Chapter 3 - The Brother Who Was Dead
“Open the gate,” Sadi said.
Gabriel answered immediately.
“No.”
“That’s my brother.”
“That’s someone who looks like your brother.”
“I know his face.”
“You also buried him.”
Sadi turned.
“I buried a closed coffin.”
The words hit her harder after she said them.
Six years earlier, Mateo Moreno had supposedly died in an industrial fire outside Newark.
The body had been too badly burned for viewing.
Sadi’s mother had identified him through dental records.
Three months later, her mother suffered a stroke.
She never fully recovered.
She died two years after that.
Sadi had spent six years believing grief had killed whatever the fire had left behind.
Now Mateo stood outside Gabriel Falcone’s estate.
Alive.
“Let him in,” Sadi repeated.
Gabriel looked at Enzo.
“Search him first.”
The process took ten minutes.
To Sadi, it felt like an hour.
Mateo entered the bedroom wearing jeans, a gray jacket, and an expression she had never seen on him before.
Fear.
He looked older.
Thinner.
A scar cut along his jaw.
But he was Mateo.
“Sadi.”
She crossed the room and slapped him.
The sound cracked through the silence.
Mateo accepted it.
She slapped him again.
Then she hit his chest with both fists.
“You were dead.”
“I know.”
“You were dead!”
“I know.”
“You let Mom bury you.”
His eyes filled.
“I know.”
She shoved him away.
“You don’t get to say that.”
Gabriel watched without interrupting.
Finally Sadi stepped back.
“Why are you here?”
Mateo looked toward Gabriel.
“Because someone is going to finish what they started.”
Gabriel’s voice was flat.
“Who?”
Mateo hesitated.
“Matteo Falcone.”
Enzo moved first.
He crossed the room and slammed Mateo against the wall.
Gabriel did not react.
“My uncle is dead,” he said.
Mateo looked directly at him.
“No.”
The room changed.
Gabriel’s uncle Matteo had supposedly died eight years earlier in a boating accident off Sicily.
His body had never been recovered.
“Explain,” Gabriel said.
Mateo swallowed.
“I worked for Falcone Grand Hotel before the fire.”
Sadi stared.
“You were doing construction.”
“That’s what I told you.”
“You lied to us for years?”
“I was security.”
“For who?”
Mateo looked at Gabriel.
“Your father.”
Gabriel’s right hand curled against the sheet.
Mateo continued.
“Your father suspected someone inside the family was stealing money and selling information to rivals. He built a private team outside the organization.”
“Why outside?”
“Because he didn’t trust his own people.”
Gabriel’s gaze shifted toward Enzo.
Enzo did not flinch.
Mateo said, “I was twenty-three. Nobody knew me. That made me useful.”
Sadi laughed once.
Bitterly.
“Apparently being nobody runs in the family.”
Mateo looked at her.
“I wanted to tell you.”
“But you didn’t.”
“I couldn’t.”
“You could’ve told Mom you were alive.”
“I couldn’t.”
“She died believing you burned to death.”
His face broke.
For one second, the secret operative disappeared and Sadi saw her brother.
“I know.”
She turned away.
Gabriel’s voice sharpened.
“Enough history. Who attacked me?”
Mateo reached inside his jacket.
Three guns pointed at him instantly.
He froze.
“Photograph.”
Gabriel nodded.
Mateo slowly removed a folded picture.
Enzo took it.
The image showed five men standing outside a warehouse.
One was the attacker Sadi had thrown.
Another was the fake waiter.
The third was a doctor Sadi had seen at Gabriel’s bedside.
The fourth was unfamiliar.
The fifth man made Gabriel go completely still.
Matteo Falcone.
Older.
Gray at the temples.
Alive.
“When?” Gabriel asked.
“Three weeks ago.”
“Where?”
“Baltimore.”
“Why?”
Mateo looked at Sadi.
“Because he’s building something.”
“What?”
“A war.”
Gabriel almost smiled.
“My uncle always lacked imagination.”
“This time he has help.”
“From whom?”
Mateo’s eyes moved to the cufflink.
“Thomas Vale.”
Gabriel stared.
“You’re saying two dead men planned an assassination.”
“I’m saying neither one is dead.”
Sadi sat down.
Her knees had suddenly become unreliable.
Gabriel asked, “Why the staged deaths?”
“To disappear from you.”
“Why wait eight years?”
“They didn’t. They’ve been dismantling your organization quietly. Suppliers. Judges. Accountants. Doctors.”
Gabriel looked toward the door.
“Doctors.”
Mateo nodded.
“The surgeon who recommended immediate amputation first? Dr. Lester Brand?”
Enzo’s expression changed.
“He left.”
“When?”
“Three hours ago.”
Mateo looked at Gabriel.
“He works for them.”
Enzo was already calling downstairs.
No answer.
Another call.
Nothing.
