Chapter 7 - THE NIGHT THE MANSION TURNED AGAINST HIM
Dominic moved before anyone else.
“Safe room. Now.”
Hannah grabbed Caleb.
Lauren ran across the courtyard while gunfire erupted behind her.
Not wild shooting.
Controlled.
Professional.
Cross had brought men.
Dominic’s guards returned fire from defensive positions.
Hannah pulled Caleb into the reinforced family room beneath the east wing.
Evelyn followed.
Dominic stayed outside.
“Dad!”
Caleb tried to run back.
Hannah caught him.
“He knows what he’s doing.”
“He always says that.”
Hannah almost laughed despite everything.
“That sounds like him.”
The steel door shut.
Caleb pressed both palms against it.
“I don’t want him to die.”
Hannah knelt beside him.
“Neither do I.”
Outside, Dominic watched Julian Cross walk into the mansion he had haunted from a distance for eighteen years.
Cross was seventy now.
Tall.
Silver-haired.
Elegant.
No hurry in him at all.
He looked like a retired judge.
That made Dominic hate him more.
Lauren collapsed behind one of the marble pillars.
Leo reached her first.
“Where are the others?”
“Three outside. Two came through the kitchen.”
“Cross?”
She pointed.
Dominic stepped into the foyer.
Cross smiled.
“Frank’s younger boy.”
Dominic raised his weapon.
“Anthony’s brother.”
Cross’s smile faded.
“Ah.”
“That name bothers you?”
“No.”
“It should.”
Cross glanced around.
“Beautiful house.”
“My mother died believing you murdered her son.”
“Your mother understood consequences.”
Dominic’s voice dropped.
“You shot Anthony.”
“No.”
Cross gave the smallest shrug.
“Victor shot him first. I merely prevented the mistake of allowing him to survive.”
Lauren made a broken sound behind the pillar.
Cross looked toward her.
“You’ve disappointed me.”
Lauren stared at him.
“You used me.”
“I educated you.”
“You threatened my father for eighteen years.”
“Your father was weak.”
“You made me get close to Dominic.”
“And you failed.”
Dominic looked between them.
“Why was Hannah hired?”
Cross smiled again.
“Because I needed her to lead me to the archive.”
“You could have taken her.”
“No.”
Cross shook his head.
“Rose designed every hiding place around voluntary discovery. Anthony’s daughter had to move naturally through the house.”
Dominic’s eyes darkened.
“So you arranged her job.”
“Yes.”
Hannah’s application.
The unexplained recruiter.
The sudden mansion placement.
All Cross.
“You threatened Caleb.”
Cross looked mildly offended.
“I never threatened the boy.”
Dominic glanced at Lauren.
She dropped her eyes.
“I locked him outside.”
“Yes.”
Her voice cracked.
“Cross told me Caleb had found the key. He said if I didn’t recover it, he would kill my father’s sister.”
Dominic stared.
“You still chose to do it.”
“I know.”
“No excuse?”
Lauren shook her head.
“No.”
That answer surprised him.
Cross sighed.
“Everyone becomes moral when consequences arrive.”
Dominic took one step closer.
“You came here for Rose’s archive.”
“And Hannah.”
“No.”
“I’m afraid she is necessary.”
“She isn’t going anywhere.”
Cross smiled.
“You sound like Anthony.”
Dominic’s finger tightened against the trigger.
Then Leo’s voice came through his earpiece.
Boss, we have the south wing.
Dominic stalled.
“What does Hannah know?”
Cross’s expression sharpened.
“Where Sarah is.”
Dominic froze.
“She’s alive?”
Cross studied him.
“So you found Rose’s photograph.”
“Answer me.”
“I don’t know.”
That was not the answer Dominic expected.
“You spent fifteen years looking for her?”
“Eighteen.”
Cross’s calm finally cracked.
“Sarah Parker vanished with something far more valuable than the ledger.”
“What?”
“A master account.”
Dominic frowned.
Cross continued.
“Victor, your father, city officials—we all moved money. But Sarah found the holding structure.”
“Money?”
“Four hundred eighty million dollars.”
Dominic almost laughed.
“That’s what this is about?”
“That money contains every transaction, every payoff, every name.”
Cross’s eyes hardened.
“It isn’t wealth. It’s evidence.”
A door opened upstairs.
Cross’s attention shifted.
Wrong move.
Dominic fired.
The bullet hit Cross’s shoulder.
Chaos exploded.
Leo’s men advanced.
Cross fired back and retreated through the west corridor.
Two of his men were captured.
One escaped through the kitchen.
Dominic pursued Cross into Rose’s bedroom.
Cross tried the hidden panel.
