Chapter 8 - THE SHOT THAT CHANGED EVERYTHING
Rachel never knew who screamed first.
Elena.
Megan.
Oliver.
Maybe all three.
Dominic hit the stone floor.
Blood appeared along his shoulder.
Oliver dropped the wooden box.
Paper figures scattered across the chapel.
Vittorio moved toward the ledger pages.
Rachel moved toward Oliver.
Vanessa moved first.
She kicked the box away.
“Enough!”
Everyone froze.
Vanessa pointed her gun at Vittorio.
He stared at her.
“What are you doing?”
Her hand shook.
“For two years you told me Dominic was the problem.”
“He is.”
“You told me Oliver would be protected.”
“He will.”
“You lied.”
Vittorio laughed.
“You are becoming sentimental too.”
Vanessa’s face tightened.
“I did everything you asked.”
“Yes.”
“I helped fake Elena’s death.”
“Yes.”
“I entered Dominic’s life.”
“Yes.”
“I destroyed his trust in his staff.”
“You were compensated.”
“I was supposed to become his wife.”
Vittorio’s expression turned contemptuous.
“That was never going to happen.”
Vanessa went still.
Rachel saw the exact second she understood.
“You planned to remove me too.”
Vittorio smiled.
“You know too much.”
Vanessa’s gun steadied.
Behind them, Dominic moved.
Barely.
The bullet had struck high.
Painful.
Bloody.
Not immediately fatal.
Rachel saw his eyes open.
He looked at her.
Then at Oliver.
Rachel understood.
She moved slowly toward the child.
Vittorio noticed.
“Stay where you are.”
Rachel stopped.
Oliver stood frozen beside the fallen box.
One paper figure had landed near his shoe.
The black figure.
Three circles.
Oliver looked at Dominic.
His father blinked once.
Oliver bent suddenly, grabbed the figure, and threw it toward the chapel lights.
Everyone’s eyes followed instinctively.
Dominic moved.
He swept Vittorio’s legs.
Vanessa fired.
The bullet struck the stone railing.
Anthony and the Marino guards entered.
Chaos erupted.
Rachel pulled Oliver behind a pew.
Elena crawled toward Dominic.
Megan and Mr. Bennett threw themselves sideways with their chairs.
Vanessa backed toward the altar.
Vittorio fired twice.
One guard fell.
Anthony returned fire.
Vittorio disappeared behind a stone column.
Then the lights went out.
Rachel almost laughed from disbelief.
Again.
Darkness.
But this time Oliver didn’t panic.
He grabbed her hand.
“Three steps.”
Rachel froze.
A full sentence.
Oliver whispered, “Three steps left.”
She obeyed.
A bullet hit the pew where they had been crouching.
Rachel pulled him down.
“How did you know?”
“Mom taught me.”
Elena.
The tunnels.
The dark rooms.
Oliver knew how to move without light because his mother had prepared him.
Emergency lights activated.
Dominic had reached Elena.
His shoulder was soaked with blood.
“I’m fine.”
“You were shot.”
“I noticed.”
Despite everything, Elena almost laughed.
Then Dominic looked at Oliver.
His son was talking.
Fear had once taken his voice.
Now it was bringing it back.
Vittorio ran through the sacristy.
Dominic tried to follow.
Elena grabbed him.
“You can barely move your arm.”
“He has thirty years of leverage in that box.”
“No.”
Dominic stopped.
Rachel stood.
“The pages.”
Everyone looked at her.
“They’re copies.”
Her father nodded.
“Susan never kept everything together.”
Rachel looked at the sheets Oliver had revealed.
“She divided them.”
Vittorio did not have the full ledger.
A voice came from the chapel entrance.
Vanessa.
She had recovered the wooden box.
“Where are the rest?”
Rachel stared at her.
Vanessa raised her gun.
“I asked a question.”
Dominic stepped forward.
“Put it down.”
She looked at him.
Something bitter passed across her face.
“I almost believed you might eventually care about me.”
Dominic’s expression remained flat.
“I never lied to you about what I felt.”
“No.”
Her eyes filled.
“That was worse.”
She pointed the weapon at Rachel.
“Where are the pages?”
Rachel’s father spoke.
“Safe deposit box.”
Vanessa turned.
“Where?”
“Indiana.”
Rachel looked at him.
He was lying.
She knew because he scratched his left thumb against his index finger.
