Chapter 8 - A Traitor Behind the Gates
Austin did not open the door.
“Prove it.”
Daniel stood outside in the cold.
“Our mother had a scar beneath her left shoulder from falling through a greenhouse window when she was thirteen.”
Austin's face tightened.
Few people knew that.
Daniel continued.
“She hated roses because your father sent them whenever he cheated.”
Austin opened the door two inches.
“Anyone could learn that.”
“Then ask me about the night you were born.”
Austin said nothing.
“You stopped breathing for forty-three seconds. Mother refused to let the nurse take you away. Father cried in the hallway where nobody could see him.”
Austin opened the door.
Daniel entered.
Jacey studied him.
“You look like him.”
Daniel smiled.
“So do you.”
Austin immediately stepped between them.
Daniel raised his hands.
“I didn't come for her.”
“Why did you come?”
“To finish what our father started.”
Daniel explained that he was Austin's half-brother, born to a woman their father had loved before marrying Austin's mother. He had been kept hidden because Vale had threatened the family.
Their father had used Daniel as an unseen courier while Austin remained publicly positioned as heir.
“You knew about me?”
“Since you were born.”
“And never contacted me?”
“It would've killed us both.”
Austin laughed bitterly.
“That seems to be everyone's favorite excuse.”
Daniel placed a flash drive on the table.
“This is the missing half of your father's ledger.”
Elena examined it.
“Where did you get it?”
“Nathan.”
Everyone reached for weapons.
Daniel didn't move.
“Nathan works for me.”
Marcus cursed.
Daniel continued.
“He infiltrated Whitmore's people twelve years ago.”
Austin stared.
“So the man who broke into my office—”
“Was trying to warn you.”
“He framed Marcus.”
“No. Whitmore's people did.”
“And Nathan let us believe it?”
“He couldn't expose himself.”
Austin's patience snapped.
“Everyone keeps secrets while children get hunted.”
The room fell silent.
Jacey was watching him.
Austin lowered his voice.
“No more.”
He looked at Daniel.
“You tell me everything.”
Daniel did.
Whitmore and Vale controlled the transport network, but both answered to a financial backer whose identity had remained hidden.
Austin's father discovered the truth.
Before he could expose it, someone inside his organization betrayed him.
That person had survived.
And was still close to Austin.
“How close?”
Daniel looked toward the window.
“Close enough to know you're here.”
A gunshot shattered the glass.
Austin threw Jacey to the floor.
Marcus fired toward the tree line.
Bruno pulled Elena behind the wall.
More shots.
Daniel shouted, “Back exit!”
They escaped through the cellar.
Austin carried Jacey.
They reached the vehicles.
One tire exploded.
A sniper.
Marcus returned fire.
Bruno started the second SUV.
Everyone piled inside.
They raced away.
Jacey clung to Austin.
“You promised.”
“I know.”
“You said you'd keep us safe.”
“I will.”
“How?”
Austin had no answer.
Elena did.
“By stopping running.”
Austin looked at her.
She was right.
For six years, everyone had run.
Elena.
Daniel.
Nathan.
Even Austin, in his own way.
It ended now.
They returned to Boston through back roads and entered the city before dawn.
Not the mansion.
An abandoned printing warehouse Austin owned under another name.
Daniel connected his drive to Elena's data.
Files began decrypting.
Shipping manifests.
Bank transfers.
Photographs.
Victim lists.
Payments.
Then the final directory opened.
ACCOUNT HOLDER: C.C.
Austin frowned.
“Who is C.C.?”
Daniel shook his head.
“That's what Father never solved.”
Jacey, drawing quietly at the table, looked up.
“C.C.?”
“Yes.”
“My mom said those letters.”
Elena stared.
“When?”
“Before the men came.”
“What exactly did she say?”
Jacey thought.
“She was on the phone. She said, ‘C.C. knows Austin won't see it because he still thinks she's dead.’”
Austin's blood went cold.
“She?”
Everyone became still.
There was only one woman whose death Austin had accepted without seeing the body.
His mother.
Catherine Cole.
She had supposedly died in a private clinic overseas eleven years earlier.
Austin looked at Daniel.
Daniel's face had gone white.
“No.”
A printer suddenly activated across the room.
No computer had sent a command.
One page emerged.
Austin approached.
A photograph filled the paper.
Taken seconds earlier.
All of them inside the warehouse.
Someone was watching through the security system.
Beneath the image was a message.
WELCOME HOME, SONS.
Then Austin's phone rang.
May you like
The caller ID displayed two words he had not seen in eleven years.
MOTHER CALLING.
