Chapter 5 - The Sister They Had Already Found
Rachel did not answer her phone.
I called six times from the back of Agent Shaw’s vehicle while paramedics worked on my father in the ambulance ahead of us.
Each call went directly to voicemail.
Dante sat beside me with blood on his shirt and a cut across his lower lip. He had refused medical treatment.
Agent Shaw drove fast through the rain.
“How long has your sister had the memory card?” she asked.
“I don’t know.”
“Would Thomas have told her what was on it?”
“Probably not.”
“Where does she live?”
“Near Boston University.”
Shaw spoke into her radio and ordered agents to Rachel’s apartment.
I tried calling again.
No answer.
Dante watched the dark city pass outside the window.
“Gabriel will not kill her immediately.”
“How can you know?”
“He needs the copy.”
“He needed the ledger, and he shot my father.”
“He shot him after learning the evidence might already be gone.”
“That is not comforting.”
Dante turned toward me.
“He will frighten Rachel. He will use her to make you surrender the card.”
“She may not even know where it is.”
“Then he will keep her alive until she remembers.”
My hands shook.
Dante placed his hand over mine.
The gesture surprised both of us.
He started to pull away.
I did not let him.
Not because I trusted him completely.
Because I needed something solid while everything in my life collapsed.
Agent Shaw saw us in the mirror but said nothing.
When we reached Rachel’s building, federal agents had already surrounded it.
The front door was open.
Her apartment on the third floor had been destroyed.
Furniture overturned.
Books torn from shelves.
Cabinet doors ripped away.
No blood.
That was the only hope.
I found Rachel’s phone beneath the kitchen table.
The screen was shattered.
A message had been written across the wall in black paint.
BRING VINCENT TO PIER 19.
Dante stared at the words.
“It is not only about the card.”
“What does Gabriel want with your father?”
“He wants the captains to watch Vincent die.”
Agent Shaw’s phone rang.
She listened for several seconds.
Then she looked at me.
“Thomas survived surgery.”
Relief nearly knocked me to the floor.
“He is alive?”
“Yes. The bullet damaged one lung, but doctors stabilized him.”
“Can I speak to him?”
“Not yet.”
Another agent entered carrying a small envelope.
“This was taped beneath the bedroom desk.”
My name was written on it.
Inside was a note from my father.
Maddy,
Rachel has the copy, but she does not know it.
Remember the song your mother played every Sunday.
I read the sentence twice.
“The song?”
Rachel and I had grown up listening to our mother’s old records. Every Sunday morning, she played the same song while making pancakes.
“Blue Moon,” I said.
Dante looked around.
“There is no record player.”
“She kept Mom’s music box.”
We searched the apartment.
The small wooden music box was gone.
Agent Shaw cursed.
“Gabriel found it.”
“No,” I said.
I looked toward the broken bookshelf.
Rachel kept childhood objects in a blue storage case hidden behind her law books.
The case remained there.
Inside was a silver pendant shaped like a moon.
Our mother had owned two identical pendants.
Rachel and I each received one after her death.
I opened the clasp.
A tiny memory card had been hidden inside.
Agent Shaw took it.
“We need to copy and transmit this immediately.”
Dante moved toward the door.
“My father needs to know.”
“You are not calling him,” Shaw said.
“Gabriel demanded that Vincent go to Pier 19.”
“That is why we do not tell him until we have a tactical plan.”
Dante laughed bitterly.
“You think he will wait for permission?”
“My agents can keep him at the hospital.”
“No one keeps Vincent Romano anywhere.”
As if summoned by the words, the hallway filled with men in dark suits.
Vincent entered the apartment.
His eyes moved from the destroyed furniture to the message on the wall.
“Where is Rachel?”
“We don’t know,” I said.
He looked at the memory card in Shaw’s hand.
“You found the ledger.”
“We found a copy,” she replied.
“Give it to me.”
“No.”
Vincent stepped closer.
“That evidence identifies the men who betrayed my family.”
“It also identifies public officials and members of law enforcement. It belongs in federal custody.”
“Federal custody may include Gabriel’s allies.”
Shaw held his gaze.
“That is why it is being transmitted to multiple secure offices.”
Vincent turned toward Dante.
“You brought Madeline to the clinic.”
“Yes.”
“You allowed Gabriel to take her.”
“I went with her.”
“You should have stopped her.”
“She would have gone without me.”
Vincent struck him.
Not a slap this time.
A closed fist.
Dante stumbled into the wall.
I moved between them.
“Enough.”
Vincent looked at me.
“He failed to protect you.”
“He saved my life on the hotel roof.”
Dante wiped blood from his mouth.
Vincent’s anger faltered.
Only briefly.
“Gabriel wants me at Pier 19.”
“He wants you dead.”
“He has Rachel.”
“We need a plan,” Shaw said.
Vincent looked at the message again.
