Chapter 5 - What Her Father Knew
Tessa stared at the photograph until the faces blurred.
Her father.
Lucian Vale.
Adrian.
All standing together fifteen years ago.
Impossible.
Adrian would have been barely twenty.
Damian looked at the photo again.
“I didn’t know he went to Iraq.”
Elias looked away.
“You knew,” Damian said.
Elias did not answer.
Victor stepped toward him.
“He asked you a question.”
Elias sighed.
“Adrian spent eight months overseas under a private security contract.”
“For my father?”
“Yes.”
Tessa’s throat tightened.
“My father worked with them?”
“Not exactly.”
“What does that mean?”
Elias sat.
“Sergeant Daniel Reed was assigned to a military explosive ordnance team. Lucian’s contractors were moving equipment through a restricted corridor.”
“What equipment?”
“I don’t know.”
“Try again.”
“I really don’t.”
Tessa looked at Damian.
“Your father was smuggling something.”
Damian’s face hardened.
“Likely.”
“Weapons?”
“Possibly.”
“Money?”
“Also possible.”
Tessa laughed once in disbelief.
“So my father found out.”
Elias nodded.
“He found a device in a shipment marked as communications equipment.”
“What kind of device?”
“A trigger system.”
Tessa went still.
“What trigger system?”
“Remote detonation hardware.”
Her mind flashed to the SUV.
Three scratches.
Parking lights.
Explosion.
“Why would Lucian want bomb triggers?”
Elias looked at Damian.
“To sell.”
Tessa felt sick.
“My father reported it?”
“Yes.”
“And then he died.”
“Yes.”
She closed her eyes.
For sixteen years her mother had believed Daniel Reed died doing the job he loved.
For sixteen years Tessa had repeated the official story.
Roadside device.
Unexpected secondary trigger.
No one could have known.
No one was to blame.
Now blame had a name.
Lucian Vale.
Damian’s father.
Tessa opened her eyes.
“Did Lucian order it?”
Elias hesitated.
“That’s what Adrian believed.”
“Believed?”
“He never proved it.”
“Why was Adrian there?”
“He was working for Lucian then. Your father helped him.”
“How?”
“Adrian was injured during an attack on the convoy. Daniel Reed pulled him out.”
Tessa remembered the photograph.
Adrian standing behind her father.
Alive because of him.
“So Adrian owed him.”
“Yes.”
“And Lucian killed him anyway.”
Elias nodded.
“After Daniel threatened to expose the smuggling operation, he was transferred. Two weeks later, his team was sent to clear a road that should never have been assigned to them.”
Tessa gripped the edge of the table.
Damian stepped closer.
“Tessa.”
She moved away.
“Don’t.”
He stopped.
“It wasn’t me.”
“No. Just your family.”
“My father’s crimes aren’t mine.”
“That’s convenient.”
His eyes hardened.
“You think I’m defending him?”
“I don’t know what you’re defending.”
“I spent half my life trying not to become him.”
“And yet everyone still calls you a mafia boss.”
Victor looked at the floor.
Damian said nothing.
Tessa hated the silence.
Because she knew she had hit something true.
Damian finally spoke.
“I have done things I am not proud of.”
“That’s a careful sentence.”
“I never touched civilians. I never moved drugs. I never trafficked weapons. I spent six years dismantling most of what my father built.”
“And kept the casinos.”
“Yes.”
“The security companies.”
“Yes.”
“The fear.”
Damian looked at her.
“That was harder to dismantle.”
The anger in her chest faltered.
Only slightly.
The burner phone rang again.
No one touched it.
It stopped.
Then a message appeared.
PIER 19. MIDNIGHT. TESSA ALONE.
Victor looked at the clock.
9:43.
“We have two hours.”
Damian said, “She’s not going.”
Tessa turned.
“You don’t decide that.”
“Yes, I do.”
“Why?”
“Because it’s a trap.”
“Obviously.”
“Then why are we discussing it?”
“Because the person there might know who killed my father.”
Damian stepped closer.
“And the person there might kill you.”
“I’m going.”
“No.”
“Stop saying no like I work for you.”
“You don’t understand what Lucian is capable of.”
“If he’s even alive.”
“He’s alive.”
Damian sounded certain now.
“What changed?”
“My brother.”
Tessa frowned.
“Adrian.”
“Yes. He knew your father. He survived the warehouse. He spent six years investigating Lucian. If he says Lucian is alive, I believe him.”
“You shot Adrian.”
“He tried to shoot me first.”
“That family reunion must be wonderful.”
