Chapter 5 - The Traitor Inside the House
Adrian moved between Mara and the staircase.
Nico raised his weapon.
The footsteps descended slowly.
Then Mrs. Conti appeared.
The elderly housekeeper lifted both hands.
“Please don't shoot.”
Mara stared.
“You disappeared.”
“Yes.”
“You knew Elena was alive.”
Mrs. Conti looked toward Elena.
“I helped her.”
Adrian lowered his weapon slightly.
“Are you the traitor?”
Pain crossed the woman's face.
“No.”
“Then why are you sneaking through my house?”
“Because the traitor believes I'm on his side.”
Mara remembered Gabriel's warning.
“The traitor is a man?”
Mrs. Conti nodded.
Adrian's expression sharpened.
“Who?”
Mrs. Conti looked frightened.
“I need protection.”
“You have it.”
“You cannot protect me from him.”
“Try me.”
Mrs. Conti whispered one name.
“Tomas.”
Mara froze.
Adrian did too.
“Tomas?”
“He's the son of Victor Rinaldi.”
Silence filled the crypt.
Mara remembered Tomas bringing the tablet.
Tomas helping security.
Tomas driving with them.
Tomas knew every door.
Every camera.
Every weakness.
Adrian looked devastated.
“Tomas has been with me twelve years.”
“That was the point,” Mrs. Conti said.
A gunshot exploded above them.
Nico shoved Adrian aside.
Stone shattered.
“Down!”
More shots.
They took cover behind the tombs.
Mrs. Conti screamed.
Elena's wheelchair tipped.
Mara crawled toward her.
Adrian grabbed Mara's arm.
“No!”
“She's trapped!”
He went instead.
He pulled Elena behind stone as bullets struck the floor.
Nico returned fire.
Then silence.
Adrian shouted toward the stairs.
“Tomas!”
A voice answered.
“Boss.”
Mara's stomach turned.
It was him.
Tomas.
Calm as ever.
Adrian's face became hard.
“You have exactly one opportunity to walk down here without a weapon.”
Tomas laughed.
“You sound like your father.”
Adrian's jaw tightened.
“That is the last thing you'll ever call me.”
“You really believed you changed this family?”
Tomas appeared at the top of the stairs.
He held a gun.
“You closed a few routes. Fired a few criminals. Donated money to charities. Very noble.”
Adrian aimed.
“Put it down.”
“You still live in the house built with blood.”
Mara stared at Tomas.
“Why me?”
He looked at her.
“Because you exist.”
“That isn't an answer.”
“Your father stole everything from mine.”
“Gabriel exposed trafficking.”
“He destroyed an empire.”
“Good.”
Tomas's eyes narrowed.
Mara continued.
“If your empire depended on selling human beings, it deserved to burn.”
Adrian almost smiled despite the gunfight.
Tomas raised his weapon.
Adrian fired.
The bullet hit Tomas's shoulder.
He vanished behind the wall.
Nico charged upward.
More shots followed.
Then nothing.
Adrian told Mara to stay.
She almost argued.
Then saw his expression.
She stayed.
Minutes later Nico returned.
“He escaped through the chapel.”
“Vehicles?”
“One missing.”
Adrian cursed.
Mara still held the ledger.
“We have the evidence.”
“Maybe.”
Mrs. Conti shook her head.
“That ledger is incomplete.”
Everyone looked at her.
“Gabriel separated it into two volumes.”
“Where's the second?” Mara asked.
Mrs. Conti pointed at the motorcycle key.
“The tag.”
Mara remembered the word scratched into the metal.
RUN.
“It isn't a warning?”
“It is. But it is also an acronym.”
Adrian frowned.
Mrs. Conti explained.
“R-U-N. Rinaldi Underground Network.”
Nico looked at her.
“And the scratched tag?”
“A microdot.”
Adrian pulled out the key.
Nico examined the scratch under magnification.
Embedded inside was a microscopic storage chip.
Mara shook her head.
“I sat on a motorcycle for thirty seconds and somehow uncovered an international criminal conspiracy.”
Adrian looked at her.
“You're talented.”
