Chapter 6 - The One Person Damen Could Not Command
Elena woke in the back seat of a moving car.
Her wrists were bound.
Her mouth was not.
That told her something immediately.
Russo wanted conversation.
Rain streamed across the windows.
Mercer sat opposite her.
His lower lip was split.
Apparently someone had hit him during the confusion at Veil House.
Elena hoped it had hurt.
Russo sat beside him.
Calm again.
That frightened her more than anger would have.
“Where are we going?”
Russo looked out the window.
“To tell you the part Vincent omitted.”
“I’m not interested.”
“You should be.”
“My mother is dead.”
“Yes.”
“My father is dead.”
“Yes.”
“Vincent is dead.”
Russo looked at her.
“Yes.”
“And somehow you’re still talking.”
Mercer leaned forward.
“Watch your mouth.”
Elena smiled.
“Damen said the same thing to you.”
Mercer’s face tightened.
Russo almost laughed.
“Now I understand why Vincent liked you.”
“I don’t care whether he liked me.”
“No.”
Russo studied her.
“But you care whether he betrayed your mother.”
That found its mark.
Elena looked away.
Russo knew it.
“Vincent did give my father Marina’s location.”
Her stomach turned.
“Why?”
“Because Carlo had threatened Damen.”
Elena looked back.
Russo continued.
“Damen was 6 years old. You were an infant. Carlo told Vincent that if Marina testified, both children would die.”
Elena’s anger collided with confusion.
“So Vincent traded my mother?”
“He tried to frighten her into leaving.”
“But she didn’t.”
“No.”
“Then what happened?”
Russo’s face became unreadable.
“My father found her first.”
Elena stared.
“That still makes Vincent responsible.”
“Yes.”
Russo did not defend him.
That surprised her.
“My father was a monster,” Russo said.
“Then why become him?”
Something moved behind his eyes.
“Careful.”
“You’ve already kidnapped me.”
“Temporarily.”
“That is an impressive word for a felony.”
Mercer laughed despite himself.
Russo turned sharply.
The laugh died.
Elena filed the reaction away.
Damen had been right.
Men revealed themselves when pride was irritated.
She looked at Mercer.
“Why are you helping him?”
“Shut up.”
“Money?”
Mercer stared out the window.
“Fear?”
Nothing.
“Or did he promise you Damen’s position?”
Mercer’s eyes snapped toward her.
There.
Russo saw it too.
His expression hardened.
Elena understood.
The alliance was weak.
Good.
She could use weak.
At Veil House, Damen had the opposite problem.
For the first time since inheriting the organization, control abandoned him completely.
He wanted every car searched.
Every building opened.
Every man loyal to Russo dragged into daylight.
Gabriel refused.
“No.”
Damen turned slowly.
“What did you say?”
“I said no.”
“Careful, Gabriel.”
“Your father paid me to be careful. You kept me because I tell you when you’re becoming stupid.”
Damen stared at him.
Four guards remained nearby.
None looked comfortable.
“Russo has Elena.”
“Yes.”
“Then we find him.”
“We will.”
“Now.”
“And if you tear apart the city publicly, Russo knows Elena matters more than the ledger.”
“She matters more than the ledger.”
Gabriel went silent.
Damen heard his own words.
Too late to take them back.
Gabriel’s expression changed.
“Then act like it.”
“What does that mean?”
“It means don’t turn her into the pressure point Russo wants.”
Damen looked toward the door.
“What do we know?”
Gabriel placed photographs on the table.
“Russo owns 4 properties through intermediaries. Mercer controls 3 warehouses. We’re checking all of them.”
“What about the vehicle?”
“Switched twice.”
“Phones?”
“Off.”
Damen slammed a hand against the table.
Gabriel waited.
Then quietly said, “There is one way.”
“What?”
“The ledger.”
Damen’s eyes narrowed.
“Russo thinks Elena knows where it is.”
“She doesn’t.”
“Exactly.”
Gabriel pulled out a chair.
“If Russo needs information she doesn’t possess, he has to communicate.”
“Unless he hurts her.”
Gabriel looked at him.
“He may.”
The words almost broke something in Damen.
Gabriel did not soften them.
“That’s why we need you thinking, not raging.”
Damen turned away.
On the desk sat Elena’s leather notebook.
She had left it during the confrontation.
He opened it.
Appointments.
Shipping schedules.
Birthday reminders.
His father’s medical appointments.
Three years of other people’s lives written in Elena’s precise hand.
Then he reached the final pages.
Something had been added.
A list.
Six captain names.
Beside each, small notes.
Bellini — avoids Russo when inheritance discussed.
Torres — angry at Mercer.
Creed — frightened by Elena identity reveal.
Alvarez — genuine surprise.
Mercer — watching Russo before answering.
Russo — expected trust valuation.
Damen stared.
She had profiled the entire room during the confrontation.
Even while learning her family history.
He almost smiled.