“Where is Brand?” Gabriel demanded.
A guard appeared minutes later.
“Gone.”
“How?”
“His car never left.”
“Then he’s inside.”
The estate locked down again.
Dr. Brand was found twenty minutes later in a laundry corridor wearing a security uniform.
He had a keycard that could access Gabriel’s bedroom.
Inside his pocket was a syringe.
Warren examined it.
“Potassium chloride.”
Sadi understood enough to feel sick.
“What would that do?”
Warren answered.
“Enough could stop his heart.”
Gabriel looked at Brand through the doorway.
“So the shoulder was the excuse.”
Mateo nodded.
“If you agreed to surgery, they could kill you under anesthesia.”
“And blame the wound.”
“Yes.”
Sadi stared at her brother.
“How do you know all this?”
Mateo said nothing.
She stepped closer.
“How?”
His silence told her before he spoke.
“Because I worked for them.”
Sadi’s face went cold.
Gabriel’s guards raised their weapons.
Mateo lifted both hands.
“Not anymore.”
Gabriel spoke softly.
“When did you switch?”
“Five months ago.”
“Why?”
Mateo looked at Sadi.
“Because they mentioned her.”
Sadi stopped.
“What about me?”
“They knew where you worked.”
“Why would they care?”
“Because I cared.”
Mateo looked ashamed.
“They said if I walked away, you’d disappear.”
Sadi’s anger collapsed into something colder.
“So you stayed.”
“Yes.”
“And last night?”
“I tried to warn you.”
“You were in the restaurant.”
“Yes.”
“Why didn’t you come to me?”
“Because I saw the first attacker watching you. I thought they’d already figured out who you were.”
Gabriel looked at Sadi.
“The man you dropped.”
Mateo nodded.
“His job was to provoke security. Make the room unstable.”
“And the shooter?”
“Distraction.”
Gabriel touched the bandage at his shoulder.
“That was a strange distraction.”
“The bullet was supposed to wound you.”
Everyone looked at him.
Mateo explained.
“They needed you alive long enough to reach the surgeon.”
Gabriel laughed quietly.
“Elegant.”
Sadi hated that he sounded impressed.
“What happens now?” she asked.
Mateo looked toward the window.
“Now Matteo knows Gabriel survived.”
“And?”
“He’ll change plans.”
Gabriel leaned back.
“Good.”
Sadi stared at him.
“Good?”
“He thinks I’m injured.”
“You are injured.”
“He thinks I’m weak.”
“You nearly died.”
Gabriel’s eyes met hers.
“Those are not the same thing.”
By afternoon, the estate resembled a command center.
Phones.
Maps.
Names.
Surveillance photographs.
Sadi tried to stay out of it.
She failed.
Every time she went toward the door, a guard politely redirected her.
Finally she confronted Gabriel.
“I’m not your prisoner.”
“No.”
“Then let me leave.”
“No.”
“That sounds like prisoner language.”
“You’re safer here.”
“My apartment has a lock.”
“So does a suitcase. Neither will stop Matteo.”
Sadi folded her arms.
“You don’t control my life.”
“No.”
“Then stop acting like you do.”
Gabriel considered her.
“You’re right.”
She blinked.
He continued.
“You can leave whenever you want.”
Enzo looked surprised.
Sadi waited.
Gabriel added, “But if you leave, two cars and six men go with you.”
“There it is.”
“That is not control. That is insurance.”
“For who?”
“Both of us.”
Sadi stared at him for several seconds.
Then she turned toward Mateo.
“You’re coming with me.”
Mateo shook his head.
“I can’t.”
“Why?”
“I need to show Gabriel something.”
“What?”
Mateo glanced toward Gabriel.
“A ledger.”
Gabriel’s face changed.
“The ledger?”
“You know about it?”
“My father died looking for it.”
Mateo nodded.
“I found it.”
“Where?”
Mateo opened his mouth.
A gunshot exploded downstairs.
Everyone moved.
Enzo pushed Gabriel back.
Guards flooded the hallway.
A second shot.
Then a third.
Sadi grabbed Mateo’s arm.
“What’s happening?”
He looked toward the staircase.
“That’s not them.”
“How do you know?”
“Because Matteo wouldn’t attack like this.”
Then who?
The bedroom door slammed open.
Dr. Warren stumbled inside.
Blood covered one sleeve.
Enzo caught him.
“What happened?”
Warren gasped for breath.
“The prisoner.”
“Brand?”
“He had help.”
Gabriel’s eyes went cold.
“From whom?”
Warren looked toward the hallway.
Footsteps were coming closer.
Slow.
Unhurried.
Then a familiar voice called Gabriel’s name from outside the room.
Enzo raised his gun.
Gabriel froze.
Sadi looked at him.
She had never seen fear in his face before.
But she saw it now.
May you like
Because Gabriel recognized the voice.
And the dead man standing outside the door had once been his father.
