Chapter 5 - Someone He Trusted
Damian didn't take Khloe to Russo Tower.
He tried not to.
Khloe made it exactly four minutes before confronting him.
"If you leave me here, I'll follow you."
"No, you won't."
"I spent three years secretly investigating a nineteen-year-old conspiracy while managing your calendar. Do you really think you're difficult to follow?"
Leo coughed to hide a laugh.
Damian glared at him.
Khloe folded her arms.
"I'm going."
Damian stepped closer.
"You were unconscious less than twelve hours ago."
"And the person responsible has my badge and knows where I live."
"Which is why you're staying somewhere protected."
"The safest place is beside the people trying to find him."
"That's debatable."
"Then debate it on the drive."
She picked up her coat.
Damian stared at her.
Leo finally said, "She's coming, isn't she?"
Damian walked toward the elevator.
"Apparently."
Russo Tower was evacuated before they entered.
No dramatic confrontation.
No unnecessary risk.
Damian wanted the building empty.
The thirty-second floor was silent.
Khloe's empty desk waited outside his office.
She stopped when she saw it.
Someone had placed a white lily across her keyboard.
Damian noticed.
"Don't touch it."
Khloe didn't.
Leo photographed it.
A small card lay underneath.
WELCOME BACK, MISS HAYES.
Khloe swallowed.
"He's watching."
Damian looked toward the cameras.
"Let him."
They entered his office.
The safe stood open.
Nothing appeared disturbed.
Damian approached carefully.
The sealed envelope remained inside.
He removed it.
Dominic's handwriting covered the front.
FOR DAMIAN — ONLY IF THEY COME BACK.
Damian stared.
Khloe stood beside him.
"Open it."
He did.
Inside was a letter.
Son,
If you're reading this, I failed to finish what I started.
Damian stopped.
For a moment, he wasn't thirty-eight.
He was twenty-one again, standing beside a grave, wondering why the strongest man he'd ever known had disappeared in one afternoon.
He continued.
There is someone near this family who believes loyalty is something that can be purchased. He will use Vale's name. He will use Mercer's name. He may even use mine. Don't follow names. Follow who profits.
Damian read the final line.
And if Thomas Hayes is alive, trust his daughter.
Khloe covered her mouth.
Damian looked at her.
"My father knew about you."
"No."
"He knew about Thomas's daughter."
"That's not the same thing."
"He knew enough."
Leo examined the envelope.
"There's something else."
A second sheet.
Bank routing numbers.
Property records.
And an address.
Queens.
The same industrial district where Khloe had been held.
But a different building.
They searched the address.
An abandoned records-storage facility.
Purchased nineteen years earlier.
Owner:
Rainer Asset Management.
Damian looked at Leo.
"Edward Rainer."
They went immediately.
This time law enforcement contacts were quietly informed and kept nearby. Damian wasn't going to repeat the mistake of walking blindly into another trap.
The facility appeared empty.
Inside were thousands of boxes.
Old corporate files.
Damian found one marked DOMINIC RUSSO.
Khloe opened it.
Photographs.
Security logs.
Letters.
Then a cassette recorder.
Leo found batteries.
They pressed play.
Dominic's voice filled the room.
"If you're hearing this, then Edward knows I'm investigating him."
Damian closed his eyes.
His father's voice.
After nineteen years.
"Edward has been working with Gabriel Vale. Adrian doesn't know the extent of it. They're moving money through Crown Meridian and using our security division to erase the trail."
Thomas had been right.
Dominic continued.
"Victor Mercer discovered it. They killed him."
Leo froze.
His father hadn't died in an accident.
Damian looked at him.
Leo stared at the recorder.
"They killed my father."
Dominic's recording continued.
"Thomas is next. If I can get him out, I will. If I can't—"
Static.
Then:
"Evelyn knows part of the truth. Samuel Bell knows the rest. Neither knows enough alone."
Marcus.
Evelyn.
Their families had each been given pieces.
Dominic had deliberately divided the truth.
Because he trusted no single person with all of it.
The recording ended.
Khloe searched the box.
"There's no evidence against Rainer."
