Chapter 6 - The Night Elena Disappeared
Roderick doubled security immediately.
Elena hated it.
Leo loved it.
Two guards followed him everywhere, which he interpreted as having professional playmates.
By noon, one had been forced to attend an imaginary dinosaur funeral.
Roderick found him standing solemnly beside a cardboard box.
“What are you doing?”
“Protecting the principal.”
Leo corrected him.
“His name is Mr. Chomps.”
Roderick walked away before laughing.
The photograph, however, was no joke.
Dominic was in federal custody.
Thomas was cooperating.
Victor remained hospitalized.
Someone else had been watching Elena.
Benjamin searched Samuel’s documents again.
One name emerged.
Caleb Morelli.
The son of the man who had controlled the rival organization twenty-two years earlier.
Caleb had disappeared from public view.
He was supposedly living in Europe.
He wasn’t.
A camera placed near the safe house captured his face.
He had returned to New Orleans.
Why?
Benjamin found the answer.
Samuel’s ledger documented more than Dominic’s crimes.
It documented Morelli money.
Caleb’s inheritance depended on accounts federal investigators could now seize.
Elena had unknowingly threatened both families.
Roderick wanted to move her and Leo out of Louisiana.
She refused.
“I’ve spent my entire life running because other people decided where I was allowed to exist.”
“This is different.”
“No.”
“Caleb Morelli wants you dead.”
“Then stop him.”
Roderick stared.
Elena folded her arms.
“You’re supposedly terrifying.”
“I’m beginning to regret letting you learn that I have feelings.”
She smiled.
“You admitted it.”
“I admitted nothing.”
“You’re blushing.”
“I don’t blush.”
Leo looked up from the floor.
“You’re red.”
“Traitor.”
Leo laughed.
The sound filled the room.
Roderick realized he wanted to hear it tomorrow.
And the day after.
And years from now.
That terrified him more than Caleb Morelli.
Later, Elena found Roderick alone on the balcony.
“You never answered me.”
“About?”
“What I would stay here as.”
He looked toward the city.
“I don’t know how to do this.”
“Do what?”
“Ask someone not to leave.”
Her expression softened.
“Try.”
Roderick looked at her.
“Stay.”
“That was terrible.”
“I warned you.”
She smiled.
“Why?”
He could have lied.
Instead:
“Because when you’re gone, I notice.”
Elena stopped smiling.
“Roderick.”
“And when Leo is gone, the house becomes too quiet.”
“He breaks expensive things.”
“I know.”
“He drew on your office wall.”
“I know.”
“With permanent marker.”
“I know.”
“You didn’t punish him.”
“I moved a painting.”
Elena laughed.
Then her eyes filled.
“You’re dangerous.”
“I know.”
“Not like that.”
He understood.
Hope was dangerous.
For both of them.
Roderick touched her face.
Slowly.
Giving her time to move away.
She didn’t.
Their first kiss was quiet.
No fireworks.
No grand declaration.
Just two exhausted people discovering that after years of surviving, they still knew how to want something.
Then Roderick’s phone rang.
Caleb had been located.
Warehouse district.
Roderick left Elena with four guards.
“I’ll be back.”
“You’d better.”
Leo ran over.
Roderick crouched.
“Protect your mother.”
Leo saluted.
“I always do.”
Roderick kissed the top of his head before realizing what he had done.
Elena noticed.
Neither said anything.
The warehouse was empty.
A trap.
Roderick understood the moment he entered.
He called the penthouse.
No answer.
Again.
Nothing.
He raced back.
The front door was open.
Two guards lay unconscious.
One was bleeding.
“ELENA!”
No response.
He ran upstairs.
Leo sat inside a closet.
Alone.
Roderick dropped to his knees.
“Where’s your mother?”
Leo was crying too hard to speak.
“Leo.”
“They took Mama.”
“Who?”
“The man.”
“What man?”
“The man from Mama’s picture.”
Roderick froze.
“What picture?”
Leo pointed toward Elena’s bag.
Inside was an old photograph Roderick had never seen.
Samuel stood beside another young man.
Roderick turned it over.
Two names.
Samuel Moretti.
Caleb Morelli.
Roderick’s blood went cold.
Caleb had known Samuel.
More than that.
They had been friends.
Benjamin arrived minutes later.
He saw the photograph.
“Oh God.”
“What?”
“Samuel didn’t discover the betrayal alone.”
Caleb had helped him.
As young men, Samuel and Caleb had tried to prevent a war between their families.
Dominic discovered them.
Samuel died.
Caleb fled.
“So why come back now?”
Benjamin looked at Leo.
“Maybe he didn’t come back for revenge.”
Roderick’s phone rang.
Caleb.
He answered.
“Elena is alive.”
“If you touch her—”
“I’m not going to hurt Samuel’s daughter.”
“Then release her.”
“I can’t.”
“Why?”
“Because someone else wants her.”
Roderick stopped.
“Who?”
Caleb gave him an address.
“Come alone.”
Roderick almost laughed.
“No.”
“Then she dies.”
The call ended.
Roderick looked at Leo.
The boy wiped his eyes.
“Bring Mama home.”
“I will.”
“Promise?”
Roderick remembered the first promise.
“Yes.”
He left Leo with Benjamin and Victor, who had discharged himself from the hospital against medical advice.
Then Roderick drove alone.
The address led to an abandoned church.
The front doors stood open.
Inside, candles burned.
Elena sat in the first pew.
Alive.
Untied.
Roderick entered.
“Elena.”
She turned.
Relief flooded her face.
“Roderick.”
Caleb emerged from the shadows.
He was in his late fifties.
Gray hair.
Tired eyes.
No weapon in his hands.
“Where are your men?” Roderick asked.
“Gone.”
“Why did you take her?”
“To save her.”
“From whom?”
Caleb looked toward the altar.
“Ask her.”
Elena stood.
“My father left another document.”
Roderick stared.
“What document?”
“A confession.”
“Whose?”
Before she answered, the church doors slammed shut.
Locks engaged.
Footsteps sounded behind the altar.
Caleb reached for a gun.
Roderick did the same.
A man stepped from the darkness.
Roderick lowered his weapon in disbelief.
The man smiled.
Roderick knew that face.
He had seen it in photographs his entire childhood.
The man was supposed to have died thirty-four years ago.
May you like
Roderick whispered:
“Grandfather?”