“I'm reconsidering my career.”
Despite the danger, Elena laughed.
The second file contained bank transfers and current names.
Not old history.
Current officials.
Current police officers.
Current shipping executives.
And one name shocked Adrian.
Commissioner Henry Vale.
Mara looked toward Elena.
“Vale?”
Elena's face went white.
“My brother.”
Mara stared.
“Your brother is the police commissioner?”
“Yes.”
“And he never told anyone you're alive?”
“He thought I died.”
“Does he know about me?”
Elena shook her head.
Adrian immediately contacted a federal investigator outside local jurisdiction.
By noon, copies of the ledger were distributed to multiple secured locations.
Tomas could no longer destroy the evidence.
But he still had Gabriel.
The old man called again.
This time, Tomas spoke.
“Mara.”
Her blood went cold.
“Where is my father?”
“Alive.”
“Let me speak to him.”
“You'll see him soon.”
Adrian took the phone.
“Tomas.”
“Boss.”
“You hurt Gabriel and there will be nowhere you can hide.”
Tomas laughed softly.
“You still don't understand. I don't want Gabriel.”
“Then what?”
“I want Mara.”
Adrian's face hardened.
“No.”
Mara watched him.
Tomas continued.
“She inherited Gabriel's ownership. Her signature can transfer everything.”
“Never.”
“Then Gabriel dies.”
Mara closed her eyes.
Of course.
The criminal network needed legitimate companies.
Gabriel's ownership claim threatened them.
If Mara signed it away, Tomas could bury the past permanently.
Adrian ended the call.
“No.”
Mara looked at him.
“You don't even know what I'm going to say.”
“Yes, I do.”
“My father is alive.”
“And Tomas knows you'll do anything to keep him that way.”
“So what do you suggest?”
“We find him.”
“How?”
Adrian pointed at the motorcycle.
Mara blinked.
“What?”
“Tomas expects you to come.”
“Yes.”
“So we'll let him believe you are.”
Mara understood slowly.
“A tracker.”
“Several.”
“And you want me nowhere near it.”
“Correct.”
“No.”
“Mara.”
“He asked for me. If somebody else arrives, he'll know.”
“I am not using you as bait.”
“Then he's going to kill my father.”
Adrian stepped close.
“I just found out you exist in a part of my life I never expected to have.”
Mara's heart skipped.
“What does that mean?”
“It means I spent years assuming attachment was a weakness.”
He lowered his voice.
“Then you sat on my motorcycle.”
Despite herself, Mara smiled.
“This is your romantic speech?”
“Apparently.”
“It needs work.”
“I know.”
She touched his arm.
“But you're not deciding this for me.”
“Mara.”
“No. My whole life other people made decisions because they believed they were protecting me. Elena left me. Sarah hid the truth. Gabriel stayed away. I understand why they did it. But I'm done being protected through ignorance.”
Adrian stared at her.
“What are you asking?”
“To trust me.”
He looked almost pained.
“That is harder.”
“I know.”
Eventually he agreed.
Not happily.
The plan was simple.
Mara would ride in one vehicle with security hidden nearby.
The motorcycle would remain at the estate because nobody actually believed Mara could ride it.
She pointed this out to Adrian.
His eyes narrowed.
“After today, I'm teaching you.”
“If we survive.”
“When.”
Mara looked at him.
“When.”
Tomas gave them a location.
An abandoned Bellucci shipping terminal near the river.
Night fell.
Mara wore dark clothes instead of her maid uniform.
For the first time since she started working for Adrian, she didn't feel like an employee.
She felt like herself.
When they arrived, the terminal appeared empty.
Mara entered alone.
A tracker was hidden in her shoe.
Another in her belt.
Adrian's voice whispered through an earpiece.
“I see you.”
“That's creepy when you say it that way.”
“Mara.”
“I'm nervous. Joking helps.”
“I know.”
She walked deeper inside.
A chair stood under a hanging light.
Gabriel was tied to it.
Mara stopped.
The gray-haired man looked up.
His eyes filled with tears.
“Mara.”
Her chest tightened.
“Dad?”
The word felt strange.
