Chapter 4 - The Truth on the Hotel Roof
The Harbor Light Hotel had once been one of Boston’s grandest buildings.
By the time Gabriel’s sedan entered its underground garage, the windows were boarded, the marble entrance was cracked, and weeds had grown through the pavement.
My parents had become engaged there.
My mother had stood on the roof beneath the city lights and asked my father to choose between a criminal family and an honest life.
Now Gabriel Romano brought us back to the same place at gunpoint.
Four armed men surrounded us as we entered the abandoned lobby.
My father walked beside me with his hands bound.
Dante remained on my other side, silent and alert.
Gabriel led us toward the elevators.
“They no longer work,” my father said.
“I know.”
Gabriel pointed toward the staircase.
“We walk.”
The climb to the twelfth floor was slow.
My shoulder throbbed with each step. Blood had begun seeping through the bandage beneath my coat.
Dante noticed.
“You need to stop.”
Gabriel looked back.
“If she stops, Thomas loses a finger.”
I continued climbing.
Dante’s face became expressionless, but I saw the rage in his eyes.
At the roof door, Gabriel handed me a flashlight.
“Show me.”
I stepped into the rain.
The skyline stretched around us, blurred by mist. Rusted tables and broken chairs remained where the rooftop restaurant had once served wealthy guests.
My father stared toward the eastern corner.
Gabriel followed his gaze.
“There?”
“No,” I said.
Both men looked at me.
The memory had returned.
My father had described the proposal many times. My mother had stood beside a stone angel built into the roof’s decorative wall.
Most of the statues were gone.
One remained near the old garden.
I walked toward it.
Dante stayed close behind me.
The angel’s face had been eroded by weather. One wing was cracked.
At its base, I found a small metal plate.
Thomas and Elizabeth Brooks.
August 14, 1992.
My father’s eyes filled with tears.
“She made me install that after I proposed.”
Gabriel shoved him forward.
“Open it.”
“There is no keyhole,” Dante said.
I ran my fingers along the plate.
A small indentation was hidden inside the engraved date.
I pressed it.
The plate released.
Behind it was a narrow compartment containing a black ledger wrapped in plastic.
Gabriel exhaled.
“Twenty-two years.”
He reached for it.
I held it against my chest.
“Release my father first.”
His men laughed.
Gabriel did not.
“You inherited Elizabeth’s courage.”
“You mean the courage you murdered.”
His eyes hardened.
“I did not shoot your mother.”
“You ordered the attack.”
“Yes.”
The casual admission made my stomach twist.
“I wanted Vincent dead. Thomas was supposed to bring him to the clinic alone.”
My father’s face turned gray.
“You promised no one else would be there.”
Dante looked at him.
“You were working with Gabriel?”
My father closed his eyes.
“Yes.”
The word broke something inside me.
“You led Vincent into an ambush?”
“I did not know Elizabeth was working that night.”
“You knew people would be killed.”
“I thought only Vincent.”
Dante stepped toward him.
“My father trusted you.”
“Your father’s family owned me.”
My father’s voice shook.
“I wanted out. Gabriel promised money and new identities for Elizabeth and the girls.”
“And you believed him?”
“I was desperate.”
I stared at the man I had loved my entire life.
“Who fired the bullet?”
My father looked at me.
“I did.”
The rain seemed to vanish.
Every sound faded.
He spoke quickly.
“I aimed at Vincent. Your mother stepped between us.”
My knees weakened.
Dante caught my elbow.
My father began crying.
“I did not know she would be there. I did not know she would move. I held her while she died.”
“You killed Mom.”
“It was an accident.”
“You brought a gun into her clinic.”
“I was trying to free us.”
“You destroyed us.”
Gabriel smiled.
“This is touching, but we have business.”
He reached for the ledger.
I pulled away.
“What is inside?”
“Names.”
“Whose?”
“Everyone Vincent believes is loyal.”
Dante looked at Gabriel.
“You have people inside my father’s organization.”
“More than he can imagine.”
“And you used me.”
Gabriel’s smile widened.
“You were remarkably easy to use.”
Dante’s face hardened.
“I gave you clubs, women, money, and a reputation. Every scandal weakened Vincent. Every cruel act made his captains doubt whether they wanted you to inherit.”
“You wanted them to choose you.”
“I wanted them to beg me to return.”
