Chapter 3 - The Man Victor Lost
Adrian found the location through Sophia's emergency phone beacon.
An abandoned private clinic sat thirty miles north of the estate.
He arrived with Daniel and four men.
The front door stood open.
Blood marked the floor.
Adrian followed it.
“Sophia!”
No answer.
A chair had overturned.
A window was broken.
On the floor lay a spent cartridge.
No body.
Daniel examined the blood.
“Not much.”
Adrian saw movement behind a doorway and raised his gun.
Luca Bennett stepped out.
Blood soaked his shoulder.
“Put it down,” Adrian ordered.
Luca laughed bitterly.
“If I wanted you dead, you'd have joined your father years ago.”
“Where's Sophia?”
“Safe.”
“Victor?”
“Gone.”
Adrian stepped closer.
“Give me one reason not to shoot you.”
“Because I'm the reason your fiancée is alive.”
Luca slowly lowered his weapon.
Twenty years of history entered the room with his next sentence.
“Victor Rowan killed your father.”
Adrian's face remained still.
“Prove it.”
Luca removed a flash drive from his pocket.
“Your father knew Halcyon had infiltrated his organization. What he didn't know was that Victor wasn't investigating Halcyon.”
Luca looked directly at him.
“He was running it.”
Adrian felt something inside him fracture.
“Why should I believe you?”
“You shouldn't.”
Luca placed the drive on the floor.
“Believe your father.”
The recording on the drive was damaged, but the voice was unmistakable.
Richard Marlowe.
Adrian's father.
“If Adrian ever hears this, then Victor has probably won.”
Adrian stopped breathing.
The recording continued.
“Victor believes loyalty is ownership. I mistook obedience for love. That was my greatest mistake.”
Static swallowed several seconds.
Then:
“Luca Bennett helped me expose him. Protect the boy. Protect his sister.”
Sophia.
Adrian closed his eyes.
Everything rearranged itself.
Sophia had known pieces of the truth.
Not all of it.
Enough to be afraid.
“Where is she?” Adrian asked.
Luca pointed toward a back room.
Sophia sat inside.
When Adrian entered, she stood.
He did not embrace her.
Not yet.
“Why didn't you tell me?”
“Because Victor threatened Luca when I was nineteen. He showed me photographs of you and said if I ever told you my brother was alive, he'd kill both of you.”
“You've known for years?”
“I knew Luca survived. I didn't know where he was until three weeks ago.”
“The party?”
“He contacted me.”
“Under my table?”
“He was trying to give me a key.”
Adrian remembered their joined hands.
Not affection.
An exchange.
“What key?”
Luca entered and placed a tiny brass key on the table.
“Your father left a vault.”
“Where?”
“Under your ballroom.”
Adrian almost smiled at the cruelty of it.
Twenty years of secrets beneath the floor where he had celebrated his engagement.
Sophia touched his arm.
“Adrian, there's something else.”
He looked at her.
“Victor didn't work alone.”
“Who?”
“I don't know.”
Luca answered.
“Clara does.”
Adrian turned.
“The housekeeper?”
“Her husband worked for your father.”
“Clara told me her husband died in an accident.”
“He did.”
Luca's expression hardened.
“It wasn't an accident.”
Adrian thought of Emma.
The frightened child.
The box.
“Where is Clara?”
“I sent her somewhere safe.”
“Take me there.”
Luca hesitated.
“No.”
Adrian stepped closer.
“That wasn't a request.”
“Then shoot me.”
Sophia moved between them.
“Stop.”
Luca's eyes never left Adrian.
“Clara has spent four years protecting Emma from the people who killed her husband. If I reveal where she is before I know whether you're compromised, I deserve whatever happens to me.”
“Compromised by whom?”
“Victor.”
Adrian laughed once.
Without humor.
“I just put a gun in his face through a phone call.”
“You still don't understand.”
Luca stepped closer.
“Victor doesn't need your loyalty.”
He tapped Adrian's chest.
“He built your entire world.”
That night Adrian returned to the estate.
Alone.
He walked into the ballroom.
Tables had been cleared.
Flowers remained.
The marble floor shone beneath the chandelier.
He counted tiles according to coordinates found on Luca's key.
Seven from the north wall.
Eleven from the fireplace.
He knelt.
One marble tile had a tiny keyhole hidden inside its decorative border.
Adrian inserted the brass key.
Click.
A section of flooring lifted.
Beneath it was a steel compartment.
Inside lay a pistol.
A photograph.
And a sealed envelope bearing Adrian's name.
He opened the photograph first.
Victor stood beside Adrian when Adrian was fourteen.
Behind them was Richard Marlowe.
Someone had circled Victor.
On the back, Richard had written:
HE WILL BECOME THE PERSON YOU TRUST MOST.
THAT IS WHY HE IS DANGEROUS.
Adrian opened the envelope.
Inside was a list of eleven names.
Ten were crossed out.
The final name remained.
CLARA HALE.
His phone rang.
Emma.
“Mr. Adrian?”
He stood instantly.
“Emma? Where's your mother?”
The child was crying.
“She told me to hide.”
“Where are you?”
“I don't know.”
A bang sounded behind her.
Emma gasped.
May you like
Then whispered:
“Mr. Victor found us.”
