the floor.
Gabriel's face changed.
Everything stopped for half a heartbeat.
Then Victor ran.
Rusk followed.
I crawled toward Declan.
Blood spread across his side.
He looked at me and somehow managed to say, “Don't… put my boots outside.”
I nearly sobbed.
“You idiot.”
Roman pressed both hands against the wound.
“Stay with me.”
Declan coughed.
“Bossy.”
“Declan.”
Chloe knelt beside us.
“She needs pressure here.”
Her months in and out of hospitals had taught her more than any of us wanted.
Gabriel called their medical team.
Roman looked toward the loading bay.
Victor was gone.
His uncle had escaped.
But Chloe was alive.
Declan was breathing.
Barely.
Then Daniel Rusk appeared on the upper catwalk.
He had not escaped.
He was holding something.
A remote.
Gabriel looked up.
His face went pale.
“Roman.”
Rusk smiled.
“Your father built this warehouse.”
He lifted the remote.
“Unfortunately, Victor improved it.”
Red lights began flashing along the support columns.
I saw small devices attached beneath them.
Roman's face changed.
“Everybody out.”
Rusk pressed the button.
Nothing happened.
He frowned.
Gabriel smiled.
“Looking for this?”
He held up a battery pack.
Rusk's face twisted.
Declan groaned.
Even wounded, he whispered, “Show-off.”
Then Rusk pulled a second device from his pocket.
Gabriel's smile disappeared.
“Okay.”
Rusk pressed it.
This time, the eastern wall erupted.
The blast threw me across the floor.
The last thing I heard before everything went black was Roman shouting my name.
When I opened my eyes, rain was falling on my face.
The warehouse roof was burning.
Gabriel was dragging Chloe through debris.
Declan lay motionless beside a broken column.
And Roman—
Roman was gone.
Then his phone rang beside my hand.
I answered.
Victor's voice whispered through the speaker.
“You saved the wrong brother, Maeve.”
I stared into the smoke.
May you like
Victor continued.
“Roman is with me now.”
