Chapter 6 - Someone Wanted Mateo Dead
Mateo stepped between them.
“Put it down.”
Adrian kept the weapon aimed at Lorenzo.
“Tell them.”
Lorenzo’s eyes remained on Adrian.
“Not with a gun pointed at me.”
“Tell them.”
Sienna’s patience snapped.
“Somebody took my father. Camille may be alive. My mother spent years documenting this. I am finished standing in rooms where men decide which truth I can handle.”
Lorenzo looked at her.
Then he spoke.
“Dominic’s network passed to my father’s illegitimate son.”
Mateo froze.
“Our father had another son?”
“Yes.”
“Who?”
“Adrian.”
Sienna turned.
Adrian’s gun remained raised.
Mateo stared at him.
“You’re our brother?”
“Half brother.”
Lorenzo continued.
“Dominic groomed him as a successor.”
Adrian’s jaw tightened.
“I was sixteen.”
“And later?”
“I became an informant.”
“For whom?”
“My father.”
The pieces aligned.
Adrian had infiltrated Dominic’s network while secretly helping investigators.
But when his father died, the investigation collapsed.
Adrian remained embedded.
“Why point a gun at Lorenzo?” Sienna asked.
“Because he left out the important part.”
Lorenzo said nothing.
Adrian lowered the weapon slightly.
“Dominic didn’t choose me to inherit.”
Mateo frowned.
“Then who?”
“You.”
Silence.
Mateo laughed once.
“That’s ridiculous.”
“Dominic built North Atlantic Logistics in your name.”
Camille’s trust.
The hidden shares.
Suddenly it made sense.
Mateo had never merely been framed.
He had been positioned.
If Lorenzo died, Mateo could become head of the Costa organization.
If Mateo were controlled through addiction, scandal or blackmail, Dominic’s network would control everything.
“And Camille discovered it,” Sienna said.
Adrian nodded.
“She tried to get Mateo out.”
Mateo’s face went pale.
The woman he loved had not only investigated corruption.
She had been trying to save him.
They left for Vermont that night.
The clinic existed behind an innocuous rehabilitation center.
The director initially denied knowing Camille.
Then Lorenzo placed the hospital record on his desk.
The man surrendered.
Camille had been there.
For eighteen months.
Under protection.
Then she disappeared again.
“Who paid?” Mateo asked.
The director gave them the account.
Sienna recognized it.
Mercer Foundation.
Her mother’s charity.
Someone had continued using Evelyn’s dormant foundation after her death.
Sienna traced the authorization.
Harrison.
Her father had hidden Camille.
Mateo sat down.
“Harrison saved her?”
“Apparently,” Sienna said.
“Then why didn’t he tell me?”
Lorenzo answered.
“Because whoever tried to kill her believed she was dead.”
It was brutal.
It was also logical.
On the drive back, Mateo sat beside Sienna.
“I owe you an apology.”
“For?”
“What I said about your father.”
“He did sell me into a marriage.”
“Still.”
She looked out the window.
“Harrison spent my entire life confusing love with decisions he made for me. Maybe hiding Camille was one of the rare times his secrecy protected someone.”
Mateo nodded.
“My brother does the same thing.”
Sienna looked toward the SUV ahead, where Lorenzo rode.
“You two are more alike than either of you wants to admit.”
“That may be the cruelest thing you’ve said to me.”
She smiled.
Mateo smiled too.
It was the first moment between them that felt normal.
That frightened her almost as much as everything else.
Back in Boston, they learned Harrison had escaped Vale.
He had been found near the clinic.
Alive.
Vale remained missing.
The engagement party was scheduled for the next evening.
Lorenzo wanted it canceled.
Sienna refused.
“If someone wants us frightened, canceling tells them it worked.”
Mateo looked at her.
“You realize normal engaged couples argue about flowers?”
“We can schedule that after the conspiracy.”
At the party, hundreds gathered in the Costa hotel ballroom.
Sienna wore red.
Mateo wore black.
Cameras flashed.
For the first time, Mateo offered his hand publicly.
He waited.
Sienna took it.
Consent.
Always.
They danced.
“You’re not what I expected,” she said.
“Disappointed?”
“Undecided.”
“I’ll take it.”
Across the ballroom, Lorenzo suddenly stiffened.
He was looking toward the balcony.
Sienna followed his gaze.
A rifle scope flashed behind the glass.
Lorenzo shouted.
Mateo turned.
Sienna saw the gun move.
Not toward her.
Toward Mateo.
She grabbed him.
May you like
The window shattered.
And Mateo dropped to the floor.