“Pier 19 belongs to my family.”
“Then Gabriel controls your territory,” Dante said.
“He controls men I trusted.”
Vincent’s voice became quieter.
“That ends tonight.”
Agent Shaw stepped in front of him.
“You will not start a war at the docks.”
“The war began when he shot Madeline.”
“And it will end with Rachel dying if you arrive surrounded by gunmen.”
Vincent stared at her.
“What do you propose?”
“An exchange.”
“For what?”
“Gabriel believes Madeline has the only copy of the ledger.”
I understood before she finished.
“You want to use me as bait.”
“No,” Dante said.
Shaw ignored him.
“We arrange for Madeline to carry a false device. Once Rachel is visible, tactical teams move in.”
Vincent shook his head.
“Gabriel will search her.”
“The device can be concealed.”
“He knows every federal trick.”
“Then suggest something better.”
Vincent looked at me.
“No.”
It was the first time he had spoken to me as though my safety mattered more than strategy.
I raised my chin.
“He has my sister.”
“I owe your mother a life. I will not repay that debt by sacrificing her daughter.”
“You do not get to decide for me.”
“I decide who enters my docks.”
“Gabriel already decided that.”
Dante stepped beside me.
“I’ll go.”
Vincent looked at him.
“He expects you.”
“He thinks I am weak.”
“You have given him reasons.”
Dante accepted the insult without reacting.
“Then he will underestimate me.”
I looked between them.
“We both go.”
“No,” Vincent and Dante said together.
Agent Shaw almost smiled.
I faced Vincent.
“You can enter from the harbor with your men. Shaw’s teams take the surrounding buildings. Dante and I make the exchange.”
Vincent’s eyes became hard.
“You believe my son can protect you?”
“I believe he has something to prove.”
Dante looked at me.
“So do I.”
Three hours later, Pier 19 lay beneath a blanket of fog.
The old warehouse lights cast pale circles across the wet pavement.
I wore a hidden microphone beneath my coat and carried a black drive Agent Shaw had prepared.
Dante walked beside me without a weapon.
At least, none that Gabriel’s men would easily find.
Vincent’s boats waited beyond the fog.
Federal teams occupied two rooftops.
Everything depended on Gabriel believing we were alone.
We entered the warehouse.
Rachel sat tied to a chair beneath a hanging light.
Her face was bruised, but she was alive.
“Maddy!”
I started toward her.
Gabriel stepped from the shadows.
Twenty armed men surrounded the warehouse.
Several wore Romano family pins.
Vincent’s traitors.
Gabriel smiled at Dante.
“You brought exactly what I asked for.”
“Release Rachel,” I said.
“The ledger first.”
I held up the drive.
“One copy. Every name.”
Gabriel extended his hand.
Dante moved slightly in front of me.
Gabriel laughed.
“Still pretending to be brave?”
Dante looked around at the men.
“You spent years making me believe I was untouchable.”
“I gave you the life you wanted.”
“No. You gave me enough rope to hang myself.”
“Your weakness was already there. I merely rewarded it.”
Dante glanced toward Rachel.
“Let her go.”
“After I verify the files.”
A laptop was placed on a nearby table.
Gabriel inserted the drive.
The screen displayed a list of names.
He smiled.
Then the warehouse lights went out.
Agent Shaw’s signal.
Gunfire erupted from the catwalks.
Dante pulled me behind a steel column.
Federal agents breached the side doors.
Vincent’s boats struck the dock.
The warehouse became a battlefield.
I crawled toward Rachel.
A gunman saw me and raised his weapon.
Dante tackled him before he fired.
They crashed into the table.
Gabriel seized Rachel and dragged her toward the rear exit.
I chased them.
Dante shouted my name.
Gabriel forced Rachel onto the pier.
A speedboat waited below.
I reached the edge.
“Let her go!”
Gabriel turned.
“You sound exactly like your mother.”
He aimed at me.
Rachel drove her heel into his knee.
The shot went wide.
I lunged forward and caught Rachel’s arm.
Gabriel grabbed my injured shoulder.
Pain blinded me.
He pulled me toward the water.
Then Dante struck him from behind.
All three of us fell against the railing.
The metal broke.
Gabriel went over the edge, but his hand caught Dante’s wrist.
Dante slid across the wet dock.
I grabbed his other arm.
Gabriel hung above the black water.
“Help me,” he gasped.
Dante looked down at the uncle who had corrupted his life.
For one second, I feared he would release him.
Instead, Dante tightened his grip.
“I’m not becoming you.”
Federal agents rushed forward and pulled Gabriel onto the dock.
They handcuffed him.
Rachel collapsed into my arms.
Across the pier, Vincent stood surrounded by his men.
He looked at Dante.
Pride appeared in his face.
Then a shot rang out from the warehouse roof.
Vincent jerked backward.
May you like
Blood spread across his chest.
Dante screamed.
