Chapter 7 - THE BROTHER VINCENT WAS NEVER SUPPOSED TO FIND
Vincent forgot how to breathe.
Clara.
Older.
Thinner.
Alive.
Marcus grabbed his shoulder.
“Vincent.”
Nothing.
“Vincent!”
His focus returned.
Gabriel’s voice filled the lobby.
“The medal.”
Vincent touched the Saint Christopher chain beneath his shirt.
“Bring it upstairs.”
“Let Hannah go.”
Gabriel laughed.
“You still negotiate like Father.”
Vincent looked toward the security camera.
“Gabriel.”
Silence.
The name carried something neither man wanted to acknowledge.
Blood.
Gabriel’s expression changed.
“So Sarah told you.”
“She told me enough.”
“She told you her version.”
“I’m listening.”
Gabriel pushed the gun harder against Hannah’s head.
“No, you’re stalling.”
“Yes.”
Gabriel smiled.
“At least you’re honest.”
Vincent looked at Clara.
“Did he hurt you?”
Gabriel’s face darkened.
Clara answered.
“Yes.”
The word destroyed whatever possibility remained.
Vincent removed the medal.
“Marcus stays downstairs.”
Marcus turned.
“No.”
Vincent looked at him.
“That’s an order.”
“I’ve ignored worse.”
Vincent almost smiled.
Then his expression became serious.
“If I’m not back in fifteen minutes, burn the building down around him.”
Marcus understood the real instruction.
Get Hannah out.
Whatever happened to Vincent.
He nodded.
Vincent entered the elevator alone.
Upstairs, Hannah watched the floor numbers illuminate.
Gabriel paced.
Clara stood beside the wall.
Hannah noticed her moving slowly toward an emergency button.
Gabriel noticed too.
“Don’t.”
Clara stopped.
“Twenty-four years,” she said.
Gabriel looked at her.
“Twenty-four years and you still think fear is love.”
His face tightened.
“I loved you.”
“No.”
Clara’s voice was soft.
“You loved possessing me.”
Hannah saw something dangerous enter his expression.
“You chose him.”
“He was sixteen.”
“You protected him.”
“He needed someone.”
“So did I.”
“You needed power.”
The elevator chimed.
Vincent stepped out.
He carried no visible weapon.
Gabriel smiled.
“My little brother.”
Vincent looked at him.
“You look disappointing.”
Hannah almost laughed.
Gabriel did not.
“Give me the medal.”
“Release Hannah.”
“You’re in no position—”
Vincent dropped the medal.
It struck the floor.
Gabriel stared.
Vincent stepped on it.
“Now nobody gets it.”
Gabriel raised his gun toward Vincent.
Hannah moved.
She drove her elbow into Gabriel’s ribs.
Clara hit the emergency alarm.
Vincent charged.
The gun fired.
Glass shattered.
Gabriel and Vincent crashed into a table.
Hannah grabbed Clara.
“Run!”
They reached the hallway.
Two guards appeared.
Marcus emerged from the stairwell and shot the first in the shoulder.
The second surrendered immediately.
Inside the room, Gabriel slammed Vincent against the wall.
“You took everything!”
Vincent hit him.
“I didn’t know you existed!”
“Father chose you!”
“I was a child!”
Gabriel swung again.
Vincent ducked.
“You inherited his name!”
“You could have had it!”
Gabriel froze.
Vincent stared at him.
“I never wanted any of this.”
For a second, something almost human appeared in Gabriel.
Then hatred returned.
“You had Clara.”
Vincent understood.
“This was never about Father.”
Gabriel raised the gun.
“It was always about her.”
A shot rang out.
Gabriel looked down.
Blood spread across his side.
Dominic stood in the doorway holding a pistol.
Everyone froze.
Vincent stared.
“Dominic.”
Gabriel laughed through the pain.
“The loyal dog returns.”
Dominic kept the gun raised.
“I was never your dog.”
