Chapter 6 - A Trade for the Dead
Ruby stared at Marco's phone.
Lorenzo's voice filled the church.
"Bring Elena to Pier Nineteen tomorrow at midnight."
Dante's grip tightened around Ruby's hand.
"She's dead," he said.
Lorenzo laughed.
"No, cousin. She's been hiding."
Dante looked sharply at Ruby.
Ruby's pulse jumped.
Lorenzo continued.
"Ask your wife. She knows."
The call ended.
Silence.
Dante turned toward Ruby.
"You saw her."
Ruby said nothing.
His face hardened.
"Ruby."
"Yes."
The admission changed the room.
Marco dismissed the guards.
Dante waited until they were alone.
"Where?"
"Here."
"When?"
"Before you came in."
Dante stared toward the chapel.
"And you let her leave."
"I didn't know she was wanted."
"She murdered Vittorio."
"She says you believe she did."
"Because evidence proved it."
"What evidence?"
"A weapon. Her fingerprints. Security footage."
"Did you see her kill him?"
"No."
"Then maybe everyone has been lying to you too."
Dante recoiled slightly.
Ruby regretted the words but didn't take them back.
He paced toward the altar.
"My father was found in his office with a gunshot wound. Elena's weapon was beside him."
"When?"
"Seventeen years ago."
"Long before we married."
"Yes."
"Did you know she was my mother?"
"No."
Ruby believed him.
Dante ran one hand through his silver hair.
"Jesus."
Ruby sat.
For several minutes, neither spoke.
Then Dante turned.
"We are not trading Elena."
Ruby looked up.
"Charles is my uncle."
"And Lorenzo will kill all three of you once the exchange happens."
"So we do nothing?"
"No."
His expression hardened into the one that had terrified entire boardrooms.
"We change the terms."
Back at the mansion, Dante summoned his senior team.
Ruby insisted on attending.
No one objected.
A digital map of Pier Nineteen appeared on the wall.
Marco explained access points.
Ruby listened.
Then she noticed a familiar name on the property records.
Gallagher Maritime.
"That's ours."
Marco nodded.
"Technically."
Ruby approached the screen.
"Pier Nineteen hasn't operated in years."
"Correct."
"My father closed it after an environmental inspection."
Dante looked at her.
"When?"
Ruby thought.
"Eight years ago."
The room went quiet.
The year of her attempted abduction.
Marco pulled old records.
Pier Nineteen had closed three weeks after October seventeenth.
Ruby stared.
"My father shut it down because of Lorenzo."
"Likely," Dante said.
Ruby remembered Elena's story.
Gallagher routes had been used secretly.
Perhaps Pier Nineteen was where the evidence began.
"There's another entrance."
Everyone looked at her.
Ruby pointed to the map.
"Here."
Marco frowned.
"That's a retaining wall."
"Now."
Ruby remembered visiting the pier as a child.
"Before renovations, there was a rail tunnel underneath."
Dante looked impressed.
"Where does it exit?"
"Old freight yard."
Marco immediately dispatched scouts.
Ruby's phone vibrated.
Unknown number.
She looked at the message.
DON'T LET DANTE GO TO THE PIER.
She stiffened.
Dante noticed.
"What?"
Ruby showed him.
A second message arrived.
LORENZO DOESN'T WANT ELENA.
HE WANTS DANTE.
Dante took the phone.
"Who sent this?"
Another message.
YOUR FATHER KNEW.
Ruby's heart raced.
Then a photograph appeared.
Patrick Gallagher standing beside Elena.
Between them stood a teenage boy.
Dante.
Ruby looked at her husband.
"You knew my mother."
Dante stared at the image.
"No."
"You were standing beside her."
"I don't remember this."
The photograph was dated nineteen years ago.
Dante would have been around thirty.
Old enough to remember.
Unless something had happened.
Ruby zoomed in.
Dante looked injured.
A bandage wrapped around his head.
Elena's hand rested on his shoulder.
Patrick stood nearby.
On the back of the photograph, visible because someone had photographed both sides, was one handwritten line.
HE MUST NEVER REMEMBER THE NIGHT VITTORIO DIED.
Dante stared.
"My father died seventeen years ago."
Ruby's mouth went dry.
"This photograph is dated nineteen."
Marco checked.
"Could be incorrect."
Ruby shook her head.
"My father's handwriting."
Dante sat.
Ruby had never seen him look weak.
"What don't you remember?"
He rubbed his temple.
"Two years of my life are... fragmented."
Ruby frowned.
"Why?"
"Car accident."
Her stomach dropped.
"Like me."
Dante looked up.
Both of them had missing memories.
Both connected to Lorenzo.
Both protected by Patrick.
Ruby whispered, "What happened to us?"
Dante didn't answer.
The lights suddenly dimmed.
Marco looked toward the security monitors.
"Power fluctuation."
Then the estate intercom crackled.
A woman's voice.
"Dante."
Elena.
Every guard drew a weapon.
Ruby stood.
"Don't shoot."
Elena's voice continued.
"I came willingly."
Marco checked the entry cameras.
Nothing.
Dante looked toward the hidden security corridor.
"You know the tunnels."
Elena stepped from a service doorway.
Two guards surrounded her instantly.
She raised her hands.
Dante stared.
Recognition flickered across his face.
Not conscious.
Something deeper.
Elena saw it too.
"You remember me."
"No."
"You will."
Dante stepped closer.
"Did you kill Vittorio?"
Elena held his gaze.
"No."
"Your weapon was beside his body."
"Because he took it from me."
"Why?"
"Because he planned to kill Enzo."
Dante frowned.
"Enzo died before my father."
"No."
Elena shook her head.
"That's the first lie."
Ruby stepped beside Dante.
"Then who died?"
Elena looked between them.
"The man buried as Enzo was Vittorio."
Dante's face emptied.
"What?"
"Your father didn't die seventeen years ago."
Dante grabbed the back of a chair.
Elena continued.
"He changed identities."
Ruby tried to follow.
"Why?"
"To infiltrate Enzo's network."
"And the man killed in Vittorio's office?"
"Enzo."
Dante stared at her.
"You expect me to believe my father lived under his brother's name?"
"For two years."
"What happened after that?"
Elena's eyes filled.
"He found proof of who controlled the trafficking routes."
"Who?"
Elena looked at Ruby.
"Someone Patrick trusted."
Ruby's stomach tightened.
"Charles?"
Elena shook her head.
"No."
"Then who?"
Before she could answer, a shot shattered the window.
Dante pulled Ruby down.
Marco shouted orders.
Elena collapsed.
Ruby screamed.
Blood spread across Elena's shoulder.
Dante dragged both women behind the table.
A second shot struck the wall.
Marco fired toward the window.
Security shutters slammed down.
Ruby pressed her hands against Elena's wound.
"Stay with me."
Elena gasped.
"Ruby."
"I'm here."
Elena gripped her wrist.
"The ledger."
"What?"
"Patrick didn't hide it in a vault."
"Where?"
Elena's face twisted with pain.
"He hid it inside the marriage contract."
Ruby stared.
"What does that mean?"
Elena tried to answer.
Then every phone in the room buzzed simultaneously.
A video began playing automatically.
Charles appeared tied to a chair.
Behind him stood Lorenzo.
But Lorenzo wasn't looking at the camera.
He was looking at someone entering the room.
Someone off-screen.
Lorenzo smiled.
"You're late."
A familiar male voice answered.
Ruby stopped breathing.
May you like
Dante stood.
Because the voice belonged to Patrick Gallagher.
