Chapter 4 - The Betrayal Buried Twelve Years Ago
Dominic moved before Diana understood what had happened.
He pulled her down behind the armored door and covered her body as another shot cracked against metal.
Rook erupted.
The calm Rottweiler became a wall of muscle and thunder, barking toward the darkness.
“Stay down,” Dominic ordered.
Diana's pulse hammered.
“Marcus—”
“Stay down.”
Police shouted outside.
Headlights swept across the street.
Dominic reached inside his jacket but hesitated when he saw Diana watching.
Instead of drawing the weapon, he hit the emergency lock.
The SUV sealed itself.
Rook remained between Diana and the window.
Then silence returned.
One minute.
Two.
Detective Alvarez appeared beside the vehicle.
“Clear!”
Dominic unlocked the door.
Diana climbed out despite his protest.
Marcus lay behind another SUV.
Blood covered his shoulder.
He was conscious.
Diana immediately became a nurse again.
“Move.”
A paramedic was approaching, but she was already kneeling.
Marcus winced.
“Diana—”
“Don't talk.”
She pressed fabric against the wound.
“Bullet went through.”
“I've had worse.”
She glared at him.
“Apparently every man Dominic knows has the same stupid line.”
Marcus almost laughed.
Dominic stood nearby, scanning rooftops.
Diana remembered the photograph.
She looked at Marcus.
“Did you know my father?”
Marcus's expression changed.
The paramedics arrived.
Dominic tried to interrupt.
“Later.”
“No.”
Diana stood.
“Everyone keeps deciding when I deserve the truth.”
Marcus looked toward Dominic.
“Tell her.”
Dominic's jaw tightened.
Back at the estate, Diana refused pain medication until they talked.
Marcus had been transported to the hospital and was expected to recover.
The sniper had escaped.
The photograph remained.
Dominic poured coffee neither of them drank.
“Marcus didn't betray your father.”
“Then why did Kane send that?”
“Because he wants you doubting everyone.”
“Did Marcus know him?”
“Yes.”
Diana waited.
Dominic finally sat.
“Daniel Martinez saved Marcus's life.”
The story began decades earlier.
Daniel was not a violent man, Dominic explained. He had grown up in the same neighborhood as Dominic's father and became the financial mind behind several family businesses.
Some businesses were legal.
Others were not.
Daniel hated that side.
He wanted out before Diana was born.
Dominic's father promised him an exit.
Then Daniel discovered information was being sold to Anthony Kane.
The traitor was not Marcus.
It was Dominic's uncle.
Vincent Cross.
Diana listened silently.
“Your uncle?”
“My father's brother.”
“And where is he?”
“Dead.”
“How?”
Dominic's expression gave her the answer.
“You killed him?”
“No.”
She breathed again.
“My father did.”
Diana stared.
“Your father killed his own brother?”
“After Daniel died.”
The brutality of this world made her stomach turn.
“How did my father die?”
“Car explosion.”
Her eyes filled.
“My mother told me construction accident.”
“She wanted you to grow up without this.”
“So everybody lied because they loved me?”
Dominic looked ashamed.
“Yes.”
“Do you know how convenient that sounds?”
“Yes.”
Diana paced.
“My whole life is made from lies.”
“No.”
She spun toward him.
“My father. My mother. Eddie. You.”
“Your accomplishments aren't lies.”
That stopped her.
“Nursing school wasn't a lie. The people you've helped aren't lies. Rachel isn't a lie. The life you built belongs to you.”
Diana looked away.
“You watched all that?”
“Yes.”
“How?”
Dominic hesitated.
She laughed bitterly.
“More secrets.”
“I attended your graduation.”
Diana turned.
“What?”
“From the back.”
“You were there?”
“Yes.”
“Why didn't you speak to me?”
“I had promised Maria.”
Diana's voice cracked.
“I looked for you.”
Dominic went completely still.
“After graduation. I don't know why. Maybe because my mother should have been there. Maybe because I wanted somebody who remembered her.”
Dominic's eyes lowered.
“I was ten rows behind you.”
Tears burned Diana's face.
“I hated you.”
“I know.”
“I thought you forgot us.”
“I never forgot.”
“Then why didn't you break the promise?”
Dominic looked directly at her.
“Because breaking promises is what killed your father.”
The words quieted her.
He explained that Daniel had trusted Vincent Cross because Vincent swore he would help him leave safely.
Instead Vincent betrayed him.
Years later, Maria discovered Eddie had begun working for the same Kane network.
She died before exposing him.
Dominic had become convinced that promises were sacred.
So when Maria said protect Diana and stay away, he obeyed both literally.
Until tonight.
Diana sat slowly.
“What was in the box?”
“I don't know.”
