Chapter 5 - Trust No Falcone
The door opened.
Enzo aimed first.
Gabriel stood in the hallway.
Sadi stared at him.
“You’re supposed to be in bed.”
“I disagreed.”
Blood had already stained the fresh bandage beneath his black shirt.
Dr. Warren stood behind him looking murderous.
“I want it officially recorded,” Warren said, “that this patient is an idiot.”
Gabriel ignored him.
Sadi held up her mother’s note.
“Maybe he’s worse than that.”
Gabriel read it.
TRUST NO FALCONE.
His expression did not change.
“That narrows the suspect list poorly.”
Sadi almost smiled.
Almost.
Then she remembered Isabella.
“Mom hid a key.”
“To what?”
“I don’t know.”
Mateo turned it over.
A four-digit number was etched along the side.
Sadi knew immediately.
“Bus station.”
Mateo looked at her.
“What?”
“Mom used to keep a locker at Port Authority when she cleaned offices in Manhattan. She said carrying valuables home at night was dangerous.”
“Locker 3218?”
“Maybe.”
Enzo checked the time.
2:14 p.m.
Gabriel said, “We go.”
Warren stepped between him and the door.
“No.”
Gabriel looked at him.
“Move.”
“No.”
“Elias.”
“You nearly lost your arm twelve hours ago.”
“I’m aware.”
“You are actively bleeding.”
“Also aware.”
“You could collapse.”
“I’ll do it in the car.”
Warren looked at Sadi.
“Please tell me you are more reasonable.”
She looked at Gabriel.
Then the bloody edge of his bandage.
“You’re staying.”
Gabriel stared at her.
Sadi folded her arms.
“Go ahead. Do the scary face.”
Enzo turned away, hiding something suspiciously close to amusement.
Gabriel said, “My sister is being held.”
“And you’re useful to her alive.”
Silence.
“Five minutes,” Sadi added. “Get treated properly, then we go.”
Gabriel’s eyes narrowed.
“Five.”
Warren immediately pushed him toward the chair.
“Finally, someone in this criminal empire has sense.”
They left nine minutes later.
Gabriel refused a wheelchair.
Warren threatened him with sedation.
Gabriel threatened Warren’s medical license.
Warren reminded him that he did not technically work for Gabriel.
By the time they reached Port Authority, Sadi had decided Dr. Warren was the only person on earth who spoke to Gabriel Falcone the way she wanted to.
Locker 3218 was located in an older corridor near long-term storage.
The key fit.
Inside was a metal box.
Nothing else.
Mateo opened it.
A flash drive.
A photograph.
A letter.
The photograph showed Sadi’s mother standing beside Gabriel’s father.
Sadi stopped breathing.
“No.”
Mateo stared.
Gabriel took the picture.
“My father knew your mother.”
“How?”
Gabriel turned it over.
On the back:
ELENA SAVED MY LIFE. I OWE HER CHILDREN MINE.
Sadi felt suddenly dizzy.
Mateo opened the letter.
The handwriting belonged to Elena.
My children,
If you are reading this, then secrets I hoped would die with me did not.
Sadi sat down on the floor.
Mateo continued silently.
His eyes moved faster.
Then stopped.
“What?”
He looked at Gabriel.
“Your father didn’t employ me first.”
“Who did?”
“Mom.”
Sadi laughed in disbelief.
“That makes no sense.”
Mateo handed her the letter.
Elena explained everything.
Years earlier, before becoming a nurse, she had worked in a small private clinic.
Gabriel’s father, Antonio Falcone, had arrived one night with a gunshot wound.
Elena treated him without knowing who he was.
Later, when she discovered his identity, she demanded he never return.
He respected that.
Years passed.
Then Mateo got into trouble as a teenager.
Antonio quietly helped.
Eventually Mateo began working security.
Elena knew.
She hated it.
But she also knew Mateo’s position gave him access to information.
When Antonio suspected Matteo Falcone and Thomas Vale were betraying him, Elena helped create copies of the financial records.
The ledger was not merely proof of theft.
It documented bribes.
Shell companies.
Judges.
Police officers.
Doctors.
Politicians.
Enough to destroy half the criminal network surrounding the Falcones.
Sadi looked at Gabriel.
“Your father gave this to my mother.”
“He trusted her.”
“She hid it from everyone.”
“She was smart.”
“She told us to trust no Falcone.”
Gabriel nodded.
“She was also smart about that.”
Mateo inserted the flash drive into an offline laptop Enzo carried.
Encrypted files appeared.
Hundreds.
Accounts.
Names.
Dates.
Photographs.
One folder was labeled INSURANCE.
Mateo opened it.
Enzo swore.
Gabriel said nothing.
Inside were records showing payments made by Thomas Vale and Matteo Falcone to people inside Gabriel’s organization.
