Chapter 5 - The Snake in the Garden
The rain drummed relentless against the windowpanes as the reality of her words began to settle into my chest like liquid lead.
"Valerie... was killed in the hospital?" I whispered, my thumb remaining frozen on the hammer of my gun. "I identified her body at the crash site. The vehicle burned—"
"You identified a body that was burned beyond recognition wearing her wedding ring," Clara interrupted softly, taking one small step closer, her hands still raised. "My uncle Julian was the chief medical examiner on duty that night. He was forced at gunpoint to sign the falsified autopsy report by the man who arranged the hit."
"Who?" I growled, the gun shaking slightly in my grip as rage, pure and blinding, threatened to tear through my composure.
"Your wife knew she was being targeted, Vincent," Clara said, using my first name for the first time. "She created an emergency trust fund six months before the attack—Valerie Holdings. She gave my uncle the cryptographic key and told him that if anything happened to her, he had to use that money to secure a safe house for Matteo and find someone outside your security team who could protect him from the inside."
"Why didn't your uncle come to me?!" I demanded.
"Because the man who stood beside you in the morgue... the man who managed your security feeds... the man who installed those hidden cameras in your house... was the one who paid the hitmen!" Clara's voice broke in a quiet, fierce whisper. "My uncle tried to contact you three weeks after the funeral. He was pushed off a subway platform in Boston before he could reach your office!"
A cold realization struck me with the force of a physical blow.
Dominic.
Dominic had installed the surveillance system. Dominic had managed the security routes the day the bomb went off. Dominic had been the one who handled Valerie’s estate liquidation. And Dominic was the one who had just spent thirty minutes down in the vault 'discovering' the Swiss wire transfer to lead me straight into a confrontation with Clara.
Before I could speak, a sharp, metallic click echoed from the doorway behind me.
"Drop the gun, Vincent," a heavy, familiar voice ordered from the darkness of the hallway.
I didn't turn around immediately. I looked at Clara, seeing the reflection of the doorway in her wide, grey eyes.
Dominic stood in the threshold, wearing his rain-soaked tactical jacket. In his gloved hand, he held a silenced submachine gun pointed directly at my spine.
"You always were too smart for your own good, Vincent," Dominic said softly, his voice devoid of the warm, brotherly loyalty he had feigned for twenty years. "I told you not to look into the girl. I told you to let me handle it."
"You killed Valerie," I said, my voice dropping into a register so low it didn't sound human. I didn't drop my pistol. I kept it aimed at the floor near Clara's feet.
"Valerie was going to hand our entire eastern distribution network over to the federal prosecutors in exchange for immunity for your son," Dominic sneered, stepping into the bedroom. "She was weak. Just like you became weak after the kid got hurt. Look at you... sitting in a dark basement watching monitors while the Morettis take over three of our shipping docks every month."
"And the car bomb?" I asked quietly. "Matteo was in that car, Dominic. You raised that boy."
"Collateral damage," Dominic shrugged, his eyes cold and empty as river stones. "The kid was supposed to die with her. It would have been cleaner. You would have gone to war with the Morettis, destroyed them, destroyed yourself, and left me to clean up the assets. But the boy survived, and you turned this place into a fortress."
He raised the submachine gun to level with my head. "Now, drop the weapon, Vincent. Or I put a bullet through the girl first, then you, and we tell the police she was a Moretti assassin who broke in."
May you like
From the bed behind us, a small, trembling voice cut through the heavy silence of the room.
"Dad?"