Vincent’s voice was cold.
“You have thirty seconds to explain.”
Dominic looked at Clara.
“She asked me to protect Hannah.”
Clara nodded.
Vincent stared at her.
“Twenty-four years ago?”
“Fifteen,” Clara said. “When Dominic joined you.”
Dominic lowered his gun slightly.
“I knew who Hannah was.”
Vincent looked betrayed.
“You watched me spend years searching for Clara.”
“Yes.”
“You knew she was alive.”
“No. Not until six years ago.”
“And you said nothing.”
“Because Gabriel had her.”
Vincent stepped toward him.
“You should have told me.”
“And you would have done exactly what you did tonight.”
Vincent stopped.
Dominic gestured around the destroyed room.
“You would have started a war.”
“I could have ended it.”
“You would have gotten Hannah killed.”
Hannah stepped between them.
“Enough.”
Three dangerous men looked at the waitress.
Hannah pointed toward Gabriel.
“He kidnapped me.”
Then Dominic.
“You manipulated my job.”
Then Vincent.
“And you locked me in your house.”
Vincent opened his mouth.
“Do not explain the locks.”
He closed it.
Clara almost smiled.
Hannah looked at them.
“For once, everyone is going to stop deciding what happens to me.”
Gabriel laughed weakly.
“You really are my daughter.”
“No.”
Hannah turned toward him.
“I’m Sarah Brooks’s daughter.”
His smile vanished.
“She raised me. She sat beside me when I was sick. She taught me to drive. She worked two jobs so I could go to college.”
Hannah’s voice strengthened.
“DNA doesn’t erase twenty-six years.”
Gabriel’s face hardened.
“You’ll understand eventually.”
“No.”
Hannah stared at him.
“I understand now.”
Police sirens sounded outside.
Gabriel smiled.
“You think those are police?”
Vincent looked toward the windows.
Gabriel laughed.
“The Ledger owns half the department.”
Marcus checked his radio.
“Multiple vehicles incoming.”
Dominic looked at Vincent.
“How many men?”
“Too many.”
Gabriel slowly stood.
Blood stained his shirt.
“You see?”
He smiled.
“You can’t defeat something you don’t control.”
Hannah looked at Clara.
“The three Ledger pieces.”
Clara understood.
“No.”
“What happens if we publish them?”
“Every person named becomes exposed.”
Gabriel laughed.
“And everyone you love becomes a target.”
Hannah turned to Vincent.
“How quickly can you copy the data?”
Vincent looked at Marcus.
“Minutes.”
Hannah picked up the broken medal.
“Then we don’t hide it.”
Clara stared.
“Hannah.”
“We make hiding it impossible.”
Vincent looked at her.
A slow understanding passed between them.
The safest secret was sometimes the one everyone knew.
They moved toward the secure computer room.
Gabriel shouted after them.
“You release that Ledger and you destroy this city!”
Hannah stopped.
She looked back.
“No.”
Her voice was calm.
“We destroy the people who thought they owned it.”
Marcus inserted the microfilm.
Files began loading.
Names appeared.
Accounts.
Photographs.
Transactions.
Then one folder opened automatically.
DUCA, VINCENT — SUCCESSION PROTOCOL.
Vincent frowned.
“What is that?”
Clara’s face turned white.
“No.”
Hannah looked at her.
“What?”
Clara whispered, “The Ledger was never only evidence.”
The screen filled with contracts.
Orders.
Photographs.
One document carried Vincent’s name.
A scheduled assassination.
Approved twenty-four years earlier.
Target age:
Sixteen.
Hannah stared.
“They were going to kill Vincent too?”
Clara nodded.
“Your father stopped them.”
Vincent leaned toward the screen.
At the bottom of the order was the signature of the person who had authorized his death.
Vincent read the name.
Then looked slowly toward Dominic.
May you like
Because the surname on the document was Salerno.
And the first name belonged to Dominic’s father.