Many were unknown.
Some were not.
Enzo’s name appeared.
Sadi looked at him.
Enzo stared at the screen.
“No.”
Gabriel’s hand moved toward his gun.
Enzo raised both hands.
“I never took money from them.”
The records showed twelve payments over eight years.
Total: $480,000.
Gabriel’s face hardened.
Enzo looked stunned.
“They’re fake.”
Mateo clicked deeper.
Bank routing numbers.
Dates.
Signatures.
Gabriel’s voice became cold.
“Explain.”
“I can’t.”
“That is unfortunate.”
Sadi watched Enzo.
His confusion looked real.
Or he was very good.
“Check the accounts,” she said.
Mateo did.
The destination account belonged to a trust.
Beneficiary: Lucia Rinaldi.
Enzo’s daughter.
Gabriel lowered his gun slightly.
Enzo’s face emptied.
“My daughter has been dead eleven years.”
Nobody moved.
Mateo continued digging.
The account had been opened two years after Lucia’s death.
Someone had used the name deliberately.
Not to pay Enzo.
To frame him.
Gabriel exhaled.
“Thomas wants me killing my own people.”
Mateo nodded.
“Then every file could be poisoned.”
Sadi understood the brilliance of it.
The ledger contained truth.
But truth mixed with carefully planted lies became even more dangerous.
Gabriel stared at the screen.
“They aren’t just trying to kill me.”
“No,” Mateo said.
“They’re trying to make you destroy yourself first.”
Gabriel’s phone vibrated.
Video call.
Unknown number.
He answered.
Isabella appeared.
Bruised.
Furious.
Alive.
A man held the phone in front of her.
Thomas Vale stepped into view.
He was in his sixties.
Silver hair.
Expensive suit.
Warm smile.
He looked like somebody’s respected grandfather.
“Gabriel.”
“Thomas.”
“So nice to see you.”
“You’ll be less pleased soon.”
Thomas smiled wider.
“There he is.”
Gabriel’s voice remained level.
“Release Isabella.”
“Bring me Elena Moreno’s copy.”
“You know I have it?”
“I know you found the locker.”
Sadi’s blood chilled.
They were being watched.
Thomas continued.
“Midnight. Falcone Grand Hotel.”
Gabriel’s expression darkened.
“You’re sentimental.”
“I enjoy symmetry.”
“You murdered my father there.”
“I did not.”
Gabriel went still.
Thomas smiled.
“That was Matteo.”
“Difference without meaning.”
“Perhaps.”
Isabella spoke suddenly.
“Gabriel, don’t—”
Thomas struck her across the face.
Sadi flinched.
Gabriel’s expression did not change.
That was worse.
Thomas said, “Midnight.”
The screen went black.
Gabriel stood.
Enzo said, “It’s a trap.”
“Obviously.”
“We can’t take the ledger.”
“We won’t.”
Mateo looked at him.
“Then what?”
Gabriel looked toward Sadi.
“We give Thomas what he thinks he wants.”
Sadi stared.
“No.”
Gabriel raised an eyebrow.
“You don’t know my plan.”
“I know that look.”
“What look?”
“The one men get right before they do something incredibly stupid and call it strategy.”
Enzo looked away again.
Gabriel stepped closer.
“This began because you protected someone weaker than you.”
“Lucia.”
“And now my sister needs the same thing.”
Sadi’s anger softened.
“That doesn’t mean you get yourself killed.”
“No.”
He looked down at her.
“It means I need someone Thomas will underestimate.”
Sadi understood.
“You want me inside.”
“No.”
“Then what?”
Gabriel almost smiled.
“I want you somewhere far more dangerous.”
At 11:42 p.m., they approached the abandoned Falcone Grand Hotel.
Broken windows rose above the street like dark eyes.
Gabriel was beside Sadi in the rear SUV.
His arm rested in a sling.
His face had become pale again.
“You can still stay in the car,” he said.
“You can still go back to bed.”
“Fair.”
Enzo’s voice came through the radio.
“Movement. Upper floor.”
Mateo answered from another vehicle.
“Thermal shows at least twelve.”
Gabriel looked at Sadi.
“Remember the plan.”
“I remember.”
“Do not improvise.”
“You say that like you’ve met me.”
The smallest smile.
Then the radio cracked.
Mateo’s voice disappeared beneath static.
A second later, every vehicle’s headlights died.
The streetlights went black.
Sadi looked toward the abandoned hotel.
One window on the fourth floor suddenly illuminated.
Isabella stood behind the glass.
A gun was pressed against her head.
Then another figure stepped beside her.
Sadi stopped breathing.
May you like
Her mother had been dead for four years.
But the woman standing in the window looked exactly like Elena Moreno.
