Chapter 7 - THE HOTEL OF LIES
The Romano Hotel had been abandoned for eleven years.
Victor had built it in the 1980s, when the waterfront still smelled more like diesel than luxury.
Gabriel hated the building.
He told me that during the drive.
“My father held meetings there when he didn't want my mother to know what he was doing.”
Ethan looked at him.
“Your mother knew more than anyone.”
Gabriel gave a tired half-smile.
“I'm learning that.”
Claire was safe with police and two of Gabriel's guards.
Knowing that allowed me to breathe again.
Barely.
Daniel sat opposite us.
He hadn't spoken since Michael's phone call.
Gabriel finally said, “If Michael is yours—”
Daniel interrupted.
“I know.”
“No, you don't.”
Daniel looked up.
Gabriel continued.
“You're thinking about twenty-one years you missed.”
Ethan laughed bitterly.
“That seems popular tonight.”
Daniel looked at him.
Ethan's expression softened slightly.
“Sorry.”
“No,” Daniel said. “You're right.”
Gabriel watched both men.
“For what it's worth, neither of you chose this.”
Ethan replied, “Maybe that's what Victor wants us to forget.”
Gabriel looked at him.
There was something almost proud in his expression.
The hotel lobby was dark.
Victor had left the front doors open.
One working lamp illuminated the reception desk.
A note waited there.
PENTHOUSE. NO WEAPONS.
Gabriel ignored the second sentence.
We took the service stairs.
On the twentieth floor, Madison stopped.
“What?”
Gabriel asked.
“There used to be a private elevator from Victor's office to the loading garage.”
Daniel checked plans.
“It isn't marked.”
“It wouldn't be.”
Gabriel ordered half the team toward the garage.
We continued upward.
The penthouse doors stood open.
Victor Romano sat inside.
He was seventy-four.
Silver hair.
Dark suit.
Elegant posture.
He looked healthier than a dead man had any right to look.
Beside him stood Raymond Hale.
Raymond held a pistol.
Across the room were Elena and my mother.
Alive.
Their wrists were tied.
Ethan moved.
Gabriel caught him.
“Wait.”
Victor smiled.
“Gabriel.”
Gabriel stared at his father.
“I buried you.”
“No. You buried a stranger with my dental records.”
“You killed him?”
Victor shrugged.
“He was already dying.”
Gabriel's disgust showed.
“Of course.”
Victor looked at Ethan.
“My grandson.”
Ethan said, “Don't call me that.”
Victor smiled wider.
“Elena raised you well.”
Elena struggled against the restraints.
“Don't speak to him.”
Victor ignored her.
Then his gaze found me.
“Ava Collins.”
My mother shouted, “Leave her out of this.”
Victor laughed.
“You spent twenty-four years teaching your daughters nothing about courage, Margaret.”
Mom stared at him.
“I taught them enough to recognize a monster.”
Victor's smile disappeared.
Gabriel almost smiled.
Raymond shifted his weapon.
“Enough.”
Victor looked amused.
“Raymond has become impatient.”
Raymond snapped, “Give Gabriel the location.”
“What location?” Gabriel asked.
Victor looked toward him.
“The ledger.”
Madison had followed us inside.
Victor noticed.
“Madison.”
She froze.
“You disappointed me.”
She whispered, “Good.”
Victor's face became cold.
“You sound like your father.”
“You killed my father.”
“Yes.”
Madison's eyes filled, but she didn't look away.
“Then I hope I disappoint you exactly the way he did.”
Victor raised a hand.
Raymond aimed his pistol at Madison.
Gabriel stepped between them.
“You shoot her, you lose whatever leverage you think you have.”
Victor studied his son.
“You always did collect damaged people.”
Gabriel said, “Better than creating them.”
That landed.
Victor rose.
For a moment, father and son looked painfully alike.
Victor said, “Your mother hid the ledger.”
“Where?”
“In the place where she believed you'd finally understand her.”
Gabriel frowned.
Victor smiled.