“Kane does.”
“Perhaps.”
“You think he lied.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because if he had Maria's evidence, he wouldn't still be provoking us.”
Diana frowned.
“So whatever he's looking for is still missing.”
“That's my belief.”
She closed her eyes and thought.
Her mother hated banks.
She distrusted digital records.
Maria saved receipts in envelopes and hid emergency cash inside books.
Diana suddenly remembered something.
“The Christmas angel.”
Dominic frowned.
“What?”
“My mother had an ornament. An old wooden angel. She told me never to throw it away.”
“Where is it?”
Diana's eyes widened.
“It wasn't in the box.”
Dominic stood.
“Where?”
“I gave some ornaments to Rachel because my apartment doesn't have room for a tree.”
They stared at each other.
“Rachel has it?”
“Maybe.”
Dominic grabbed his phone.
Rachel answered after three rings.
Her voice was groggy and annoyed.
“Diana, if you're calling to tell me you're doing something stupid—”
“Rachel, the Christmas decorations I gave you.”
Silence.
“What about them?”
“Is there a wooden angel?”
“Probably. Why?”
“Where are they?”
“My apartment.”
Dominic was already signaling security.
“Rachel,” Diana said, “do not go home.”
“I wasn't planning to.”
“Tell police where you live.”
Rachel's voice became alert.
“What is happening?”
Diana swallowed.
“I think my mother hid something in one of those ornaments.”
The line went silent.
Then Rachel whispered, “Diana.”
“What?”
“I took the angel out this year.”
Diana froze.
“Where is it?”
“I brought it to the hospital.”
“Why?”
“Because you told me it was your mom's favorite. I was going to hang it in the nurses' lounge and surprise you.”
Diana's blood ran cold.
“Where exactly?”
“On the staff Christmas tree.”
The same tree Diana had passed every day.
Dominic was moving toward the door.
“Police first.”
Diana caught his sleeve.
“We're going too.”
“No.”
“It's my mother's ornament.”
“Diana—”
“If my mother hid something for me, I'm the one opening it.”
He stared at her.
This time he did not argue.
They arrived at the hospital forty minutes later.
Detective Alvarez had already cleared the nurses' lounge.
The tree remained.
Diana stepped toward it.
Hundreds of lights glowed.
Candy canes.
Glass snowflakes.
Paper decorations made by pediatric patients.
Then she saw it.
Near the top.
A wooden angel no larger than her palm.
Her mother had painted it.
Maria's initials were scratched underneath.
Diana's hands trembled as she removed it.
Dominic stood beside her.
Alvarez watched.
“There isn't anywhere to open it,” Diana said.
She turned it over.
The base moved slightly.
A compartment.
Diana's breath caught.
She slid one thumbnail beneath the wood.
It opened.
Inside was a tiny brass key.
And a folded strip of paper.
Diana unfolded it.
Her mother's handwriting.
She recognized it immediately.
Diana, if you ever need the truth, go where your father taught you to read. Box 317. Trust Dominic only if he kept his distance. If he came back too soon, run.
Diana read it again.
Dominic's face had gone pale.
“She tested you,” Diana whispered.
“Yes.”
“My mother knew.”
“She suspected someone would use you to reach me.”
“And she wanted to know whether you kept your promise.”
Dominic stared at the note.
“I did.”
Diana looked at him.
“For twelve years.”
“Yes.”
A strange ache formed in her chest.
Detective Alvarez interrupted.
“Where did your father teach you to read?”
Diana thought.
Then remembered.
The New York Public Library.
Her father took her there every Saturday before he died.
Box 317.
Not a bank.
A library?
Then she remembered the old train station beneath the nearby building, where private storage lockers had once been rented.
Dominic recognized it too.
“There are historical safe-deposit archives beneath the Bryant Park branch,” he said.
Alvarez nodded.
“We go in daylight.”
Diana held the key tightly.
For the first time, they had something Victor Kane wanted.
Something Maria had protected for twelve years.
Then Alvarez's phone rang.
She answered.
Her expression changed immediately.
“What?”
She looked at Dominic.
“When?”
Another pause.
“Lock the hospital.”
Diana's heart sank.
“What happened?”
Alvarez lowered her phone.
“The two kidnappers from the motel were being transferred.”
“And?”
“The transport was attacked.”
Dominic's voice became hard.
“Victor?”
Alvarez shook her head.
“Both prisoners were killed.”
Diana felt sick.
“By whom?”
“We don't know.”
Dominic looked toward the wooden angel in her hand.
Victor Kane was erasing witnesses.
Whatever sat behind Box 317 was important enough to kill for.
And now, for the first time, Diana possessed the only key.
May you like
Continued in Chapter 5…
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