Chapter 4 - HER BROTHER’S CONFESSIONClaire crossed the office before Adrian could stop her.
She struck Daniel across the face.
The sound cracked through the darkness.
Daniel did not defend himself.
Claire hit him again.
“You let me bury you.”
“Claire—”
“You let me stand beside a coffin and believe my brother was inside it.”
“I had no choice.”
“There is always a choice!”
She shoved him.
Pain immediately caught her ribs, and she doubled over.
Daniel reached for her.
She recoiled.
Adrian stepped between them.
“Don’t touch her.”
Daniel’s eyes hardened.
“She’s my sister.”
“Then you should know better.”
For a moment the two men measured each other.
Daniel Bennett looked nothing like the accountant Adrian had expected.
He was lean, exhausted, and carrying the alertness of someone who had spent months living under threat.
Blood streaked his sleeve.
Adrian gestured toward it.
“You shot?”
“Grazed.”
“By whom?”
“One of Mercer’s men.”
Mason entered.
“Building’s secured. Shooter on the east stairwell is dead. Two others escaped through the loading area.”
He saw Daniel clearly for the first time.
“Hell of a resurrection.”
Daniel ignored him.
“We need to move.”
Adrian lifted his weapon.
“No one moves until you explain why one of my managers is dead.”
Daniel’s face changed.
“Victor?”
“Found in a trunk.”
“I didn’t kill him.”
“You stole his access information.”
“He gave it to me.”
Mason snapped, “Victor knew you were alive?”
“Yes.”
Adrian stepped closer.
“Why?”
“Because Victor Hale worked for your mother.”
The room became silent.
Adrian stared at Daniel.
“My mother died twenty-five years ago.”
“Her network didn’t.”
Adrian’s expression went flat.
Claire looked between them.
“What network?”
Daniel leaned against the desk.
“Can I sit?”
“No,” Claire said.
Daniel accepted the punishment.
He stayed standing.
“Seven months ago, I found irregular transfers inside Mercer Maritime. Not just bribes. Payments connected to companies that existed in the nineties, disappeared, then suddenly became active again.”
“Names,” Adrian said.
“Bellweather Shipping. Lorca Construction. Harbor Nine Imports.”
Mason cursed.
Adrian looked at him.
“You know them?”
“Harbor Nine belonged to Luca Moretti.”
Adrian’s father.
Claire watched his reaction.
Daniel continued.
“The companies were laundering money for an organization older than Mercer. Your father was involved. So was Vincent Mercer’s father.”
Adrian’s voice sharpened.
“And my mother?”
“She discovered it.”
Adrian’s face became unreadable.
Daniel pulled a folded sheet from inside his jacket.
Claire moved instinctively.
Adrian stopped her with one raised hand.
Daniel placed it on the desk.
A photocopy of an old ledger page.
Sofia Moretti’s name appeared beside several transactions.
Then, beneath the figures, a handwritten note:
L.M. KNOWS. MOVE ADRIAN BEFORE FRIDAY.
Adrian stared.
He recognized the handwriting.
His mother.
Every childhood memory he had locked away seemed to reopen at once.
Her perfume.
Her hands.
Her voice telling him not to come downstairs.
The last morning he had seen her alive.
“She was protecting me,” he said.
Daniel nodded.
“That’s what Victor believed.”
“Believed?”
“He was twenty-two then. A driver for your mother.”
Mason’s eyes widened.
“Victor never mentioned that.”
“He was told not to.”
“By whom?”
Daniel hesitated.
Adrian saw it.
“Say it.”
“Your uncle.”
“Salvatore?”
“Yes.”
Adrian laughed once.
Without humor.
Salvatore Moretti had raised him after Sofia’s death.
Taught him the business.
Protected him.
Made him boss.
He had died five years ago.
Or at least Adrian had attended that funeral too.
Claire whispered, “Apparently funerals aren’t reliable around you.”
Under different circumstances the line might have been funny.
No one laughed.
Daniel continued.
“Victor contacted me after I found Sofia’s name. He told me there were records hidden outside Boston.”
“The flash drive?” Claire asked.
Daniel looked at her.
