Chapter 11 - Titan’s Last Trail
Gabriel was hanging from a ladder.
One hand bleeding.
The other gripping Titan’s chain.
“Help me.”
Dante stared down.
“Where’s the dog?”
Gabriel looked toward the water.
“He went under.”
I shoved past Dante.
A lower maintenance walkway ran beneath the pier.
I climbed down.
Blood.
Paw prints.
Titan had survived the shot.
He had followed Gabriel.
The trail moved through a drainage tunnel.
Dante came behind me.
Marcus stayed with Victor.
We found Titan fifty yards inside.
Collapsed.
Alive.
The bullet had passed through muscle near his shoulder.
Painful.
Bloody.
Not immediately fatal.
I pressed gauze against him.
“Good boy.”
His eyes opened.
His tail tapped concrete.
I nearly cried.
Dante knelt.
Titan licked his wrist.
Then tried to stand.
“No.”
He stood anyway.
His nose pointed deeper into the tunnel.
Gabriel had escaped again.
Titan wanted to follow.
“We’re done,” I whispered.
Titan looked at me.
Then at the tunnel.
Something else was there.
Not Gabriel.
A scent he knew.
He limped forward.
We followed slowly.
The tunnel ended beneath an abandoned veterinary warehouse.
Inside were cages.
Training equipment.
Old medical records.
Photographs.
This was where Titan had been trained.
And tortured.
His scars had come from here.
I found records bearing my former clinic’s logo.
The wealthy client who had destroyed my career?
His company owned the warehouse.
He had been part of Northstar.
My suspension had been engineered from the beginning.
On a table lay records for dozens of dogs.
Animals used to transport physical data because electronic surveillance could not track them.
Most were listed:
TERMINATED.
Titan was the last.
Dante stared at the cages.
“My father allowed this?”
“No.”
Claudia’s voice came from behind us.
She had followed Victor.
“Stefano did.”
Alessandro discovered the operation and shut it down.
Titan survived because Evelyn moved him.
Gabriel later found him and returned him to the Castellano estate, pretending he had belonged to Alessandro legitimately.
He had been watching for the implant ever since.
But Titan would not let Gabriel close enough.
Then I arrived.
I had done what Gabriel could not.
I had exposed the key.
Claudia found another file.
The complete list of Northstar clients.
Enough to destroy the network.
We copied everything.
Federal agents secured the warehouse.
For the first time, it felt possible that this might end.
Then Victor received a call.
Stefano had escaped custody.
The transport vehicle had been attacked.
Two agents injured.
Stefano gone.
And he had taken Marcus.
Again.
I felt rage replace fear.
Dante did too.
But this time Marcus had prepared.
He had hidden a tracker inside his shoe.
His location appeared.
Castellano estate.
Stefano had gone back to the beginning.
Why?
Claudia knew.
“The vault.”
“What vault?”
“Alessandro’s private vault beneath the house.”
The original Northstar master ledger was there.
Paper.
Names.
Signatures.
Evidence no defense attorney could dismiss as manipulated digital files.
Stefano wanted to burn it.
We returned.
Smoke already rose from the mansion.
Not the whole house.
One wing.
A distraction.
Titan was injured, but he refused to remain behind.
I wrapped his shoulder.
Dante looked at me.
“Can he do this?”
“No.”
Titan stood.
“But try telling him.”
We entered through the service corridor.
The vault was beneath Alessandro’s study.
Door open.
Marcus’s tracker lay outside.
Inside, shelves had been emptied.
A trail of gasoline crossed the floor.
Stefano’s voice came through the darkness.
“You should have stayed a maid, Rosalind.”
I turned.
Gun.
Dante stepped in front of me.
Stefano smiled.
“You really are your father’s son.”
Dante did not move.
“Where’s Marcus?”
“Safe for the moment.”
“You’ve lost.”
“Have I?”
He held a lighter.
“Everything your mother died for is in this room.”
I saw the ledger.
Saw gasoline beneath it.
Then Titan growled.
Not at Stefano.
At the wall.
Marcus was behind it.
Hidden room.
Stefano saw me understand.
His thumb moved toward the lighter.
Dante moved toward Stefano.
May you like
Titan lunged toward the wall.
And a gunshot exploded...
