Chapter 11 - The Brother Who Came Back From the Dead
The location led to the old Rossi shipping terminal.
Norah demanded to go.
Vincent stopped arguing.
They found Caleb’s phone beside the water.
Blood covered the concrete.
No body.
Norah refused to believe he was dead.
Vincent ordered the entire terminal searched.
Nothing.
Then Norah noticed tire tracks.
A refrigerated truck had left recently.
They traced it.
The truck belonged to Russo Maritime.
Vincent looked at her.
“Russo.”
They found him before sunrise.
Russo was hiding in a private club.
He looked twenty years older.
Marco had turned on him.
“He took everything,” Russo said.
Vincent remained standing.
“You helped him poison me.”
“I helped keep you weak.”
“Difference?”
“To me? Yes.”
Norah despised him.
But she needed Caleb.
“Where is my brother?”
Russo looked at her.
“Marco took him.”
“Where?”
“I can tell you.”
Vincent leaned forward.
“Price?”
“Protection.”
Vincent laughed once.
“You want me to protect you?”
“I want to live long enough to destroy Marco.”
Norah interrupted.
“Then give us Caleb first.”
Russo gave them an address.
An underground parking garage.
They arrived carefully.
Caleb was there.
Alive.
Bleeding from the shoulder.
Norah ran to him.
He collapsed into her arms.
“I thought—”
“I know.”
He was rushed to a private hospital.
The bullet had passed through muscle.
He would survive.
For the first time, Norah allowed herself to cry.
Vincent sat beside her.
No speeches.
No promises.
Just his hand around hers.
Hours later, Caleb woke.
“I remembered something,” he whispered.
Norah leaned closer.
“The original footage.”
“What about it?”
“I didn’t give Marco the original.”
Vincent stood.
“Where is it?”
Caleb smiled weakly.
“Mom’s recipe book.”
Norah stared.
“The book was stolen.”
“Not that one.”
He explained.
Their mother had owned two identical handwritten books.
Norah had kept one.
Caleb had hidden the second.
“Where?”
Caleb told them.
A storage locker in Queens.
They arrived after midnight.
The locker contained one box.
Inside lay the second recipe book.
And a hard drive.
Norah connected it to a laptop.
Hundreds of videos appeared.
Not only the poisoning.
Meetings.
Payments.
Threats.
Marco.
Russo.
Vale.
Corrupt officials.
Everything.
Vincent stared.
“This could bury half the people Marco owns.”
Norah looked at him.
“Then we don’t bury them.”
He frowned.
“We expose them.”
Vincent understood what she meant.
The old rules had kept this war alive.
Secrets.
Blackmail.
Violence.
Norah wanted daylight.
Vincent hesitated.
Exposing everything would also expose pieces of his own organization.
His own past.
“You could lose everything,” Norah said.
Vincent looked at her.
“I almost lost everything anyway.”
He reached for the drive.
Then the storage-unit door began lowering.
Vincent spun around.
Someone stood outside.
May you like
Marco.
And he was holding a lighter.
