Chapter 8 - THE SECRET SOFIA NEVER TOLD ME
“Sofia?”
She looked at me.
“Don’t move.”
My heart dropped.
Dominic did not reach for his weapon.
Maya did.
Sofia shifted the gun toward her.
“You too.”
The woman beside Sofia stepped forward.
She was perhaps fifty-five, elegant even in the dim emergency lighting, with blond hair pinned neatly behind her head.
I recognized her from television.
Congresswoman Evelyn Vale.
Malcolm Vale’s younger sister.
My stomach turned.
“You’ve got to be kidding me.”
Evelyn smiled.
“Family disappoints us all eventually.”
I looked at Sofia.
“You’re working with them?”
Tears filled her eyes.
“No.”
“Then put down the gun.”
“I can’t.”
“Why?”
Evelyn answered.
“Because we have her mother.”
Sofia closed her eyes.
Everything shifted.
“Where is she?”
“Somewhere safe,” Evelyn said.
“That usually means the opposite.”
Dominic finally spoke.
“What do you want?”
Evelyn looked at him.
“The drive.”
Maya moved half an inch.
Sofia’s hand shook.
“Please don’t.”
I had never seen her like that.
Terrified.
Not for herself.
I slowly picked up the laptop.
“You let Sofia’s mother go, and I give you the drive.”
Dominic looked at me.
“Elena.”
“Not now.”
Evelyn smiled.
“You inherited David’s weakness.”
“My father’s weakness was helping people?”
“Believing people deserved saving.”
“And yours?”
Her smile disappeared.
“Believing my brother could ever be satisfied.”
That caught me.
“You’re afraid of Malcolm.”
“I’m realistic about Malcolm.”
“Then help us.”
Evelyn laughed.
“I did.”
She reached beneath her coat.
Maya raised her gun.
Evelyn produced a phone.
Nothing more.
She placed it on a storage box.
The screen showed a live video.
Sofia’s mother sat in a room, frightened but unharmed.
Beside her stood a man with a handgun.
“Malcolm believes I am bringing him the drive,” Evelyn said.
“You aren’t?”
“No.”
Sofia slowly lowered her weapon.
Dominic’s expression remained hard.
“This is theater.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because there are cameras in this facility.”
My blood ran cold.
Evelyn pointed toward the ceiling.
“Malcolm has been watching since you entered.”
“So Sofia had to appear compromised.”
“Yes.”
I looked at my friend.
“You could have warned me.”
She laughed through tears.
“When? Before or after they put my mother in a van?”
Evelyn took out a small device.
“Malcolm believes David’s archive can destroy him.”
“Can it?” I asked.
“Yes.”
“Then why not release everything?”
Maya answered.
“Because raw evidence isn’t enough.”
Evelyn nodded.
“My brother has judges, federal agents, journalists, and private contractors on his payroll. Release ten thousand files without context and he calls them fabricated.”
“Then what do we need?”
“A witness.”
“Who?”
Evelyn looked at Dominic.
He understood before I did.
“No.”
“Who?” I repeated.
“Thomas Keene.”
I laughed bitterly.
“Keene murdered my father.”
“Which is exactly why Malcolm has never allowed him to retire.”
Evelyn’s voice dropped.
“Keene has kept records of every order Malcolm gave him for twenty-three years.”
“Insurance.”
“Exactly.”
“Where?”
“Keene wears the location.”
Dominic’s eyes narrowed.
“The ring.”
The Orpheus signet ring.
Evelyn nodded.
“The black stone contains an encrypted chip. It provides access to a private vault.”
Maya stared at her.
“How do you know?”
“Because my brother gave me the same ring fifteen years ago.”
She lifted her left hand.
No ring.
“I removed mine the day I discovered what Orpheus really was.”
“You were part of it.”
“I was part of the political foundation financing what I was told were intelligence operations.”
“And you believed that?”
“For too long.”
Her voice cracked for the first time.
“Then a sixteen-year-old girl died in a hotel my foundation owned.”
Bianca.
Dominic’s face changed.
Evelyn looked at him.
“Not your sister.”
He relaxed slightly.
“But she was one of the girls held with Bianca.”
Dominic became still.
“Maria?”
Evelyn nodded.
Bianca had told me seven girls were rescued.
Six survived.
I suddenly understood why Evelyn Vale had chosen tonight.
She had been carrying her own debt.
“Where is Keene?”
“Coming here.”
My mouth went dry.
“You invited him?”
“He believes you have agreed to trade the drive for immunity.”
Dominic stepped toward her.
“How many men?”
“Keene will bring six.”
“And Vale?”
“My brother never attends a scene until he knows who survives it.”
A bitter smile crossed Dominic’s face.
“Politician.”
We prepared quickly.
The laptop we placed in the open did not contain Dad’s full archive. Maya copied several meaningless directories to another drive.
Dominic’s men disappeared into neighboring units.
Evelyn stood alone beneath the emergency lights.
I hid behind stacked furniture with Sofia.
She gripped my hand.
“I’m sorry.”
“You didn’t betray me.”
“I pointed a gun at you.”
“Technically, you pointed it at Dominic.”
“Did that bother you more?”
I looked at her.
She managed the smallest smile.
“You like him.”
“This is not the time.”
“You absolutely like him.”
“Sofia.”
“Fine.”
Vehicles entered the garage.
Keene arrived six minutes later.
He wore a dark suit.
No FBI jacket now.
No pretense.
The ring remained on his hand.
“Where’s Ward?”
Evelyn pointed toward the laptop.
“She ran.”
Keene’s face tightened.
“With Rinaldi?”
“Apparently.”
He approached the table.
“Is that the drive?”
“Yes.”
Keene picked it up.
Dominic stepped from the shadows.
“Looking for me?”
Weapons appeared instantly.
Keene smiled.
“I hoped you’d be stupid enough to stay.”
“You’ve underestimated stupid men before.”
Dominic glanced toward a dark corner.
The lights came on.
Maya stood there holding a federal credential and a body camera.
“Thomas Keene, you are being recorded.”
Keene laughed.
“For what?”
“The murder of David Ward.”
“You have no evidence.”
I stepped into view.
His smile disappeared.
“We have Raymond Alvarez’s recording.”
“Meaningless.”
“Michael Trent’s testimony.”
“You don’t have Trent.”
“Maybe we do.”
That was a bluff.
Keene’s eyes shifted.
We had him worried.
“And we have the third ledger,” I said.
Keene’s expression changed.
For thirteen years, my father had frightened this man.
Dead.
Buried.
Gone.
And still Keene was afraid of him.
“You think David was a hero?” he asked.
“Yes.”
“He made deals with Rinaldi.”
“To save girls you abandoned.”
“He compromised federal operations.”
“Your trafficking operation?”
Keene’s jaw tightened.
Then he said it.
One sentence.
Exactly what Maya needed.
“Vale told us to protect the corridor at any cost.”
Silence.
Maya smiled faintly.
“Thank you.”
Keene realized what he had done.
He reached for his weapon.
Dominic moved first.
But another shot came from somewhere behind us.
Evelyn collapsed.
Blood spread across her shoulder.
The storage facility erupted into gunfire.
Keene ran.
Dominic chased him.
I dropped beside Evelyn.
Then Sofia screamed.
“Elena!”
I looked toward the entrance.
Malcolm Vale himself stood there.
No security detail.
No cameras.
No television smile.
He held Sofia’s mother by the arm.
A gun pressed beneath her chin.
Vale looked at me.
“Bring me my brother’s ledger.”
I stared at him.
Evelyn groaned on the floor.
May you like
Vale smiled.
“And this time, Miss Ward, nobody is coming to save you.”