But his reaction broke something inside her.
He cried.
“I am so sorry.”
Tomas stepped from behind a shipping container.
“Touching.”
Mara's hand curled into a fist.
“Let him go.”
“Sign first.”
He placed papers on a table.
Mara approached.
Adrian's voice whispered.
“Do not sign.”
“I know.”
Tomas held out a pen.
Mara picked it up.
Then she looked at the transfer document.
“This isn't only Gabriel's shares.”
Tomas smiled.
“Smart girl.”
“You're transferring Adrian's company too.”
“His ownership is tied to the original family trust.”
Mara suddenly understood.
If she signed, Tomas could challenge control of the entire Bellucci empire.
“That was always the plan.”
“Yes.”
Mara put down the pen.
“No.”
Tomas raised his gun toward Gabriel.
Mara shouted.
“Wait!”
Adrian's voice came urgently.
“Mara, move.”
Something was wrong.
Tomas smiled.
Then he reached toward Mara's ear and removed the earpiece.
“Did you think I didn't know?”
Mara's stomach dropped.
He crushed it.
Outside, Adrian heard static.
“Mara?”
No answer.
He ordered the team forward.
Inside, Tomas removed Mara's belt tracker.
Then her shoe.
“You've been around Adrian too long. Predictable.”
Mara looked toward Gabriel.
The old man subtly moved his eyes downward.
His shoe.
Something was hidden there.
Mara stalled.
“You said you wanted my signature.”
“I do.”
“Then you need me alive.”
“For another three minutes.”
She smiled.
Tomas frowned.
“What?”
“You made one mistake.”
“Which?”
“You believed Adrian was the only person tracking me.”
Tomas's expression changed.
Mara looked toward Gabriel.
He kicked the hidden device beneath his chair.
A red light began flashing.
Gabriel smiled.
“I've been transmitting since you kidnapped me.”
Sirens erupted outside.
Federal agents.
Tomas swore.
Gunfire exploded.
Mara threw herself behind the table.
Adrian crashed through a side door.
“Mara!”
“Here!”
Tomas grabbed her.
A gun pressed against her neck.
Adrian stopped.
“Let her go.”
Tomas backed toward the river exit.
“No.”
Mara could feel his hand shaking.
He was losing control.
Adrian lowered his weapon.
“Tomas. Look at me.”
“I spent twelve years serving you.”
“You chose that.”
“My father spent his life building something your family stole.”
“Your father built graves.”
Tomas tightened his grip.
Mara saw Adrian's eyes change.
He was calculating.
Waiting.
She remembered the motorcycle lesson he had jokingly promised.
Balance.
Timing.
Commitment.
Mara slammed her heel onto Tomas's foot and dropped her weight.
He stumbled.
Adrian moved.
One shot.
Tomas's gun flew away.
Agents rushed him.
Mara ran toward Gabriel.
Adrian caught her halfway.
His arms closed around her.
For several seconds she let herself disappear into them.
“You're okay,” he whispered.
“So are you.”
He pulled back.
“You are never doing that again.”
“You're not the boss of me.”
“I am technically your employer.”
“I quit.”
His face fell.
Mara smiled.
“Relax. I haven't decided what I'm doing next.”
Gabriel was freed.
Elena arrived under federal protection before dawn.
For the first time in twenty-eight years, Mara stood between both biological parents.
It was awkward.
Painful.
Beautiful.
Then an agent approached Adrian.
“We have a problem.”
Adrian looked up.
“What?”
“Tomas wasn't running the operation.”
Mara's stomach sank.
“Who was?”
The agent handed over a phone recovered from Tomas.
One message was displayed.
IF THE GIRL SURVIVES, BRING HER TO ME.
The sender's name was visible.
VICTOR RINALDI.
Gabriel stared at it.
Then his face went pale.
“That isn't possible.”
“Why?” Mara asked.
Gabriel looked at her.
“Because Victor Rinaldi died twenty-eight years ago.”
A second message arrived.
A photograph.
It showed the Bellucci estate.
May you like
Taken seconds earlier.
And through the upstairs window stood a man waiting inside Adrian's bedroom.
