Chapter 5 - Someone Inside the Family
Gabriel Moretti stepped into the camera frame.
Adrian did not breathe.
For twenty years, his brother had existed only in fragments of childhood memory.
A hand pulling him from deep water.
A laugh in the kitchen.
A seventeen-year-old boy teaching him how to throw a punch without breaking his thumb.
Then a funeral.
Two coffins.
One containing their father.
One supposedly containing what remained of Gabriel.
Now the dead man smiled through Clara's tablet.
"You're difficult to surprise, Adrian."
Adrian moved toward the screen.
"Where is Elena?"
Gabriel laughed.
"Still rescuing employees before family. Father would be proud."
"What do you want?"
"You know."
"The company?"
"Our company."
Adrian's voice hardened.
"You've been alive for twenty years."
"So have you."
"You let us bury you."
"I watched from a distance."
Dominic stepped into view.
"Gabriel."
Gabriel's smile vanished.
"Uncle."
Dominic looked shattered.
"I searched for you."
"No. You searched for a body."
"I thought—"
"You thought what Carlo told you to think."
Vivienne stiffened.
Clara caught it.
"Your father helped him disappear," she said.
Gabriel looked toward the camera.
"Ah. Clara Bennett."
Her stomach tightened.
"Nice to finally meet you."
"Can't say the same."
He smiled.
"I understand why Adrian likes you."
Adrian looked at Clara.
She ignored it.
"Why did you send me the complete document packet?"
Gabriel's smile faded.
"Who says I did?"
Clara stopped.
He hadn't.
Someone else had.
Gabriel continued.
"I wanted you to review the harmless version. Find nothing. Approve everything. Collect your fee."
"Then somebody sabotaged your sabotage."
His eyes narrowed.
"Apparently."
Clara looked toward Elena.
The analyst's eyes were open.
Watching.
Trying to communicate.
Her right hand rested against the chair.
Two fingers.
Pause.
Three.
Pause.
One.
Clara memorized it.
2-3-1.
"Release her," Adrian said.
"Tomorrow night."
"Now."
"Sign first."
"If I sign, Bellandi controls forty-eight percent."
"For six months."
"Combined with Orpheus."
Gabriel smiled.
"Now you're learning."
"Why help Bellandi take our company?"
Gabriel leaned toward the camera.
"Because he already took my life."
Adrian's expression shifted.
"What does that mean?"
Gabriel looked away.
"For twenty years I have waited for Carlo Bellandi to believe he won."
Vivienne whispered, "You're using my father."
Gabriel laughed.
"Your father has been using everyone since before you learned to spell his name."
Clara understood.
"This isn't a takeover."
Gabriel looked at her.
"No?"
"It's a trap for Bellandi."
His smile returned.
"Very good."
Adrian's eyes narrowed.
"Using my company as bait."
"Our company."
"You lost the right to call it that."
Gabriel's expression turned cold.
"Father didn't think so."
The feed ended.
Elena disappeared.
The room remained silent.
Clara looked down.
2-3-1.
What did it mean?
She returned to the contract.
Page two.
Line three.
Word one.
Nothing useful.
Second file.
Third page.
First line.
Still nothing.
Then she remembered Elena's earlier coordinate system.
2-3-1 might refer to documents.
Document two.
Page three.
Line one.
She opened the original packet.
Document two was the corporate structure chart.
Page three.
First line:
WAREHOUSE 14 — RED HOOK.
Clara looked up.
"I know where Elena is."
Adrian was already reaching for his jacket.
"No."
He stopped.
Clara enlarged the line.
"Warehouse 14 belongs to a subsidiary sold eighteen months ago."
"To whom?"
She checked.
"Orpheus."
Adrian called his security chief.
"Get the cars."
Dominic stepped forward.
"It's a trap."
"Obviously."
"Then don't go."
Adrian looked at him.
"Elena spent eleven months in captivity because she tried to protect this family."
"You don't know she's there."
Clara closed the laptop.
"I do."
Everyone looked at her.
"She gave us the location."
Adrian's gaze held hers.
"You're staying here."
Clara almost smiled.
"No."
"This isn't a negotiation."
"Then you're having it with yourself."
"Clara."
"Elena used a document code. You need someone who understands the documents."
"I need you alive."
The words came out before he could stop them.
Silence.
Vivienne looked between them.
Dominic raised an eyebrow.
Clara felt heat rise into her face.
She chose to ignore it.
"Then don't let me die."
Twenty minutes later, they were in two black SUVs heading toward Red Hook.
Clara sat beside Adrian.
He had changed.
Not physically.
Something behind his eyes.
"Tell me about Gabriel," she said.
"No."
"That wasn't a suggestion."
He looked at her.
"Do you speak to everyone like this?"
"Only billionaires who confuse analysts with brides."
A tiny smile touched his mouth.
Then disappeared.
"Gabriel was seventeen when the car exploded. I was thirteen."
"You saw it?"
"No."
"Then why believe he died?"
"Because my mother identified his ring."
Clara frowned.
"Not his body."
"No."
"What happened before the crash?"
Adrian looked out the window.
"My father and Gabriel fought."
"About?"
"I never knew."
Clara thought of the foundation.
Orpheus.
Bellandi.
Maybe Gabriel had learned something.
The convoy turned toward the waterfront.
Adrian's phone rang.
His security chief.
"We're two minutes out."
The vehicles stopped behind an abandoned warehouse.
No lights.
No movement.
Adrian looked at Clara.
"Stay behind me."
She didn't argue this time.
Inside, the warehouse smelled of rust and seawater.
They found the chair immediately.
Empty.
Ropes on the floor.
Blood on one armrest.
Clara's stomach tightened.
"Elena?"
No answer.
A television switched on.
Gabriel appeared.
"Predictable, little brother."
Adrian stared at the screen.
"Where is she?"
"Closer than you think."
The screen went black.
Then lights snapped on deeper inside the warehouse.
A woman stood behind a glass partition.
Elena.
Alive.
Adrian moved.
Clara caught his arm.
"Wait."
He looked at her.
She pointed down.
A thin red beam crossed the floor.
Then another.
Trip sensors.
"Don't move."
Elena began shaking her head violently.
She pointed behind them.
Clara turned.
The warehouse door slammed shut.
Locks engaged.
A mechanical hum started overhead.
Adrian looked up.
Clara smelled something.
Gasoline.
Then Elena screamed through the glass.
Not at Adrian.
At Clara.
"THE TABLET!"
Clara looked down.
Her tablet screen had turned on by itself.
A countdown appeared.
00:30.
00:29.
00:28.
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And beneath it:
CHOOSE WHICH MORETTI HEIR LEAVES ALIVE.
