Chapter 4 - Blood Between Brothers
Julian Romano leaned against the doorway, one hand pressed to his side.
Blood soaked through his white shirt.
Marcus kept his weapon trained on him.
Adrien crossed the room.
“What happened?”
Julian laughed weakly.
“Good to see you too.”
Adrien pulled Julian’s hand away and examined the wound. A bullet had entered below the ribs and passed through the side.
“Who shot you?”
“Your hospitality committee.”
“Names.”
“Two men in the underground garage. I recognized one from Bell’s private security team. The other was wearing a police badge.”
Marcus swore under his breath.
Adrien supported Julian as they moved him to a chair.
The relationship between the Romano brothers had never been simple.
Julian was six years younger, brilliant, charming, and reckless. Where Adrien ruled through silence, Julian used smiles. He ran several legitimate Romano businesses and claimed he wanted nothing to do with the criminal empire.
Adrien had never fully believed him.
Dr. Chen was called from Maria’s cottage. He removed torn fabric, cleaned the wound, and confirmed the bullet had missed vital organs.
“You were lucky,” he said.
Julian’s face tightened.
“Luck and I have an arrangement.”
While the doctor worked, Adrien replayed the recording.
Their father’s voice filled the hidden room.
“The Cardinal is not an outsider. He has lived under our protection for years. He listens through walls, buys men who believe they cannot be bought, and feeds information to both the government and our enemies. Your mother discovered his network. That is why she died.”
Adrien stopped the recording.
Their mother’s death had been ruled an accident. Her car had left an icy road seven years earlier and plunged into Lake Michigan.
Adrien had always suspected otherwise.
Across the room, Julian looked away.
“You knew,” Adrien said.
“No.”
“You reacted before the recording finished.”
Julian’s jaw tightened.
“I knew she had been afraid before she died.”
“How?”
“She called me.”
Adrien stared at him.
“She called you?”
“The night before the crash.”
“And you never told me.”
“I was twenty-four. She was crying. I had never heard her cry.” Julian swallowed. “She told me someone close to the family had been watching her. She said she had hidden evidence and that I was not to trust anyone.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Because the last thing she said was not to trust you.”
The room went silent.
Even Marcus lowered his gaze.
Adrien felt the words settle like ice inside his chest.
“Explain.”
“She said, ‘Adrien is surrounded. Until you know who controls the house, do not tell him anything.’ I believed she meant telling you would put you in danger.”
“You let me believe she lost control of the car.”
“I spent seven years trying to find proof.”
“And what did you find?”
Julian looked toward the photographs.
“Victor Bell.”
Adrien glanced at Bell’s files.
“You knew Bell was involved?”
“I suspected him. Three months ago, I intercepted payments from a Romano shell company to a security consultancy registered under Bell’s cousin. Every payment matched one of your travel dates.”
“Why didn’t you come to me?”
“Because I didn’t know who else was involved.”
Julian’s eyes moved to Marcus.
Marcus’s face hardened.
“You accusing me?”
“I’m accusing everyone.”
Adrien stepped between them.
“What brought you here tonight?”
Julian reached inside his jacket and removed a small flash drive.
“Bell contacted me six hours ago. He said he had proof our mother was alive after the crash.”
Adrien’s expression froze.
“That is impossible.”
“He sent me a photograph.”
Julian connected the drive to the room’s computer.
A grainy image appeared on the screen.
It showed a hospital corridor. The timestamp was dated three days after their mother’s reported death.
A woman sat in a wheelchair near an elevator, her face partly turned away. A bandage covered her head, but the profile was unmistakable.
Elena Romano.
Their mother.
Adrien moved closer to the screen.
The woman wore the same silver cross she had worn since childhood.
The necklace had never been recovered from the lake.
“Where was this taken?” Adrien asked.
“St. Catherine’s Medical Center. The old private wing.”
“That facility closed eight years ago.”
“Officially.”
Adrien examined the metadata.
The image had been copied repeatedly, but the original source appeared to be an internal hospital camera.
“Bell told me to meet him in the garage,” Julian said. “He promised to show me the rest. Instead, his men tried to kill me.”
Marcus looked at the photograph.
“This could be fabricated.”
“It could,” Julian said. “But the necklace isn’t.”
Adrien’s father’s recording continued automatically.
“If Elena survives, the Cardinal will hide her where the Romano name cannot reach. He needs her alive because she knows the identity of his political partners.”
Adrien turned toward the machine.
“If she survives.”
Julian stood despite the doctor’s protest.
“There’s another file.”
He opened a folder marked PATIENT E.
Inside were medical reports, sedative orders, and handwritten notes spanning seven years.
The latest entry was dated six days earlier.
SUBJECT REMAINS STABLE. MEMORY FRAGMENTATION CONTINUES. TRANSFER AUTHORIZED.
Destination: Saint Orison Behavioral Center.
Adrien knew the name. Saint Orison was a private psychiatric institution in northern Wisconsin, known for treating wealthy patients under sealed identities.
Julian pointed to the bottom of the transfer order.
The authorization bore a signature.
Dr. Samuel Romano.
Their uncle.
The man who had helped raise them after their father’s death.
The man currently serving as Adrien’s chief financial adviser.
Adrien looked at Marcus.
“Find Samuel.”
Marcus checked his phone.
“He left Chicago this morning.”
“For where?”
“No flight records.”
Julian gave a bitter laugh.
“He knew you were coming home.”
Adrien returned to the audio recorder.
His father’s voice had become strained, as though he had made the recording while injured.
“One final warning. The Cardinal does not want the empire. He wants the Romano bloodline to destroy itself. He will turn brother against brother, son against mother, and loyalty into suspicion.”
The recording ended.
Then the computer screen flickered.
A live video feed opened without anyone touching the keyboard.
Maria’s cottage appeared.
The medical bed was empty.
Dr. Chen lay unconscious on the floor.
Lucia’s teddy bear rested beside him.
A man wearing a black mask stepped into view, holding Lucia against his chest.
The child’s mouth was covered with tape.
He raised a card toward the camera.
BRING THE KEY TO ST. ORISON.
COME ALONE.
Then a second figure dragged Maria into view.
May you like
The masked man placed a knife against her throat.
And behind him, on the cottage wall, someone had painted a red cardinal with its wings spread wide.
