Chapter 3 - The Uncle Who Never Died
Victor Vale looked older than the portrait Elena remembered.
But unmistakably alive.
His hair had gone mostly silver.
A narrow scar crossed his left cheek.
He wore a charcoal suit without a tie and held no visible weapon.
That somehow made him more frightening.
Dominic stepped in front of Elena.
Victor smiled.
"Still protective."
Marco raised his gun.
Victor looked at him.
"You were always loyal, Marco."
"Hands where I can see them."
"They already are."
Victor slowly lifted both palms.
Luca appeared behind Marco.
Three weapons aimed at him.
Victor seemed bored.
Dominic spoke.
"You died."
"So did your mother."
Dominic moved before anyone could react.
He crossed the room and drove Victor against the wall.
The older man's head struck plaster.
Elena had never seen that expression on her husband's face.
Pure rage.
"Dominic!" she shouted.
He froze.
Victor laughed quietly.
"There she is."
Dominic's grip tightened.
"Don't look at her."
"Gabriel's daughter."
Dominic shoved him harder.
"Say her name and you lose your ability to speak."
Victor's smile faded slightly.
Elena stepped forward.
"My father knew you."
Victor turned his eyes toward her.
"Your father ruined everything."
Dominic drew back his fist.
Elena caught his arm.
"No."
He looked at her.
"We need answers."
Victor studied them.
Then something almost amused crossed his face.
"Interesting."
Dominic released him.
Marco searched Victor and found a small folding knife, a phone, and an old brass key.
"No gun," Marco said.
Victor straightened his jacket.
"I wasn't here to kill anyone."
"Then why?" Elena asked.
"Because Sofia's tape was activated."
Dominic looked toward the recorder.
"Activated?"
Victor nodded toward the cassette machine.
"That isn't just a recorder. Gabriel modified it. When the tape plays, it closes a circuit."
Marco inspected the device.
His expression darkened.
"He's right."
"A signal?" Dominic asked.
"Probably."
Victor smiled.
"Now they know you found the room."
Dominic's eyes narrowed.
"They?"
Victor finally looked serious.
"The people I disappeared from."
Elena shook her head.
"You expect us to believe you're the victim?"
"No." Victor smiled faintly. "I expect my nephew to believe I'm a liar."
"Good expectation."
Victor leaned against the desk.
"Sofia suspected me because she saw me meeting someone privately."
"Who?"
"Gabriel."
Elena's heart jumped.
Victor continued.
"Your father and I discovered money disappearing through Vale shipping routes. We believed someone was financing a separate organization."
Dominic stared.
"My mother said you betrayed her."
"She saw half the story."
"You let her die."
Victor's face changed.
"No."
It was the first word he spoke without calculation.
"I tried to get her out."
Dominic laughed once.
There was no humor in it.
"Convenient."
"Ask Gabriel."
"He's dead."
"Exactly."
Elena stepped closer.
"How did my father die?"
Victor looked at her for several seconds.
"Not from a heart attack."
The words struck her harder than expected.
She had suspected it since seeing the envelope.
Hearing it still hurt.
"Who killed him?"
"I don't know."
Dominic scoffed.
Victor ignored him.
"Gabriel discovered the identity of the person controlling the money. Before he could tell me, he disappeared for two days. When he returned, he refused to meet again."
"Why?"
"He had a daughter."
Elena's throat tightened.
Victor looked directly at her.
"You."
Dominic shifted closer.
Victor continued.
"Someone threatened you. Gabriel walked away from everything."
Elena remembered the final year of her father's life.
How he checked the locks twice.
How he insisted she text when she got home.
How he suddenly sold a warehouse he'd owned for decades.
She had thought grief over her mother's earlier death had made him anxious.
Maybe not.
Dominic spoke.
"Who sent the envelope tonight?"
Victor shook his head.
"Not me."
"Who took the photograph?"
"I don't know."
"You're doing poorly."
"Then kill me and stay ignorant."
Marco looked at Dominic.
Dominic's face revealed nothing.
Elena understood why everyone feared him.
His anger had disappeared.
That was worse.
He became completely calm.
"Sit."
Victor sat.
Dominic pulled out the opposite chair.
"You have five minutes."
Victor folded his hands.
"The organization began before your father took control. Someone inside the Vale network created private accounts, transportation routes, politicians, police officers, judges."
Dominic said, "Nothing new."
"It is when you realize those people don't work for you."
Silence.
Victor continued.
"They've allowed you to believe you're running the city."
Dominic's expression didn't change.
"But?"
"They've been using your infrastructure."
"For what?"
"Information. Leverage. Smuggling. Election money. Corporate extortion."
Elena looked at Dominic.
He seemed unsurprised by the crimes.
Only by the scale.
Victor leaned forward.
"Sofia discovered it."
"Then why did she accuse you?"
"Because the person responsible showed her photographs of Gabriel and me meeting."
Dominic looked at the cassette.
"She made this before she died."
"Yes."
"Meaning she believed it."
"Yes."
"Meaning you failed to warn her."
Victor's eyes lowered.
"Yes."
That answer mattered.
No excuse.
No denial.
Dominic stood.
