Chapter 4 - Uncle Victor
“Hello, Adrian.”
Victor sounded exactly as he always had.
Calm.
Amused.
As though he were calling about dinner.
“Put her mother on.”
“I’m afraid Rosa is occupied.”
“If you hurt either of them—”
“You’ve always been predictable when angry.”
“Victor.”
His smile faded.
“There he is.”
I gripped the phone.
“Where are my guards?”
“Some were mine before they were yours.”
Tomas heard that.
His face hardened.
Victor turned the camera.
Sophie sat on a sofa.
She was not tied.
Rosa sat beside her.
A man I did not recognize stood near the door.
Lenora was across the room.
Also alive.
“This doesn’t have to become dramatic,” Victor said.
“You kidnapped people in my house.”
“I contained a problem.”
“You killed Noah Alvarez.”
Rosa closed her eyes.
Victor’s expression barely moved.
“Noah made poor decisions.”
That was enough.
Rosa heard it too.
Her face changed.
Not shock.
Something colder.
“You murdered my husband,” she said.
Victor turned the phone toward her.
“Noah stumbled into business that did not concern him.”
“He had a four-year-old daughter.”
“He should have remembered that.”
Sophie began crying.
I wanted to reach through the screen.
Instead, I forced my voice flat.
“What do you want?”
“The ledger.”
“You already emptied the room.”
“I removed the decoy.”
I looked down at the plastic-wrapped book in my hand.
Victor smiled.
“Noah was clever.”
“You knew there were two.”
“I suspected.”
“And the drive?”
“Bring that too.”
“Why?”
“Because I’m tired of cleaning up Elias’s mistakes.”
There.
A division.
Victor and Elias were working together.
But perhaps not comfortably.
“Where is Elias?”
Victor’s eyes narrowed.
“Curious?”
“Yes.”
“Dead men are difficult to manage.”
“Especially when they aren’t dead.”
He smiled faintly.
“Come home.”
“You think I’m bringing evidence into a house you control?”
“I think Rosa and Sophie are persuasive.”
I looked at Sophie.
She held herself very still now.
Her brace extended in front of her.
One little hand rested on the metal.
“Adrian,” Victor said, “you have thirty minutes.”
The call ended.
Tomas swore.
“We call police.”
“Not yet.”
His head snapped toward me.
“He has hostages.”
“He also has people inside local law enforcement.”
“You don’t know that.”
“Noah’s files include vulnerability profiles. You think household staff were the end?”
I opened the drive again.
Search:
POLICE.
Seventeen entries.
Detectives.
A deputy chief.
Two clerks.
Three officers.
Payments.
Debts.
Blackmail.
Tomas stared.
“Federal.”
“Yes.”
I called an attorney who handled the parts of my businesses requiring people who asked fewer questions and documented more facts.
“Rachel.”
“Adrian?”
“I need federal law enforcement.”
There was a pause.
“What happened?”
“Kidnapping, embezzlement, murder, organized financial fraud.”
Another pause.
“Send me evidence.”
“Already coming.”
I forwarded Noah’s files through a secure encrypted channel Tomas prepared.
“Do not contact local police.”
“Understood.”
“I have hostages.”
“How many?”
“Three.”
“Children?”
“One.”
Her voice changed.
“I’m moving now.”
I ended the call.
Tomas looked at his watch.
“Twenty-six minutes.”
“We drive.”
“Into Victor’s trap?”
“Yes.”
He stared.
“You have a plan?”
“Not yet.”
“That’s encouraging.”
We were halfway back when Lenora called.
Her voice was barely audible.
“Adrian.”
I sat forward.
“Where are you?”
“Bathroom.”
“How do you have your phone?”
“Victor didn’t search my coat lining.”
“Rosa and Sophie?”
“Safe for now.”
“How many men?”
“Four inside. Two outside.”
“Victor?”
“In your father’s library.”
My father’s library.
Of course.
Victor always loved symbolism.
“Can you get Rosa out?”
“No.”
“Can you unlock the east service door?”
“Maybe.”
“Don’t risk it yet.”
She whispered, “There’s something else.”
“What?”
“Daniel is here.”
I looked at Tomas.
“Where?”
“Basement wine room.”
“Alive?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“I don’t know.”
A door opened in the background.
Lenora stopped breathing.
Then the call disconnected.
“Daniel changes things,” Tomas said.
“Maybe.”
“Could be leverage.”
“Or witness.”
My phone rang again.
Rachel.
“I’ve reached a federal task force. They’re reviewing the files now.”
“ETA?”
“Forty minutes minimum.”
“Too long.”
“Adrian, do not go inside.”
I looked at the mansion appearing beyond the trees.
“I’m already home.”
We stopped at the gate.
Victor’s men were visible.
They allowed us through.
That meant he wanted me inside badly enough to risk it.
Good.
People who want something can be negotiated with.
People who want nothing are dangerous.
I entered alone.
Tomas stayed outside, officially.
Victor waited in the library.
He wore a charcoal suit.
Silver hair.
Gold cuff links my father had given him twenty years earlier.
“You look like him when you’re angry,” he said.
“Don’t.”
“Your father.”
“I know who you meant.”
I placed a black bag on the desk.
Victor looked at it.
“Ledger?”
“Yes.”
“Drive?”
“Yes.”
“Open it.”
“No.”
He smiled.
“You never did learn patience.”
“Rosa and Sophie first.”
“They leave after I verify.”
“Then verify in front of me.”
He gestured.
One of his men opened the bag.
Inside was the ledger.
Not the drive.
Victor’s smile disappeared.
“Where is it?”
“Safe.”
“You’re bargaining badly.”
“You trained me.”
“I trained you to understand leverage.”
“I understand it.”
I looked toward the ceiling.
“You have a woman and a four-year-old child.”
He stared.
“I have the records that can put you in prison until you die.”
“You think prison frightens me?”
“No.”
“What does?”
I stepped closer.
“Being irrelevant.”
That hit.
Victor’s face tightened.
“You spent your life standing beside my father. Then behind me.”
“Your father was weak.”
“He built everything.”
“I built half of it.”
“And still nobody put your name on the building.”
His hand moved.
He slapped me.
Hard.
I tasted blood.
I smiled.
“There you are.”
He grabbed my jacket.
“You spoiled little—”
A gunshot cracked somewhere downstairs.
Victor released me.
Everyone froze.
Then another shot.
A scream.
I ran for the door.
Victor’s man grabbed me.
I drove my elbow into his throat.
Victor shouted.
I reached the hallway.
Lenora appeared at the staircase.
“Adrian!”
“Where are they?”
“Kitchen!”
I ran.
The kitchen doors were open.
One man lay on the floor clutching his shoulder.
Rosa stood behind the island.
Sophie was crouched beneath it.
And Daniel Pike held a gun.
He was shaking violently.
Victor appeared behind me.
“Daniel.”
Daniel turned.
His face was bruised.
“You killed Noah.”
Victor stopped.
“You don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“I drove the car.”
The room went silent.
Rosa stared at him.
Daniel’s eyes filled with tears.
“I didn’t know they were going to kill him.”
Rosa stepped out.
“You were there?”
“I thought we were scaring him.”
“You were there?”
Daniel lowered the gun.
“I’m sorry.”
Victor moved his hand toward his jacket.
I saw it.
So did Daniel.
“Don’t!”
Victor drew.
I lunged.
The shot exploded.
Sophie screamed.
Someone fell.
For one second, I couldn’t tell who.
May you like
Then I saw blood spreading across the marble.
And Rosa was on the floor.
