Chapter 9 - My Brother’s Confession
Every surviving gun turned toward Luca.
He looked at the detonator in his hand as though he had only just discovered it there.
“I didn’t take Maeve.”
Elena stepped behind me.
“You told the men where Mommy was.”
Luca’s face hardened.
“I told them where the tunnel exited.”
“That is the same thing,” I said.
“No. It isn’t.”
I crossed the courtyard.
Enzo shouted for me to stop.
I didn’t.
I struck Luca hard enough to throw him against the stone fountain. The detonator fell into the grass.
He did not fight back.
I hit him again.
“Where is she?”
“I don’t know.”
Another punch.
“Where?”
“Damon took her!”
“You helped him.”
“Yes!”
The word tore from him.
Elena flinched.
Luca wiped blood from his mouth.
“I gave them the tunnel because Damon said he would take Maeve and leave the girl.”
“You believed him?”
“I had no choice.”
“There is always a choice.”
“Not when they have your son.”
The courtyard went silent.
Luca had never married.
He had no children that I knew of.
He leaned against the fountain, breathing hard.
“His name is Gabriel. He is six years old.”
“Who is the mother?”
“Anna Velez.”
I knew the name. A federal prosecutor who had built her reputation destroying organized crime families.
She had disappeared from public life two years earlier after an alleged breakdown.
“You had a child with a prosecutor.”
“I had a child with a woman.”
“And you hid him from me.”
“Look at what happens to children around us.”
His eyes moved toward Elena.
The accusation landed.
“Damon found them three weeks ago,” Luca continued. “He sent me a video of Gabriel sleeping. He said if I did not cooperate, my son would disappear before Anna woke.”
“So you betrayed the estate.”
“I gave them limited access. I delayed their teams. I made sure Elena could escape.”
“You let them take Maeve.”
“I thought they already knew she was the only one who could confirm the rhyme.”
“Elena knows it.”
“They don’t know that yet.”
Elena gripped my coat.
Luca looked at her.
“I am sorry.”
She said nothing.
Children understand apologies better than adults. They know when the words are intended to heal and when they are intended to lessen guilt.
“We find Gabriel,” I said.
Luca stared at me.
“You believe me?”
“No. But if a child is in danger, I don’t need to believe you.”
We moved into the underground command room beneath the estate.
Half the security network had been destroyed, but one external camera captured a van leaving the northern road after the attack.
Enzo traced its plate through traffic cameras.
The vehicle traveled west, disappeared beneath the Harbor Tunnel, then reappeared near an abandoned private school owned by a Bellini foundation.
Saint Agatha’s Academy.
Luca recognized it immediately.
“Anna attended school there.”
“Damon likes symbols,” Enzo said.
“No,” Maeve had once told me. “Criminals hide in innocent places.”
We assembled eight men.
Elena refused to remain at the damaged estate.
I assigned two guards to take her to Café Nate’s secure basement.
Before she left, she handed me the lion ring.
“You came back.”
“I said I would.”
“Bring Mommy back too.”
I put the ring on.
“I will.”
Saint Agatha’s sat behind iron gates in a wealthy suburb. The school had closed after a mold outbreak, though the grounds remained maintained.
We entered through the chapel.
No guards.
No cameras.
Too easy.
In the basement, we found Anna Velez tied to a chair.
Luca ran toward her.
A wire tightened beneath his shoe.
I grabbed his coat and pulled him back before the pressure trigger activated.
Enzo disarmed it.
Anna’s face was bruised, but she was conscious.
“Gabriel,” Luca said. “Where is he?”
Her eyes filled.
“They took him yesterday.”
“Where?”
“I don’t know.”
I cut her bindings.
“Did you see Maeve O’Shea?”
“No.”
A child’s cry echoed through the heating vents.
Luca ran toward the sound.
This time I followed.
We found Gabriel inside an old music room, sitting beneath a grand piano. He wore blue pajamas and held a wooden horse against his chest.
“Daddy?”
Luca dropped to his knees.
The transformation was immediate.
The careful businessman vanished. The jealous brother vanished. What remained was a terrified father touching his child’s face to make sure he was real.
Gabriel wrapped his arms around him.
“I knew you’d come.”
A speaker clicked above us.
Damon’s voice filled the room.
“And now the family is complete.”
Metal shutters slammed over every window.
Gas hissed from the ventilation system.
Anna began coughing.
Enzo shot the speaker.
“Find the source!”
I lifted Gabriel while Luca kicked open the maintenance panel.
Inside was a cylinder marked with an industrial nerve-agent warning.
We had less than a minute.
Anna pointed toward the piano.
“There’s an old coal chute behind it.”
We pushed the instrument aside and found a narrow opening in the wall.
Enzo went first.
Anna followed with Gabriel.
Luca climbed in next.
As I turned to enter, the music-room door opened.
Damon Crowe stood on the other side wearing a respirator.
He held Maeve by the hair.
Her hands were bound.
“Marco,” she cried.
Damon pressed a knife against her throat.
“Give me the ledger.”
I raised my pistol.
He smiled behind the mask.
May you like
Then Maeve shouted the words that changed the war.
“Don’t trust Enzo!”