“Her sewing room.”
The room Madison had been clearing.
The photograph.
The beginning of everything.
Gabriel looked at Madison.
“You searched it.”
“Yes.”
“No ledger?”
“No.”
Victor said, “Because Isabella was smarter than Madison.”
Raymond stepped forward.
“Tell him the mechanism.”
Victor ignored him.
Raymond pressed the weapon against Elena's temple.
Ethan lunged.
Daniel caught him.
“Stop!”
Raymond shouted, “The mechanism, Victor!”
Victor sighed.
“Inside the fireplace mantel is a pressure release. Behind it is the ledger.”
Gabriel looked at Daniel.
Daniel sent the information downstairs to his team.
Raymond smiled.
“Once we have it, Victor disappears forever.”
Victor laughed.
“You still don't understand, Raymond.”
Raymond's face changed.
“What?”
“I didn't bring Gabriel here for the ledger.”
Gabriel stared.
Victor looked at Ethan.
“I brought him here because blood is the only truth Gabriel respects.”
Ethan stepped forward.
“You don't know anything about him.”
Victor smiled.
“Defending your father already?”
Ethan froze.
Gabriel's eyes moved toward him.
Victor enjoyed that.
“You see, Gabriel? It took one night.”
Gabriel said, “What do you want?”
“You.”
“For what?”
“To stop pretending you're different from me.”
Victor gestured toward Raymond.
“This man betrayed me.”
Raymond raised his gun.
Victor didn't care.
“He stole millions. Hid witnesses. Manipulated Madison. And he arranged the accident that was supposed to kill me in 2018.”
Raymond shouted, “You deserved worse.”
Victor nodded.
“Probably.”
Then he looked at Gabriel.
“Kill Raymond.”
Gabriel's face remained blank.
“And Elena, Margaret, Lydia, Michael, Ethan—all of them walk away.”
Daniel whispered, “Where are Lydia and Michael?”
Victor smiled.
“Close.”
Gabriel said, “No.”
Victor blinked.
“No?”
“I don't kill people because you tell me to.”
“You have.”
“When I was twenty.”
“Twenty-two.”
“You trained me to think fear was strength.”
Gabriel stepped closer.
“You were wrong.”
Victor's expression darkened.
Raymond laughed.
For one second, everyone looked at him.
That was when Elena moved.
She slammed her chair sideways into Raymond's knees.
The gun fired.
The bullet shattered a window.
Chaos exploded.
Ethan reached his mother.
Daniel tackled Raymond.
Victor moved toward a hidden door.
Gabriel followed.
I ran to Mom.
Madison cut Elena's restraints.
Daniel and Raymond struggled across the floor.
Then Victor stopped at the hidden doorway.
He turned.
A small remote control was in his hand.
Gabriel froze.
“What is that?”
Victor smiled.
“The hotel has been empty a long time.”
Daniel looked around.
Madison's face changed.
“Gas.”
Victor nodded.
“Old buildings are dangerous.”
Gabriel whispered, “You rigged the hotel.”
“Only the top floors.”
Ethan shouted, “You're insane.”
Victor looked at him.
“No, boy.”
He pressed his thumb against the remote.
“I am thorough.”
Gabriel lunged.
Victor hit the button.
An alarm began screaming.
Daniel looked at the control panel.
“Five minutes.”
“To what?” I asked.
He looked at us.
“Explosion.”
Victor slipped through the hidden door.
Gabriel grabbed Ethan.
“Get Elena and Margaret downstairs.”
“What about you?”
“I'm getting my father.”
Ethan stared.
Gabriel pushed him toward Elena.
“Go!”
Daniel hauled Raymond upright.
Madison grabbed my arm.
We ran.
Then a voice echoed from the private elevator.
“Daniel!”
He stopped.
A woman stood inside.
Thin.
Dark-haired.
Older than the pictures.
Daniel whispered, “Lydia.”
May you like
Beside her stood Michael.
And Michael had a gun aimed directly at Victor Romano.