Empty.
“You’re late,” Dominic said.
Cross turned.
Blood spread across his coat.
“Where is it?”
“Somewhere you’ll never reach.”
Cross laughed painfully.
“You really think winning tonight ends this?”
“I think prison might.”
“You won’t send me to prison.”
“No?”
“Because then the truth about Frank Romano becomes public.”
Dominic stopped.
Cross smiled.
“There it is.”
“What truth?”
“Your father didn’t just cover up Anthony’s murder.”
“Talk.”
“He gave me Sarah.”
Dominic’s eyes narrowed.
“What?”
“After Anthony died, Frank told me where she was hiding.”
“You’re lying.”
“Am I?”
Cross leaned against the wall.
“He traded Sarah’s location for yours.”
Dominic felt cold.
“You threatened me.”
“I told him Victor would kill both sons if Sarah wasn’t found.”
“Anthony was already dead.”
“Frank didn’t know that when the bargain began.”
Dominic remembered the recording.
Frank refusing to let Cross kill Anthony.
Frank promising Anthony he would protect Hannah and Sarah.
Had he broken that promise hours later?
Cross whispered, “Your father was no hero.”
Dominic lowered the weapon slightly.
Cross moved.
He threw himself through the hidden panel.
Dominic fired.
Missed.
By the time Dominic reached the secret passage, Cross had vanished into the old service corridors.
Ten minutes later the mansion was secure.
Cross was gone.
But Lauren remained.
Dominic found Hannah in the safe room.
Caleb ran into his arms.
Dominic held him tighter than usual.
Longer.
Hannah watched.
Then Caleb whispered, “Lauren’s hurt.”
Dominic looked toward Hannah.
“She’s alive.”
Caleb lowered his head.
“Is she bad?”
Dominic considered the question.
“No.”
Hannah was surprised.
“She did something bad.”
Caleb looked up.
“That’s different?”
“Yes.”
Dominic’s answer was quiet.
“It’s different.”
Lauren was treated in the mansion’s medical room.
Her wound was superficial.
When Hannah entered, Lauren looked away.
“I don’t deserve you checking on me.”
“I’m not.”
Hannah sat.
“I’m here because I want answers.”
Lauren nodded.
“Fair.”
“Did you know Anthony was my father before I was hired?”
“No.”
“When did you learn?”
“Six months ago.”
“You’ve known almost as long as I’ve worked here.”
“Yes.”
“And every day you looked at me…”
“I hated you.”
Hannah stared.
Lauren laughed bitterly.
“Not because of you.”
“Then why?”
“Because Anthony’s daughter got to grow up.”
The words landed strangely.
Lauren looked at her hands.
“I spent my whole life remembering that warehouse. My father told me if I ever spoke, the Romanos would kill me. Cross told me Anthony’s family blamed me.”
“Dominic didn’t even know you were there.”
“I know that now.”
Lauren wiped her eyes.
“When you showed up here and Cross told me who you were, I thought you were part of some revenge.”
“So you humiliated me.”
“I was cruel.”
“You were cruel to Caleb.”
Lauren’s face crumpled.
“That’s the part I can’t explain away.”
Hannah did not rescue her from it.
Good.
Some guilt needed to remain uncomfortable.
Lauren continued.
“I thought if Dominic became tired of Caleb needing him, Cross would have more access to Dominic.”
Hannah’s voice hardened.
“You tried to separate a father from his child.”
“Yes.”
“And locked an eight-year-old outside.”
“Yes.”
“I’m not forgiving you tonight.”
Lauren looked at her.
“I wouldn’t.”
“But you can help stop Cross.”
“I will.”
“How?”
Lauren reached beneath her hospital blanket.
Pulled out a small metal object.
A USB drive.
“I took it from Cross’s coat when I escaped.”
Hannah stared.
“What is it?”
“I don’t know.”
Dominic entered behind her.
Leo connected the drive to an isolated computer.
Encrypted files appeared.
One folder opened without a password.
SARAH.
Inside were surveillance photographs.
Sarah Parker.
Older.
Alive.
One photograph had been taken six weeks ago.
Hannah began shaking.
Her mother.
Alive.
Gray streaks in her brown hair.
Walking into a grocery store.
The location metadata displayed:
PORTLAND, MAINE.
Hannah covered her mouth.
Dominic moved beside her.
Then Leo clicked the final image.
Sarah stood outside a small cottage.
Not alone.
Beside her stood a teenage boy.
Around sixteen.
The resemblance to Anthony Romano was unmistakable.
Hannah stared.
“Who is that?”
May you like
Lauren whispered behind them.
“I think you have a brother.”