Then he turned another page.
A note in Elena’s handwriting.
If something happens to me, Russo is not the only problem.
Below it were 2 initials.
O.C.
Owen Creed.
Damen called Gabriel.
“Where’s Creed?”
“At home, supposedly.”
“Bring him.”
Thirty minutes later, Creed sat in my father’s study.
Sweat covered his forehead.
Damen placed Elena’s notebook in front of him.
“She noticed you.”
Creed said nothing.
“Why were you frightened?”
“I wasn’t.”
“Wrong answer.”
Creed swallowed.
Damen leaned closer.
“Russo kidnapped a member of my family from my house.”
There it was again.
Family.
This time it came without hesitation.
“Tell me what you know.”
Creed looked at Gabriel.
Then at the guards.
“Protection.”
“You have it.”
“From Russo?”
“If you tell the truth.”
Creed closed his eyes.
“Mercer poisoned Vincent.”
The room went still.
“How?”
“I don’t know the chemical.”
Damen’s voice dropped.
“You’re lying.”
“I swear. Russo arranged it. Mercer got access through the private dining staff.”
“Why?”
“Because Vincent had discovered the offshore accounts. He was going to remove Russo and Mercer at the winter council.”
Damen looked at Gabriel.
“Motive.”
Creed nodded desperately.
“But there’s more.”
“What?”
“Vincent knew they might kill him.”
“We know.”
“No.”
Creed shook his head.
“You don’t understand.”
He leaned forward.
“He wanted them to.”
Damen stared at him.
“What?”
“He knew Russo was planning something. He refused to increase security. Said if Russo moved, he could finally expose everyone connected to him.”
Gabriel looked sick.
Vincent Vale had used his own death as bait.
Even for him, that was extreme.
“Where would Russo take Elena?”
“I don’t know.”
Damen grabbed Creed by the jacket.
“Where?”
“I don’t know!”
Creed panicked.
“But Mercer does!”
Damen released him.
Creed coughed.
“Mercer has a cabin near Blackwater Reservoir. Nobody uses it except him.”
Gabriel was already moving.
Then Damen’s phone rang.
Unknown number.
He answered.
Russo.
“Damen.”
“Put Elena on.”
“You always did skip greetings.”
“Put her on.”
Silence.
Then Elena’s voice.
“Damen?”
His entire body tightened.
“Are you hurt?”
“No.”
A lie.
He could hear it.
Russo returned.
“She wants the truth about her mother.”
“She gets the truth when she comes home.”
“That depends on you.”
“What do you want?”
“The ledger.”
Of course.
“Where?”
“Old North Freight Terminal. Midnight.”
Damen looked at Gabriel.
Gabriel shook his head.
Trap.
Damen knew.
Russo knew he knew.
None of it mattered.
“Let me speak to her again.”
Russo hesitated.
Then Elena came back.
“Damen.”
“I’m coming.”
“No.”
His eyes closed.
“Elena.”
“No.”
Her voice became harder.
“He wants the ledger because it proves something. Do not trade it.”
“I am not negotiating this with you.”
“Yes, you are.”
Even kidnapped, she was arguing with him.
A strange, painful laugh nearly escaped him.
“Elena—”
“Listen to me.”
He did.
“There’s another copy.”
Damen froze.
“What?”
Russo shouted in the background.
The line crackled.
Elena spoke quickly.
“My father said he kept a duplicate.”
“We found the one in the dollhouse.”
“No.”
Her breathing came faster.
“He said Marina had part of it and he kept a duplicate.”
Damen understood.
The dollhouse ledger might have been Dominic’s.
But Marina’s copy was somewhere else.
Russo still did not have everything.
“Elena, where?”
“I think—”
The line went dead.
Damen stared at the phone.
Then at the photograph of Marina and Isabella.
His mother.
Marina.
Two women protecting children.
One had died.
One had lived another decade.
And suddenly he remembered something from childhood.
His mother had owned a blue music box.
She never let anyone touch it.
After she died, Vincent had locked it away.
Damen looked at Gabriel.
“My mother’s belongings.”
“What?”
“The blue music box.”
Gabriel’s face changed.
“You think Marina gave the ledger to Isabella?”
“I think my mother kept a secret for 29 years.”
They found the box inside a bank vault owned under Isabella’s maiden name.
Inside was no ledger.
Only a key.
And a note.
Written by Marina Marlo.
If my daughter ever needs the truth, take her where the Vale name first began.
Damen knew exactly where that was.
Not Veil House.
Not the docks.
The Vale name had begun in America inside a small grocery store in Brooklyn owned by his grandfather before the money, before the syndicate, before the blood.
The building still existed.
Damen closed his hand around the key.
Russo had Elena.
But Elena had just given him the clue that could destroy Russo permanently.
May you like
And at midnight, Russo expected Damen to arrive with a ledger.
Instead, Damen intended to bring him the end of the Veil as he knew it.