"Keep looking."
They found payroll records.
Security schedules.
Then a photograph.
Edward Rainer stood beside Dominic.
Behind them, reflected in a window, was Gabriel Vale.
Khloe stared at the picture.
"That's definitely him."
Damian turned it over.
A date.
March 14.
The day Dominic died.
Below it was a handwritten time.
7:42 P.M.
Dominic's official time of death was 8:10.
Damian felt cold.
Someone had photographed the men together twenty-eight minutes before his father died.
"Who took this?"
Khloe examined the angle.
"Security camera?"
Leo shook his head.
"Too low."
Marcus, who had remained silent, finally spoke.
"My father."
Everyone looked at him.
Marcus pointed toward the handwriting.
"That's his writing."
"Samuel was there?"
"Apparently."
Then why had Samuel Bell never spoken?
Marcus looked devastated.
"My father knew."
Damian said nothing.
Marcus turned away.
"He knew who killed yours and never told us."
Khloe quietly replied, "Maybe he couldn't."
Marcus looked at her.
She understood better than anyone what silence could cost.
A noise sounded deeper inside the warehouse.
Everyone stopped.
A box fell.
Damian signaled for the others to remain behind.
He and Leo moved toward the sound.
A door stood partly open.
Light beneath it.
Damian pushed it.
Empty office.
Computer running.
On-screen was live security footage.
Russo Tower.
Damian's penthouse.
Khloe's apartment.
They had been watched for months.
Khloe approached.
"My God."
Folders lined the desktop.
Each bore a name.
DAMIAN.
LEO.
EVELYN.
MARCUS.
THOMAS.
KHLOE.
Khloe clicked hers.
Hundreds of photographs.
Her commuting.
Shopping.
Eating lunch.
Entering Damian's office.
One photograph showed her receiving the anonymous lilies.
Another showed her smiling.
Damian's jaw tightened.
"They knew everything."
Khloe scrolled.
Then stopped.
One folder was dated six days earlier.
Inside was an audio recording.
She played it.
Her own voice.
She had been talking to Marcus in the hallway at Russo Tower.
"I found the beneficiary," recording-Khloe said.
Marcus answered:
"Don't tell Damian yet."
Khloe looked at Marcus.
He went pale.
"You told her not to tell me?"
Marcus stepped backward.
"There was a reason."
Damian's voice lowered.
"What reason?"
"I was trying to protect both of you."
"From whom?"
Marcus hesitated.
That was enough.
Leo moved toward him.
Marcus raised his hands.
"Wait."
"Talk."
Marcus looked at Khloe.
Then Damian.
"I knew Rainer was alive."
Damian's face became unreadable.
"For how long?"
"Seven years."
Khloe whispered, "Marcus..."
"I thought he was working for federal investigators."
"Why?"
"Because that's what my father told me before he died."
Damian stepped closer.
"And you never verified it?"
"I tried."
"You had seven years."
Marcus looked ashamed.
Then his phone vibrated.
Everyone heard it.
Marcus slowly removed it.
A text.
He read it.
His face changed.
Damian took the phone.
ONE LAST CHANCE.
Below it was a photograph.
Evelyn Russo sitting in the back seat of a car.
Her eyes were closed.
Damian looked around.
Evelyn had been at the building entrance ten minutes earlier.
She was gone.
A second message appeared.
BRING THE LEDGER PAGE.
Then a third.
COME ALONE, MARCUS.
Marcus whispered, "He knows."
"Knows what?"
Marcus looked at Damian.
"My father didn't just photograph Rainer the night Dominic died."
He reached into his jacket.
"He gave me this before he died."
A tiny key.
Khloe stared at it.
"To what?"
Marcus pointed toward a locked metal cabinet across the office.
Damian inserted the key.
The lock opened.
Inside was one file.
On the front, Samuel Bell had written:
THE MAN WHO ORDERED DOMINIC RUSSO'S DEATH.
Damian reached for it.
Before his fingers touched the file, a voice behind them said:
"I wouldn't open that if I were you."
Damian turned.
May you like
Thomas stood in the doorway.
And he was holding a gun...