"Who leads them now?"
Victor met his eyes.
"I only know the title."
"What title?"
"The Steward."
Marco swore quietly.
Elena frowned.
"What does that mean?"
Victor answered.
"The person who decides which families rise and which families disappear."
Dominic's mouth twisted.
"Sounds theatrical."
"You would think so."
Victor looked toward Elena.
"Until they choose your wife."
Dominic crossed the room so quickly the chair fell backward.
Victor didn't flinch.
"I warned you," Dominic said.
"I'm telling you why tonight happened."
"Explain."
"The photograph wasn't sent to reveal Gabriel."
Victor pointed toward Elena.
"It was sent to make you doubt her."
Dominic stared.
Victor continued.
"They know your weakness now."
Dominic glanced at Elena.
She felt it before he said anything.
The car.
His head on her lap.
The photograph taken from behind their own security line.
Someone had watched them.
Someone had seen the softness nobody else had seen.
Victor spoke quietly.
"They don't attack powerful men where they're strongest."
Elena looked at him.
"They attack what they love."
Nobody spoke.
Dominic reached for Elena's hand.
Victor saw it.
"There. That."
Dominic's grip tightened.
Victor continued.
"You built an empire that survives bullets, investigations, competitors and betrayal. But you never built one that survives caring about someone."
Elena hated the truth inside those words.
Dominic suddenly turned toward Marco.
"Change every security protocol."
"Already doing it."
"Nobody outside this room knows where we go."
Marco nodded.
Victor gave a small laugh.
"Too late."
Luca looked at him.
"Why?"
Victor pointed toward the recorder.
"The signal."
Marco pulled the cassette machine apart.
Beneath the battery compartment, he found a transmitter.
A tiny green light blinked.
"They know we're here," he said.
Dominic took Elena's hand.
"Move."
Everyone reacted immediately.
Marco went first.
Luca covered the rear.
They crossed the abandoned restaurant quickly.
Outside, the rain had become heavier.
The vehicles waited.
Dominic stopped.
Something was wrong.
Elena saw it too.
The driver's door of their sedan stood open.
No driver.
Marco approached carefully.
Blood marked the pavement.
Not much.
A trail.
It led toward an alley.
Dominic didn't follow.
"Trap."
Luca checked the SUVs.
"Disabled."
"How?"
"Electronic system."
Victor appeared beneath the doorway.
"They're not trying to kill you."
Dominic turned.
"You seem confident."
"If they wanted you dead, the shooter at your building wouldn't have missed."
Elena felt cold.
"Then what do they want?"
Victor looked at her.
"You."
Dominic's expression hardened.
A phone began ringing.
Not Dominic's.
Not Marco's.
Not Luca's.
Elena looked around.
The ringing came from the black sedan.
Dominic opened the rear door.
A phone sat on the seat.
Old-fashioned.
Cheap.
He put it on speaker.
"Talk."
A distorted voice answered.
"Dominic Vale."
"I'm listening."
"You found Number Seventeen."
Dominic glanced at Victor.
"What do you want?"
"A trade."
"For what?"
The voice laughed.
"Not what."
A pause.
"Who."
Elena stepped closer.
Dominic put an arm in front of her.
The voice continued.
"Gabriel Serrano left more than letters behind."
Elena's heart stopped.
"What does that mean?" she demanded.
The caller heard her.
"Hello, Elena."
Dominic's face became murderous.
The caller continued.
"Your father prepared for the possibility that you'd eventually marry Dominic."
Elena looked at her husband.
Dominic looked equally confused.
The voice said:
"He left you something."
"What?"
"You already have it."
Elena instinctively touched the emerald pendant at her throat.
Dominic noticed.
So did Victor.
The voice laughed softly.
"Now she understands."
Elena unclasped the necklace.
Her father had given it to her on her twenty-first birthday.
She had worn it almost every day since.
Dominic took the pendant.
A tiny seam ran around the emerald setting.
Marco produced a knife.
The casing opened.
Inside was a micro-storage chip.
Elena stared.
Her father had hidden evidence around her neck.
For years.
The phone speaker crackled.
"Bring the chip to Pier Nine."
Dominic said, "No."
"Midnight tomorrow."
"No."
"Then we'll start sending Elena pieces of the truth."
Dominic's eyes narrowed.
"What truth?"
The voice paused.
Then spoke six words.
"Ask her who ordered your mother's death."
The call ended.
Everyone looked at Elena.
She stared at them.
"I don't know anything."
Dominic immediately answered.
"I know."
Victor, however, was looking at the tiny chip.
His face had lost all color.
"That's not why he said it."
Elena turned.
"What?"
Victor whispered:
"Gabriel wasn't protecting Elena from the Steward."
He looked toward Dominic.
"He was protecting you from what Elena would inherit."
Before anyone could ask another question, the abandoned restaurant's lights suddenly came on.
Every bulb.
Every room.
At the far end of the dining hall, an old service elevator opened.
Inside stood a woman in a black coat.
Dominic stared at her.
His lips parted.
For the first time Elena saw genuine shock break through every wall he had.
The woman stepped forward.
May you like
And Dominic whispered:
"Mother?"
