Chapter 13 - The Man Behind the First Bullet
The door opened.
Vincent stood there.
Gabriel’s face hardened.
The live feed had shown Vincent.
For one terrible second, everything pointed at him.
Then Vincent held up both hands.
“Before you shoot me with your eyes, check beneath the camera.”
I did.
A tiny transmitter was attached to the hallway camera.
The feed had been delayed.
Twenty-three minutes.
Carmine wanted us to believe Vincent was betraying Gabriel.
Again.
Vincent ripped down the device.
“I’m getting tired of your uncle.”
“So am I,” Gabriel said.
The laptop revealed Carmine’s location.
Not directly.
But his scheduled uploads connected through an old warehouse near Albany.
We gave the information to investigators.
This time we did not chase him ourselves.
Mostly.
Gabriel insisted on being present nearby.
I insisted on going with him.
Federal agents entered the warehouse at dawn.
They found documents.
Weapons.
Cash.
No Carmine.
But they found the sniper rifle.
And ballistic testing linked it to the bullet that hit Gabriel six months earlier.
Locke had not fired that first shot.
He had arranged the medical cover-up.
The shooter was someone else.
A professional Carmine hired.
The second attempt at the study window used another shooter.
Carmine had built layers between himself and every crime.
But those layers were collapsing.
Then agents found a basement room.
Inside was the original sniper.
Dead.
Killed recently.
Carmine was eliminating witnesses.
Gabriel looked sick when he heard.
“He’s cleaning the board.”
“Then who’s left?” I asked.
Vincent counted.
“Locke is in custody. Marissa is protected. Maria. Mia. Hannah’s mother. Hannah.”
“And me,” Gabriel said.
Vincent shook his head.
“He wants you alive long enough to recover the trust.”
The trust could no longer be stolen.
Mia and Gabriel had both filed claims.
Original documents were secured.
Carmine had lost.
Which made him more dangerous.
That afternoon Maria remembered something.
Daniel kept an emergency account.
Untraceable cash.
Only he and Carmine knew it existed.
The access key was hidden at the estate.
In the rose garden.
Gabriel stared at her.
“Where?”
“Under the memorial statue.”
We went outside with investigators.
Beneath the stone base was a steel compartment.
Empty.
Except for a photograph.
It showed Gabriel standing as a boy beside his father.
On the back Carmine had written:
HE ALWAYS CHOSE YOU.
That was not about money.
Not anymore.
Carmine had hated Daniel.
Then Gabriel.
The inheritance had given the hatred a purpose.
But it had begun much earlier.
Maria finally told us why.
Daniel was the older brother.
He inherited the legitimate businesses.
Carmine believed everything should have been his.
Their father trusted Daniel.
Not Carmine.
Decades of resentment became theft.
Then murder.
Then obsession.
Gabriel listened without speaking.
Afterward he wheeled away alone.
I found him near the roses.
“He ruined half my life before I knew there was a war.”
“Then don’t give him the other half.”
He looked up.
“That sounds suspiciously wise.”
“I read it on a tea bag.”
He laughed.
Then he became serious.
“I love you.”
I forgot every clever response I had ever had.
“What?”
“I love you.”
“That was very inconsiderate.”
His eyebrows rose.
“I had a whole speech prepared for whenever you eventually said that.”
“And?”
“I forgot it.”
He smiled.
I bent down and kissed him.
My phone rang.
Mom.
I answered.
No one spoke.
Then Carmine’s voice whispered:
“Come to the rose garden alone.”
I looked toward the roses.
Gabriel saw my face.
“What?”
May you like
Before I could answer, a shadow moved behind the hedge.
And my mother screamed...
