Chapter 6 - The Betrayal Inside His Family
Thomas DeLuca had spent three decades pretending to be harmless.
That was what made him dangerous.
By the time we reached the townhouse, he had vanished.
So had Marco.
Nothing obvious had been taken.
Until I went upstairs.
My bedroom door was open.
Daniel's flash drive was gone.
On my pillow sat a white rose.
Its stem had been snapped in half.
Adrian stood behind me.
His expression became terrifyingly calm.
"Everyone out."
His guards left.
I turned.
"Don't."
"Don't what?"
"Become whatever you're becoming."
"He entered your room."
"And we're alive."
"That isn't enough."
"For tonight, it has to be."
Adrian looked at me.
Something in him broke open.
Not violence.
Fear.
"I brought you into my house because I thought it was the safest place in Boston."
"It probably was."
"My own uncle walked into your bedroom."
"But I wasn't here."
"This time."
I reached for his hand.
He looked down as if nobody had ever done that before.
Maybe nobody had.
"Adrian."
His fingers closed around mine.
"I can't lose you too."
The words were almost inaudible.
I swallowed.
"You won't."
"You don't know that."
"Neither do you."
He stepped closer.
For one breath, neither of us moved.
Then I kissed him.
I meant it to be brief.
It wasn't.
Adrian froze before responding.
His hand touched my face with the same care he'd used on my injured foot.
When we separated, his forehead rested against mine.
"This violates the agreement."
I almost laughed.
"The agreement says intimacy isn't required."
"Correct."
"It doesn't say prohibited."
That actually made him smile.
A real smile.
It transformed his entire face.
Then his phone rang.
Of course it did.
Vincent had located Thomas.
An abandoned restaurant near the harbor.
We went downstairs.
Grace was under guard at another property.
Elena joined us.
She had spent months gathering evidence while pretending to be dead.
"Thomas knows we're close," she said.
"So why stay in Boston?" I asked.
"Because he wants something."
"The drive."
"No."
She looked at me.
"You."
Adrian's hand tightened around mine.
"Why?"
Elena hesitated.
"Daniel hid the final account key using Sofia's identity."
I stared.
"What does that mean?"
"Biometric encryption."
"You need my face?"
"And voice."
Adrian swore.
Daniel had designed the evidence so nobody could access the full financial archive without me.
He had protected it.
But he had also made me essential.
Thomas needed me alive.
That was our advantage.
Adrian hated the plan.
I proposed it anyway.
Use me as bait.
Thomas contacted us first.
A video call.
He looked enough like Adrian's father to be unsettling.
"Nephew."
"Uncle."
"I assume you've discovered my accounting."
"I discovered you're a traitor."
Thomas laughed.
"Such dramatic language."
"You helped kill Daniel."
"No. Anthony did that."
"You arranged the roadblock."
Thomas's smile faded.
"Bring Sofia."
"No."
"Then the evidence disappears."
"We copied it."
"Not the archive."
He knew.
Adrian looked at me.
I nodded.
"Where?" Adrian asked.
"DeLuca Pier. Two a.m."
The same waterfront seemed determined to swallow every secret in our lives.
At 1:50, we arrived.
Thomas waited inside an old customs building.
Marco stood with him.
So did Anthony Rizzo.
I finally saw the man who had inherited Daniel's fabricated debt and turned it into a weapon.
Rizzo was older than Adrian.
Heavyset.
Perfect suit.
Ordinary face.
That made him worse.
He looked like someone's accountant.
"Mrs. DeLuca," Rizzo said.
I hated the satisfaction in his voice.
"Your brother caused an extraordinary amount of trouble."
"You murdered him."
"He murdered himself when he decided morality mattered more than survival."
Adrian moved.
Three guns lifted.
I touched his arm.
"Don't."
Rizzo smiled.
"She controls you already."
"No," Adrian said. "She reminds me I have something worth controlling."
Thomas rolled his eyes.
"Enough."
A laptop sat on the table.
They needed my face and voice to unlock Daniel's archive.
I stood before it.
A prompt appeared.
IDENTITY CONFIRMATION.
I looked into the camera.
"Sofia Bellini DeLuca."
The archive opened.
Hundreds of files appeared.
Rizzo smiled.
Then his smile vanished.
A second message filled the screen.
UPLOAD COMPLETE.
FILES TRANSMITTED TO FEDERAL SERVERS.
I stared.
Daniel.
He had built a dead-man trap.
Using me didn't unlock the evidence for them.
It released it.
Thomas shouted.
Marco reached for me.
Adrian moved faster.
Gunfire erupted.
I dropped behind the table.
Elena pulled me toward cover.
Vincent's men stormed the building from both entrances.
Rizzo ran.
Thomas disappeared through a rear door.
Marco fired twice.
Adrian tackled him.
The gun skidded away.
Marco reached for a knife.
I screamed Adrian's name.
Adrian blocked the blade, punched Marco, and pinned him to the ground.
Police sirens approached.
Not local police.
Federal agents.
Daniel's files had reached the right people.
Rizzo was caught near the docks.
Marco was arrested.
Thomas escaped.
Again.
By sunrise, twelve arrests had been made.
Three police officers.
Two city officials.
Four members of Rizzo's crew.
Rizzo himself.
Marco.
And a shipping executive.
The network began collapsing.
But Thomas remained free.
Back at the townhouse, Adrian found me sitting in the kitchen.
He took the chair beside me.
"It's almost over."
"Almost isn't over."
"No."
I looked at him.
"When this is finished, what happens to us?"
He went still.
"The contract says twelve months."
"That's not what I asked."
His expression became guarded.
I hated that wall.
I had seen the man beneath it.
"Adrian."
He stood.
"You've had enough tonight."
"Stop deciding what I can handle."
"I'm trying to protect you."
"From Thomas?"
He said nothing.
"Or from you?"
His eyes met mine.
That was the answer.
He was afraid of wanting something he couldn't control.
I stood too.
"I married you because I had no choice."
"I know."
"But staying would be a choice."
His breath caught.
Before he could answer, the house alarm sounded.
A guard shouted downstairs.
Then a gunshot cracked through the foyer.
Adrian shoved me behind him.
The bedroom door opened.
Vincent stumbled inside.
Blood spread across his shirt.
He collapsed.
Adrian caught him.
"Vincent!"
Vincent grabbed Adrian's collar.
"Thomas..."
He struggled for breath.
"He didn't come for Sofia."
Adrian stared.
"Then why is he here?"
Vincent looked directly at me.
"Because he came to kill Adrian."
Behind us, a gun clicked.
May you like
Thomas's voice came from the doorway.
"And this time, I won't miss."