Victor coughed to hide a laugh.
Damian looked at him.
Victor became serious again.
Elias stood.
“There may be another option.”
Everyone turned.
“Adrian contacted me three days ago. He gave me a location if things went wrong.”
“Where?”
“Old ferry terminal.”
Damian nodded.
“We go there first.”
The terminal had been abandoned for twelve years.
By 10:30, fog from the river had settled across the docks.
Tessa hated that she had no weapon.
Damian had offered her one.
She refused.
Her father taught her that a gun in untrained hands was usually a gift to the other person.
Victor led them through a broken service door.
Elias followed.
Damian stayed beside Tessa.
“You can still leave.”
“So can you.”
“I can’t.”
“Neither can I.”
They entered the terminal.
A light glowed in the far office.
Damian raised one hand.
Victor moved left.
Elias right.
Tessa stayed back.
The office door opened.
Adrian Vale stepped out.
Alive.
No gray maintenance jacket now.
Dark sweater.
Jeans.
Scar running beneath his collar.
He looked almost like Damian.
Same dark hair.
Same eyes.
But where Damian looked controlled, Adrian looked exhausted.
“Brother.”
Damian raised his gun.
Adrian sighed.
“Still dramatic.”
“You kidnapped Nico.”
“I protected him.”
“From whom?”
“Victor.”
Victor’s weapon snapped toward Adrian.
“You want to repeat that?”
Adrian looked at him.
“I said from you.”
Damian moved between them.
“Explain.”
Adrian reached into his pocket.
Victor aimed.
“Slow.”
Adrian removed a flash drive.
“Marco copied records before he died.”
“What records?”
“Payments.”
“To whom?”
Adrian tossed the drive onto a desk.
“Nico decrypted them.”
Damian looked around.
“Where is he?”
Adrian pointed toward the back room.
Nico emerged.
Untied.
Alive.
Bruised but standing.
Damian lowered his gun slightly.
“Nico.”
“Boss.”
Victor stared.
“You were never kidnapped.”
Nico looked at him.
“No.”
Adrian continued.
“We staged the video because we needed to see who moved after Damian believed Nico had been compromised.”
“And?” Damian asked.
Adrian looked at Victor.
“He moved.”
Victor’s expression hardened.
“Where?”
“To Marco’s apartment.”
“I was checking on him.”
“You reached the building before Damian told you his address.”
Silence.
Damian slowly turned toward Victor.
Victor shook his head.
“No.”
Nico said, “We tracked your phone.”
Victor looked around.
“You’re all insane.”
Adrian pointed at the flash drive.
“Payments from Lucian’s offshore account. Monthly. Eleven years.”
Damian’s face went cold.
“Victor.”
Victor backed away.
“You don’t know what you’re reading.”
“Then explain it.”
“I was feeding him false information.”
“For eleven years?”
“Yes.”
“Without telling me?”
“I was protecting you.”
Adrian laughed.
“That line runs in the family.”
Victor’s eyes changed.
Tessa saw it first.
His right hand dropped.
“Gun!”
Damian moved.
Victor fired.
The shot hit Elias.
He fell.
Nico tackled Victor.
Adrian grabbed Tessa and pulled her behind the desk.
Damian struck Victor’s wrist.
The gun slid across the floor.
Nico pinned him.
Victor shouted.
“You don’t understand! Lucian owns everything! Police, judges, ports, your board! You think you became boss because you won? He let you!”
Damian stared down at him.
Victor laughed.
“He wanted to see which son survived.”
Damian’s face showed nothing.
Victor continued.
“And now he knows.”
Tessa crawled toward Elias.
Blood spread across his shirt.
“Pressure.”
She pressed both hands over the wound.
Elias gasped.
Adrian knelt beside her.
“Ambulance?”
“No,” Damian said. “Private medic. Now.”
Nico made the call.
Victor suddenly smiled.
“Too late.”
Damian looked at him.
“What?”
Victor glanced toward Tessa.
“The pier meeting wasn’t for her.”
Tessa froze.
“Then who?”
Victor’s smile widened.
“It was for her mother.”
Tessa’s blood turned cold.
“My mother?”
Victor laughed.
“Lucian picked her up twenty minutes ago.”
Tessa grabbed her phone.
Powered off.
No signal.
Adrian looked toward the terminal doors.
Headlights appeared through the fog.
One vehicle.
Then another.
Then six more.
Black SUVs surrounded the terminal.
May you like
Damian looked at Victor.
Victor whispered, “He’s here.”