A nervous habit.
Vanessa didn’t.
“Bank?”
Mr. Bennett gave her a name.
Vanessa smiled.
Then dropped the wooden box.
“Thank you.”
She ran.
Dominic’s men followed.
Rachel rushed to her father.
“That wasn’t true.”
“No.”
“Where are they?”
He looked at Oliver.
“Your mother was clever.”
Then at Rachel.
“She put them in children’s books.”
Rachel frowned.
“What?”
“The books she read to you and Megan.”
Rachel remembered boxes stored in her father’s attic.
Dozens of old books.
Her mother had written notes inside the covers.
Recipes.
Birthdays.
Little messages.
Or so Rachel had believed.
Dominic sat heavily against a pew.
Elena pressed fabric against his wound.
“We need a hospital.”
“No public hospital.”
“Dominic.”
“I’m not debating.”
Rachel walked over.
“You’re bleeding through your shirt.”
“I’ve had worse.”
“That is exactly the sort of sentence men say before passing out.”
Oliver looked at his father.
“Hospital.”
Dominic looked at him.
Oliver folded his arms.
Elena smiled weakly.
“You’ve been overruled.”
Dominic finally nodded.
They used a private clinic trusted by the Marino family.
The bullet had passed through muscle without striking bone or artery.
Dominic would recover.
By dawn, Rachel’s father and Megan were safe.
Salvatore was alive as well.
The bullet Vanessa had fired at him had only grazed the side of his head.
Under questioning, he revealed the truth.
His voice on Oliver’s recorder had been edited.
Vittorio had ordered Salvatore to investigate leaks months earlier.
Salvatore discovered the tunnels.
Before he could tell Dominic, he was captured.
“They copied my voice from security recordings,” he said.
Dominic sat across from him.
“You should have come to me sooner.”
“I was trying to identify everyone involved.”
Dominic’s eyes darkened.
“That strategy nearly got my son institutionalized.”
Salvatore lowered his head.
“I know.”
Dominic did not forgive him.
Not yet.
But the conspiracy was finally shrinking.
Vittorio.
Vanessa.
Thomas Avery.
Uncle Carlo.
And a handful of compromised employees.
By evening, federal authorities had quietly received copies of some ledger pages through an attorney Dominic trusted.
Not enough to expose Rachel’s family.
Enough to begin dismantling Vittorio’s leverage.
Rachel visited Dominic’s recovery room.
He was alone.
“You should be sleeping.”
“You should be in Indiana.”
“I’m leaving tomorrow.”
Something shifted in his expression.
“Oh.”
“My father needs help.”
“Of course.”
“And Megan’s terrified.”
“I understand.”
Rachel hesitated.
“What happens here?”
“We find Vittorio.”
“And Elena?”
Dominic looked toward the window.
“I don’t know.”
Rachel nodded.
She turned to leave.
“Rachel.”
She looked back.
“Thank you.”
“For what?”
“My son.”
A pause.
“For believing him before I did.”
Rachel smiled faintly.
“You listened eventually.”
“Almost too late.”
“But you listened.”
She left.
Outside the room, Elena stood against the wall.
She had heard everything.
Rachel stopped.
Elena said, “He trusts you.”
Rachel felt uncomfortable.
“He trusts a lot of people.”
“No.”
Elena shook her head.
“Dominic relies on people.”
“That is different.”
Rachel had no answer.
Elena looked toward the room.
“I love him.”
Rachel nodded.
“I know.”
“But I don’t know if the people we were two years ago exist anymore.”
Before Rachel could answer, Dominic’s phone rang inside.
He picked up.
Vittorio spoke.
Rachel heard only Dominic’s side.
Then his face changed.
“What did you say?”
Silence.
Dominic stood despite the pain.
“Put him on.”
Another pause.
Dominic looked toward Elena.
Then at Rachel.
His expression became something Rachel had never seen before.
Fear.
He put the call on speaker.
A boy’s voice filled the room.
Oliver.
“Dad?”
Elena gasped.
Rachel turned toward the hallway.
Oliver had supposedly been asleep upstairs at the clinic.
Vittorio’s voice replaced his.
“You keep finding the wrong hostage.”
Dominic ran toward Oliver’s room.
The bed was empty.
On the pillow lay a black paper figure.
May you like
And beneath it, three words.
FINAL MEETING. MIDNIGHT.
