Chapter 2 - The Dead Man in the Hallway
Victor Vale stopped outside the ICU door.
Dominic stood on the other side of the glass.
Neither man moved.
Seventeen years separated the living man from his own death certificate.
Matteo reached beneath his jacket.
Dominic raised one hand.
“No.”
Victor smiled faintly.
That disturbed Dominic more than a weapon would have.
The old man looked seventy. Perhaps older. His left leg dragged slightly. A scar ran from his temple toward his ear.
He tapped twice on the glass.
Dominic stepped into the hallway.
“You're dead.”
Victor studied him.
“So was your father, according to several people who profited from it.”
Dominic's expression hardened.
“Why are you here?”
“My daughter.”
“You don't get to call her that after seventeen years.”
Victor's gaze moved past him toward Elena.
Pain briefly broke through the old man's controlled expression.
“You know nothing about why I disappeared.”
“Then start talking.”
Victor looked at the guards.
“Not here.”
Dominic laughed without humor.
“You don't choose the room.”
“I choose whether you learn why Elena was shot.”
That was enough.
Ten minutes later, they occupied a private consultation room down the hall.
Matteo stood at the door.
Father Gabriel remained with Elena.
Victor placed both hands on his cane.
“Your father saved my daughter.”
Dominic said nothing.
“Carlo and I were business partners once.”
“I know every partner my father had.”
“No. You know every partner he admitted having.”
Victor explained.
Twenty-three years earlier, Carlo Rossi had discovered that several influential businessmen were using legitimate construction projects to hide money from trafficking operations.
Carlo wanted out.
Not from organized crime.
From that.
There were lines even he refused to cross.
Victor Vale had been the accountant who discovered the records.
He copied everything.
Names.
Bank accounts.
Payments.
Judges.
Police officers.
Businessmen.
Victor intended to turn the evidence over to federal authorities.
Someone learned what he had done.
His car exploded before he could testify.
The world believed Victor died.
Carlo arranged the deception.
Victor survived.
His wife took Elena and disappeared.
But Elena's mother died six years later.
Carlo quietly paid for Elena's education through intermediaries.
Dominic listened.
“My father protected her?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because the men hunting me believed I gave the evidence to him.”
“Did you?”
Victor looked directly at Dominic.
“No.”
“Then where is it?”
“I gave it to Elena.”
Dominic stood.
“You gave a child evidence powerful men would kill for?”
“Not knowingly.”
Victor explained the pendant.
The photograph inside wasn't the secret.
Behind the photograph was a microscopic storage chip.
Elena had carried it for years without knowing.
“When did she find out?”
“Three weeks ago.”
Dominic thought about the attack.
“What changed three weeks ago?”
“She opened the pendant.”
“And contacted you?”
Victor nodded.
“She wanted answers.”
“Why didn't you take the evidence?”
“Because I discovered someone was watching me.”
“Who?”
“I don't know.”
Dominic paced.
The shooting suddenly made sense.
Someone had discovered Elena possessed the records.
But another question remained.
“Why did she write my name in her apartment?”
Victor's face changed.
“I didn't know she had.”
“She knew my father. She knew me. Why?”
“Carlo left instructions.”
“What instructions?”
“If anything happened to Elena, she was supposed to find you.”
Dominic almost laughed.
“My father trusted me with a woman I'd never met and didn't bother explaining why?”
Victor looked at him with surprising sympathy.
“Carlo was trying to keep you alive.”
That sentence landed harder than Dominic expected.
Victor reached into his jacket.
Matteo immediately drew his weapon.
“Slowly.”
Victor removed an envelope.
He placed it on the table.
Dominic recognized his father's handwriting.
For Dominic.
His hands remained still for several seconds.
Then he opened it.
Son,
If you're reading this, then Elena Vale has found you, or someone has found her.
You will want to know why I kept this from you.
Because knowing makes you a target.
Victor uncovered something bigger than either of us.
I helped hide him.
I helped hide Elena.
But one person inside our family betrayed us.
Dominic stopped reading.
Inside our family.
He continued.
I never discovered who.
Trust no one who knew about Warehouse 19.
Keep Elena alive.
She carries the only proof.
And forgive me.
Dominic read the final sentence twice.
Matteo asked quietly, “What is Warehouse 19?”
Dominic folded the letter.
“A place my father burned down eleven years ago.”
“When?”
“The night before he died.”
Victor's eyes sharpened.
“He didn't die of a heart attack.”
Dominic looked at him.
Victor continued.
“Carlo called me that night. He said he'd found the traitor.”
Dominic's voice became very quiet.
“Who?”
“He never said.”
“Why?”
