Chapter 6 - The Son Who Chose the Wrong Side
Grant kept the phone against his ear.
“Dominic?”
The line was dead.
Caleb looked at him.
“What did he say?”
Grant did not answer immediately.
Nora saw the suspicion.
“Grant.”
He finally lowered the phone.
“He said I should ask Caleb who killed Dad.”
Caleb’s face hardened.
Rafael whispered, “Damn it.”
Grant turned.
“You knew?”
“No.”
“Everybody in this room has said that at least once tonight.”
Caleb stepped closer.
“I didn’t kill Gideon.”
“Did you see him die?”
“Yes.”
The room became silent.
Grant stared.
“You told me he survived.”
“He did.”
“For how long?”
“Seven months.”
Grant’s breathing slowed.
“What happened?”
Caleb looked toward Nora.
“Samuel was there.”
Her expression tightened.
“Where?”
“A safe house in Pennsylvania.”
Grant said, “Who killed him?”
Caleb hesitated.
Grant grabbed him.
“Who?”
“Gideon did.”
Grant released him.
“What?”
Caleb swallowed.
“Dad killed himself.”
Nora closed her eyes.
Rafael sat down.
Grant stepped backward.
“No.”
“He was dying.”
“From what?”
“The poison Dane used on Mom. Gideon was exposed while trying to trace it. Slow neurological damage. By the time we got him out, he could barely walk.”
“You could have told me.”
“He begged us not to.”
Grant hit the wall with his fist.
“Stop saying that!”
Everyone froze.
Grant’s voice broke.
“Stop telling me dead people asked you to lie to me like that makes seventeen years disappear.”
Caleb looked at him.
“You’re right.”
Grant stared.
Caleb continued softly.
“I was afraid.”
That was the first answer that sounded honest.
“I was afraid you’d come looking for us. Afraid Dane would follow. Afraid I’d lose Lily after her mother died. Afraid that if you knew the truth, you’d become even more violent trying to fix it.”
Grant looked away.
Caleb whispered, “And every year I waited made telling you harder.”
Nora understood that kind of silence.
Secrets gained weight.
Eventually people carried them because putting them down seemed more frightening than continuing to suffer beneath them.
The security door opened.
Everyone turned.
Samuel Whitaker entered.
Nora froze.
No gun.
No Dominic.
No Lily.
Just an elderly man leaning on a cane.
Her father.
Samuel stopped when he saw her.
“Nora.”
She crossed the room.
Samuel opened his arms.
Nora slapped him.
Hard.
Rafael looked away.
Grant did not.
Samuel rubbed his cheek.
“I deserved that.”
Nora slapped him again.
“That one was from Mom.”
Samuel nodded.
Then Nora threw her arms around him.
The old man broke.
He held his daughter as though sixteen years collapsed into that embrace.
“I’m sorry,” he whispered.
Nora cried into his shoulder.
“You don’t get sixteen years back.”
“I know.”
“I needed you.”
“I know.”
“She needed you.”
“I know.”
Nora pulled away.
“Where is Lily?”
“Safe.”
“Dominic?”
Samuel’s expression changed.
“He took her from Dane’s people.”
Grant frowned.
“So he helped?”
“At first.”
Samuel sat down.
“Dominic Shaw is Victor Dane’s son.”
Nobody spoke.
Rafael whispered, “That explains a lot.”
Grant stared.
“Dane planted his own son inside my crew?”
“Eight years ago.”
Grant thought back.
Dominic had been twenty-one.
Hungry.
Loyal.
Too loyal.
Grant had promoted him quickly.
Samuel continued.
“Dominic eventually learned what his father had done. To Evelyn. Gideon. Caleb. Me.”
“Then why threaten you?”
“He didn’t.”
Grant frowned.
“The gun?”
“Blank magazine.”
Nora rubbed her forehead.
“This family has a serious communication problem.”
Even Samuel smiled.
Grant asked, “Why tell me not to fear Dane?”
“Because Dominic believes someone else took control of Dane’s network.”
“Who?”
Samuel looked at Rafael.
“Victor is sick.”
Rafael frowned.
“How sick?”
“Terminal cancer. Maybe weeks.”
Grant understood.
“Someone’s replacing him.”
Samuel nodded.
“Dominic discovered the successor six months ago. He infiltrated deeper to identify him.”
“Who?”
Samuel looked toward Caleb.
“He hasn’t told me.”
Grant cursed.
Samuel continued.
“But he gave me this.”
He placed a small drive on the desk.
The bank manager inserted it.
A video appeared.
Victor Dane sat in a private office.
Across from him sat someone whose back faced the camera.
Dane looked weak.
Older than he had at the vault.
“This empire cannot go to Dominic,” Dane said.
The unknown man replied.
“He never wanted it.”
Grant recognized the voice.
Rafael stood.
“No.”
Grant looked at him.
“You know it?”
Rafael’s face had gone gray.
The man in the video turned slightly.
Enough to reveal his profile.
Grant stopped breathing.
Caleb whispered, “That’s impossible.”
Samuel closed his eyes.
The man was younger than Dane but older than Grant.
Silver hair.
Scar near the ear.
A Callahan face.
Grant stared.
“Uncle Thomas.”
Thomas Callahan.
Gideon’s younger brother.
Declared dead twenty-three years ago after a boating accident.
Another grave.
Another lie.
In the recording, Thomas said:
“When Victor dies, the Callahan organization and Dane network merge under me.”
Dane laughed weakly.
“And Grant?”
Thomas replied:
“My nephew has two choices.”
The video ended.
Grant stared at the blank screen.
“What choices?”
Samuel looked at him.
“I think we’re about to find out.”
His phone vibrated.
A text.
Unknown number.
MIDNIGHT. WHITAKER’S MEATS.
COME ALONE, GRANT.
OR THE GIRL DIES.
Caleb grabbed the phone.
“They have Lily again?”
Samuel shook his head.
“She was with Dominic twenty minutes ago.”
Another message arrived.
A photograph.
Lily tied to Nora’s butcher chair.
Dominic lay unconscious on the floor beside her.
Behind them stood Thomas Callahan.
Grant stared at the uncle he remembered from childhood.
Thomas was smiling.
A final message appeared.
BRING NORA.
Nora read it.
Grant shook his head immediately.
“No.”
She looked at him.
“He specifically asked for me.”
“That’s why you’re not going.”
Samuel stepped forward.
“Nora—”
“No.”
She took the pendant from Grant’s hand and put it around her neck.
“Everyone has spent seventeen years deciding what I should know, where I should go, and what danger I’m allowed to face.”
She looked at her father.
“That ends tonight.”
Grant stared at her.
Nora reached for the butcher knife she had carried from the shop earlier.
“Besides…”
She slid it into her apron sheath.
“…Thomas Callahan apparently hasn’t heard what happened to the last Mafia boss who walked into my butcher shop.”
Grant almost smiled.
Then Samuel’s expression changed.
He was looking at the computer.
The live feed from Whitaker’s Meats had returned.
Thomas stood behind Lily.
But somebody else entered from the back room.
Samuel moved closer.
“Oh God.”
Nora stared at the screen.
The newcomer was carrying the original black ledger.
Grant looked at Samuel.
“Who is that?”
Samuel whispered a name.
Nora’s blood ran cold.
May you like
Because the person walking toward Thomas was the one person her mother had warned her never to trust.
“Eleanor Whitaker…”