Gabriel reached for the ledger again.
“Now give it to me.”
I looked at my father.
“Why did you hide it?”
“Because I found out Gabriel was alive. I began tracking his accounts.”
“Why not tell Vincent?”
“I was afraid he would learn the truth about Elizabeth.”
“You were protecting yourself.”
“Yes.”
For once, he did not lie.
“I was a coward.”
Gabriel nodded toward one of his men.
The man raised his gun toward Dante.
“Ledger.”
I looked at Dante.
His expression was calm.
Too calm.
He gave me the smallest shake of his head.
Do not give it to him.
I tightened my grip.
Gabriel sighed.
“Very well.”
He aimed his gun at my father.
A shot cracked across the roof.
My father fell.
I screamed and dropped beside him.
Blood spread from his thigh.
Gabriel had not killed him.
Not yet.
“The next bullet enters his heart,” Gabriel said.
I handed over the ledger.
He took it with a satisfied smile.
Dante moved toward my father.
One of the gunmen struck him across the face.
He fell to one knee.
Gabriel opened the ledger.
His smile vanished.
The pages were blank.
He flipped through them violently.
Nothing.
He looked at my father.
“Where is it?”
My father laughed through the pain.
“You always believed the ledger was paper.”
Gabriel kicked him.
I threw myself over my father.
“Stop!”
Gabriel raised the gun.
Dante moved.
He drove his shoulder into the nearest gunman, seized the man’s wrist, and fired into another attacker’s leg.
Chaos erupted.
I dragged my father behind the stone angel.
Bullets struck the wall.
Dante fought with a desperation I had not seen in the hospital. He was not hiding now. He used the gunman’s body as a shield and fired toward the stairwell.
One attacker went down.
Another rushed me.
My father reached into his jacket.
His bound hands emerged holding a small blade.
He cut the rope, grabbed the attacker’s ankle, and pulled him to the ground.
I kicked the gun away.
Dante reached us.
“Can he walk?”
“No.”
“Then we carry him.”
Gabriel fired from behind a ventilation unit.
The bullet struck the stone angel, shattering its remaining wing.
Dante returned fire.
“We need another exit.”
My father pointed toward the old maintenance lift.
“There is a ladder shaft.”
Dante lifted him beneath one arm. I supported the other side despite the agony in my shoulder.
We moved toward the shaft.
Gabriel shouted behind us.
“You cannot escape what you are, Dante!”
Dante looked back.
“I’m beginning to think that is exactly what I need to do.”
We reached the ladder.
My father pulled a small memory card from inside his belt.
“The ledger.”
I stared at it.
“All the names are here.”
“Why did you not give it to the FBI?”
“I did not know which agents Gabriel owned.”
He looked toward the stairwell.
“I still don’t.”
A bullet struck the railing.
Dante pushed me into the shaft.
“Climb down.”
“My father—”
“I’ll lower him.”
We descended through darkness.
My father cried out as Dante lowered him from one level to the next.
Above us, Gabriel’s men entered the shaft.
The old metal ladder shook beneath their weight.
We reached the tenth floor.
Dante forced open a maintenance door.
We entered a corridor filled with broken furniture and rotting carpet.
“Where now?” I asked.
My father pointed toward room 1012.
“Your mother and I stayed there the night we became engaged.”
Dante stared at him.
“This is not the time for memories.”
“It has a fire escape.”
We entered the room.
The windows were boarded, but Dante kicked through the rotten wood.
A narrow iron staircase ran down the outside of the building.
Sirens sounded in the distance.
Agent Shaw had found us.
Or Gabriel’s corrupt officers had.
We did not know which.
Dante climbed out first and took my father’s weight.
I followed.
Rain made the metal steps slippery.
Halfway down, the door above burst open.
Gabriel appeared.
He aimed at Dante.
My father pushed me aside.
The shot struck him in the back.
He fell against the railing.
“Dad!”
His hand opened.
The memory card slipped free and dropped through the darkness.
Dante caught my father before he fell over the edge.
Gabriel smiled down at us.
“The evidence is gone.”
“No,” my father whispered.
He looked at me.
“I made copies.”
His face had turned pale.
“Rachel has one.”
My heart stopped.
Gabriel’s smile disappeared.
May you like
Then he lifted his phone.
“Not for long.”
