Chapter 7 - The Photograph Behind the Wall
Dominic’s voice exploded through Meline’s hidden earpiece.
“DOWN.”
She dropped.
A bullet crossed the church.
Dominic’s men entered through three doors.
Evelyn disappeared behind the altar.
Meline’s mother grabbed her.
They crawled behind a stone column.
“Mom!”
“I’m sorry.”
“For which part?”
“All of it.”
Dominic arrived minutes later.
Evelyn was gone.
A tunnel beneath the church led to the subway infrastructure.
She had planned the escape.
Meline confronted her mother.
“Tell me everything.”
Her mother did.
Evelyn had created Crown decades earlier.
Not as a criminal empire.
As a secret alliance designed to control criminal organizations through information.
But power changed it.
Arthur Costello discovered what she had become.
Thomas helped him gather evidence.
Isabella Costello joined them.
Evelyn had Isabella killed.
Then Thomas.
“She killed Dad?”
Meline’s mother nodded.
“I spent fourteen years hiding you from her.”
“But she knew where I was.”
“Yes.”
“Then why didn’t she kill me?”
“Because she needs you.”
“For B-17.”
“No.”
Her mother looked at Dominic.
“For him.”
Dominic’s expression hardened.
Evelyn’s plan required Costello authority and Hayes access.
Meline and Dominic together.
Their meeting had been engineered to force the final pieces into place.
“She wanted us together,” Meline whispered.
Dominic’s gaze met hers.
That knowledge made whatever was growing between them suddenly feel contaminated.
Was attraction theirs?
Or another trap?
Back at the mansion, Meline kept her distance.
Dominic noticed.
“You’re avoiding me.”
“I’m thinking.”
“Dangerous.”
She almost smiled.
Almost.
“I don’t like that she planned us.”
“She planned a meeting.”
“She manipulated everything.”
“She didn’t make you insult my fake career.”
Meline looked at him.
“She didn’t make me like you either.”
The words escaped.
Silence.
Dominic stepped closer.
“Do you?”
Meline’s heartbeat betrayed her.
“This is a terrible time.”
“I’ve had worse.”
She laughed.
He touched her cheek.
Slowly.
Giving her time to move.
She didn’t.
Their kiss was quiet.
Nothing like the violence surrounding them.
When they separated, Dominic rested his forehead against hers.
“That wasn’t planned.”
“No.”
“Good.”
Later, Meline searched the old photographs from Costello House.
One bothered her.
Thomas.
Isabella.
Evelyn.
Behind them was a wall with a distinctive carved pattern.
She knew it.
Hawthorne.
Not the vault.
The lobby.
They returned.
Behind the decorative stone panel, Meline found another photograph.
On its back:
THE LAST NAME IS IN THE HOUSE THAT HAS NO ADDRESS.
Dominic frowned.
“What house?”
Meline remembered her childhood.
Her father used to sketch imaginary buildings for her.
One had no doors.
No street.
No address.
She still owned the sketchbook.
At her apartment, they found it.
Page seventeen.
A drawing of a narrow house.
Underneath:
HOME IS WHERE THEY NEVER THINK TO LOOK.
Meline held it to the light.
Invisible ink revealed coordinates.
Dominic entered them.
A location appeared.
An island warehouse in the East River.
Then another detail appeared.
Property owner:
GREGORY HIGGINS.
Meline stared.
Greg wasn’t merely Evelyn’s employee.
He owned the place containing the final evidence.
Before they could move, Dominic’s security alarm sounded.
Someone had breached the mansion.
Not outside.
Inside.
Dominic checked the camera feed.
A figure walked calmly down the upstairs hallway.
No guards stopped him.
No alarms had triggered until he reached Meline’s room.
The man looked directly into the camera.
Greg Higgins.
He smiled.
Then he opened Meline’s bedroom door.
May you like
And behind him stood someone Meline had believed was still unconscious in the medical wing.
Victor...