“The call ended.”
Dominic felt anger rising.
“Then why wait eleven years?”
“Because I was trying to keep Elena alive.”
“You failed.”
Victor flinched.
Dominic immediately regretted saying it.
The old man's eyes moved toward the wall separating them from Elena.
“Yes,” he said. “I did.”
Silence followed.
Dominic opened the letter again.
Warehouse 19.
He remembered it.
A condemned shipping warehouse in Red Hook.
Carlo had ordered it destroyed after claiming contaminated materials were stored inside.
Dominic had never questioned him.
Now he remembered something else.
His uncle Salvatore had argued against it.
Matteo's father had been there too.
And Dominic's godfather.
Three men.
All trusted.
All dead except one.
Salvatore Rossi.
Dominic's uncle.
The man who had helped raise him after Carlo died.
Dominic reached for his phone.
Matteo caught his wrist.
“Don't.”
Dominic stared at him.
“If the letter says someone inside the family betrayed Carlo, we don't know who.”
“You think it's Sal?”
“I think we shouldn't call anyone.”
Dominic slowly lowered the phone.
Victor nodded.
“Your friend is right.”
Matteo glared at him.
“He's not my friend.”
A nurse appeared at the doorway.
“Mr. Rossi?”
Dominic stood immediately.
“She's waking.”
He reached Elena's room in seconds.
Her eyes were open.
Confused.
Frightened.
The breathing tube had been removed. Oxygen ran beneath her nose.
Dominic stopped several feet from the bed.
He didn't want to frighten her.
“Elena.”
Her eyes found him.
Then the ring.
She stared at her hand.
Dominic's stomach dropped.
He moved closer.
“I can explain that.”
Her voice was barely audible.
“You married me?”
“Symbolically.”
Even Matteo looked uncomfortable with the wording.
Dominic continued quickly.
“Father Gabriel wouldn't perform anything legally binding. I wanted anyone asking questions to hear you were under Rossi protection.”
Elena stared at him.
“You're insane.”
Dominic almost smiled.
It was the best thing he had heard all night.
“Probably.”
She tried moving and winced.
“Don't.”
“I've been shot.”
“Seven times.”
Her eyes widened.
“Seven?”
“Doctors removed five. Two couldn't safely be taken out yet.”
She closed her eyes.
Memories returned.
Dominic saw them arrive.
The gala.
The alley.
Gunfire.
“Elena.”
She looked at him.
“Who shot you?”
“I don't know.”
“Why were they after the pendant?”
Her face went pale.
Dominic knew immediately.
“You knew.”
She looked toward Victor.
Her entire body stiffened.
“Dad?”
Victor stepped forward.
Elena's eyes filled.
“You're alive.”
He stopped.
“I'm sorry.”
Seventeen years of grief appeared in her expression.
“You let me bury you.”
“Elena—”
“You let me think you were dead.”
“I was trying to protect you.”
She began crying.
“Get out.”
Victor froze.
“Please.”
“Get out!”
Her monitor accelerated.
The nurse stepped forward.
Dominic turned to Victor.
“Leave.”
Victor obeyed.
Elena covered her face.
Dominic remained silent.
Eventually she lowered her hands.
“My pendant.”
He showed her the evidence bag.
“The chip is gone.”
Dominic stared.
“What?”
“It wasn't inside when I was shot.”
“Where is it?”
“I hid it.”
“Where?”
Elena looked at Matteo.
Then at the guards.
Then back at Dominic.
“I'll tell you when we're alone.”
Dominic ordered everyone outside.
Matteo resisted.
“Boss.”
“Outside.”
The door closed.
Elena looked at Dominic.
“You can't trust your family.”
“I know.”
“No. You don't.”
She swallowed painfully.
“I watched the files.”
“What files?”
“The recordings on the chip.”
“What did you see?”
“Your father.”
Dominic's pulse quickened.
“Carlo recorded meetings. Names. Payments. Everything.”
“And the traitor?”
Elena nodded.
“You know who it is?”
“Yes.”
Dominic leaned closer.
“Tell me.”
She opened her mouth.
A sharp electronic alarm sounded.
The room went dark.
The monitor switched to backup power.
Dominic turned toward the door.
The hallway lights had failed too.
Emergency red lamps flickered on.
Then came a sound from the corridor.
A suppressed gunshot.
Another.
Dominic reached beneath his shirt.
Elena whispered, “Dominic…”
Footsteps approached.
Slow.
Unhurried.
Someone tried the ICU door.
The handle moved once.
Then stopped.
May you like
A familiar voice came through the darkness.
“Dominic? It's Uncle Sal. Open the door.”
