Chapter 4 - The Basement Door
"Marcus."
Marcus Bell stopped outside the elevator.
Damian knew him well.
Too well.
Marcus had served as Russo Holdings' chief legal officer for eleven years.
He had attended birthdays.
Funerals.
Board meetings.
He'd known Khloe since her first day.
And now he was holding a ledger that had been missing for nineteen years.
Leo moved toward him.
Marcus raised one hand.
"If I wanted anyone here dead, I wouldn't have come alone."
Damian's expression didn't change.
"Put the book down."
Marcus placed it on the table.
"Where did you get it?"
"Your father gave it to mine."
Damian stared at him.
Marcus's father, Samuel Bell, had been Dominic's attorney.
He'd died seven years earlier.
"Why?"
"Because Dominic didn't trust anyone else."
Evelyn laughed bitterly.
"He didn't trust Samuel either."
Marcus turned.
"He trusted him enough."
"Apparently not enough to stay alive."
Damian stepped between them.
"Enough."
He opened the ledger.
Pages of coded transactions filled it.
One page had been removed.
Exactly where Thomas said it would be.
Marcus pointed toward the binding.
"My father left a note."
Inside the back cover was a thin strip of paper.
IF DOMINIC FALLS, FOLLOW THE SECURITY CONTRACTS.
Leo sat down at the laptop.
He searched archived contracts.
Dozens.
Then hundreds.
One vendor appeared repeatedly.
Bellweather Protection Services.
"Bellweather?" Khloe asked.
Marcus nodded.
"My father's company represented them."
Damian looked at him.
"Who owned it?"
Marcus hesitated.
"Evelyn."
Everyone turned.
Evelyn went pale.
Damian's voice hardened.
"Tell me that's wrong."
"It's not."
Khloe stood.
Evelyn looked at her.
"I can explain."
Khloe's voice was quiet.
"People keep saying that today."
Evelyn admitted she had created Bellweather at Dominic's request.
It was designed to investigate corruption inside Russo Holdings without alerting the existing security team.
"Dominic suspected someone close to him," she said.
"Who?" Damian asked.
"He wouldn't tell me."
"Why?"
"Because he didn't know if he could trust me."
That hurt her.
Even after nineteen years.
"He gave Bellweather access to security logs. Three days later, someone discovered the investigation."
"And he died."
"Yes."
Damian turned toward Thomas.
"What happened to your evidence?"
"Stolen."
"By whom?"
"I never knew."
Khloe spoke.
"I think I do."
She retrieved her phone.
During her research, she had found a hidden personnel archive.
One employee had accessed Bellweather's internal network the night before Dominic died.
She displayed the name.
GABRIEL VALE.
Damian frowned.
"Adrian's brother."
Thomas nodded.
"Gabriel handled security."
"He died."
"Supposedly."
Damian looked at him.
"You seem to know a lot of dead men who aren't dead."
Thomas didn't smile.
"That's because someone was very good at making people disappear."
Khloe searched further.
Gabriel's death certificate had been issued eighteen years earlier.
No body had been identified by family.
Dental records only.
Damian recognized the pattern.
"What did Gabriel look like?"
Thomas found an old photograph.
Everyone stared.
Khloe's breath caught.
She had seen him.
The man from her apartment.
Older.
Heavier.
But the eyes were the same.
"He took me."
Damian turned.
"You're certain?"
"Yes."
"What did he want?"
Khloe hesitated.
"The ledger page."
"We don't have it."
"He thinks you do."
"Why?"
"Because Dominic hid it before he died."
Damian thought of his father.
A man who had taught him never to place important information where someone expected to find it.
Then he remembered something.
The pocket watch.
Damian retrieved it.
It had belonged to Dominic.
He opened the rear plate.
Nothing.
Leo examined it.
"Wait."
He pressed the crown.
A second compartment opened.
Inside was a tiny rolled strip of photographic film.
Marcus stared.
"Microfilm."
They scanned it.
A ledger page appeared.
The missing page.
Transactions.
Names.
And a signature.
G. VALE.
Khloe exhaled.
"Gabriel."
But Damian kept reading.
Below Gabriel's signature was another authorization.
A set of initials.
E.R.
Everyone looked at Evelyn.
Her face collapsed.
"No."
Damian turned the screen.
"Those are your initials."
"I didn't sign that."
"Then who did?"
"I don't know."
Marcus examined the page.
"The signatures were made on different dates."
"Meaning?"
"Gabriel authorized the transaction. E.R. authorized the security override."
Evelyn shook her head.
"I never did that."
Leo searched old personnel records.
"There was another E.R."
Damian looked at him.
"Who?"
"Edward Rainer."
The name meant nothing to Damian.
But Thomas reacted.
"No."
"What?"
Thomas stepped toward the computer.
"Rainer was Dominic's driver."
Evelyn whispered, "And his bodyguard."
Damian remembered him vaguely.
A quiet man.
Always near his father.
"What happened to him?"
"Disappeared the night Dominic died."
Damian felt the pieces moving.
Rainer had access.
Security knowledge.
Proximity.
And vanished immediately afterward.
"Find him."
Leo started searching.
No bank accounts.
No tax filings.
No driver's license.
Then facial-recognition software returned a possible match.
A security consultant living under another name.
Damian leaned closer.
The photograph loaded.
Khloe stared.
Her face went white.
"That's him."
"Gabriel?"
"No."
She shook her head.
"That's the man who stood outside the basement while Gabriel questioned me."
Damian looked at the name beneath the photograph.
ELIAS REED.
E.R.
A new identity.
A man who had spent the last decade consulting for major corporations.
Including Russo Holdings.
Damian's pulse slowed.
"When?"
Leo searched.
"Three projects."
"Latest?"
Leo's face changed.
"Current."
"Where?"
"Russo Tower."
Damian stood.
"He's inside my building."
Khloe stood too.
"Then I'm coming."
"No."
"Damian."
"No."
She stepped closer.
"He took me because of what I know."
"Exactly."
"Which means hiding me won't stop him."
Damian stared down at her.
"I almost found you dead on a basement floor."
"But you didn't."
His composure cracked.
"You think that makes it better?"
The room went silent.
Khloe softened.
"Damian."
He looked away.
She understood then.
Not all of it.
But enough.
His fear hadn't been professional.
It hadn't been guilt.
It was personal.
Very personal.
She touched his hand.
"I'm still here."
Damian looked down at their hands.
Then back at her.
"For now."
Leo's computer chimed.
An access alert.
Someone had entered Russo Tower's archival floor.
Using Khloe's credentials.
Khloe stared.
"My badge was taken."
Damian reached for his coat.
Then another alert appeared.
Private vault access requested.
Damian stopped.
Only one object remained inside that vault from his father's personal estate.
A sealed envelope Dominic had ordered never opened unless Damian's life was in danger.
The access request was approved.
Not by Damian.
Not by Leo.
By a third administrator.
The screen displayed the name.
Marcus Bell.
Everyone slowly turned toward him.
Marcus backed away.
"I didn't do that."
Damian's phone rang.
He answered.
A distorted voice whispered:
"Bring Khloe to the thirty-second floor."
Then the line went dead.
The penthouse lights flickered.
Khloe's stolen access badge registered again.
May you like
This time inside Damian's private office.
And someone began opening the safe...