“That drive contains copies.”
“You could have told me.”
“No.”
“You could have told me you were alive.”
“No.”
Her expression broke.
Daniel’s voice softened.
“If Gabriel knew you knew, he would have killed you.”
“He nearly did anyway.”
Daniel looked at her bruises for the first time.
Something dangerous entered his face.
“He did that?”
Claire said nothing.
Daniel turned toward the door.
Adrian blocked him.
“Where are you going?”
“To kill him.”
Claire laughed bitterly.
“Now you care?”
Daniel flinched.
Adrian watched.
Good.
He deserved that.
Mason asked, “Why fake your death?”
“Mercer discovered I copied the records. Victor arranged the car, the body, everything.”
Claire looked sick.
“What body?”
Daniel closed his eyes.
“An unidentified man from a morgue.”
“You buried a stranger under your name?”
“Yes.”
“And let me mourn him?”
“Yes.”
Claire stepped closer.
“You are a coward.”
Daniel accepted that too.
“Yes.”
Her eyes filled.
“I needed you.”
“I know.”
“No. You don’t.”
Daniel looked down.
“I watched your funeral speech from across the cemetery.”
Claire stopped.
Adrian saw the exact second that information shattered something in her.
“You were there?”
“Claire—”
“You watched me?”
“I had to know you were safe.”
“You watched me collapse over a coffin you knew was empty?”
“I couldn’t come to you.”
“You could have sent one word.”
“They were watching your phone.”
“One word, Daniel!”
Her voice broke.
Adrian moved closer but did not touch her.
Daniel looked as if he wanted her to strike him again.
She did not.
That hurt more.
Mason broke the silence.
“Where’s the drive now?”
Daniel looked at Adrian.
“Safe.”
“You stole it from Claire’s purse.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because Gabriel’s people were seconds behind me.”
Claire stared.
“You knew he was hurting me?”
“I knew he was following you. I didn’t know what happened inside his apartment.”
“You followed me?”
“For three weeks.”
“Why?”
“Because Gabriel started asking questions about your brother’s estate.”
“You are my brother.”
Daniel said nothing.
Claire turned away.
Adrian had seen families destroyed by money, greed, fear, and loyalty.
This was worse.
Daniel had betrayed Claire because he believed betrayal would keep her alive.
Adrian understood that kind of sin too well.
“Where is the drive?” Adrian repeated.
Daniel pointed toward the desk.
Adrian frowned.
Daniel walked to the antique bronze statue behind Adrian’s chair.
He unscrewed the base.
Inside was the flash drive.
Mason stared.
“How did you know that compartment existed?”
Daniel looked toward Victor’s photograph on the wall.
“Victor.”
Adrian took the drive.
“What’s on it?”
“Enough to destroy Mercer. Enough to destroy Gabriel.”
“And me?”
Daniel hesitated.
Adrian’s eyes sharpened.
“Answer.”
“Maybe.”
Claire turned.
“What does that mean?”
“There are old financial records tied to Moretti businesses.”
Adrian was unsurprised.
His father had never been careful about legality.
Daniel continued.
“But that’s not the dangerous part.”
“What is?”
“There’s a video file.”
“Of?”
“Sofia Moretti.”
Adrian’s hand closed around the drive.
“What video?”
“Recorded three days before she died.”
Mason went still.
“Have you watched it?”
“Only the first minute.”
“Why stop?”
“Because the rest is encrypted.”
Adrian crossed to the computer.
“Password?”
“I don’t know.”
Claire suddenly spoke.
“What did she say?”
Daniel looked at Adrian.
“She said the man everyone blamed for her death didn’t kill her.”
Adrian stopped.
For twenty-five years, Adrian believed Irish syndicate leader Patrick Callahan ordered the bombing that killed his mother.
The belief started a war.
Men died.
Families collapsed.
Callahan himself was murdered five years later.
Adrian’s father had celebrated.
“If Callahan didn’t do it,” Adrian said slowly, “who did?”
Daniel looked at him.
“That answer is behind the encryption.”
Adrian inserted the drive.
Folders appeared.
Financial ledgers.
Bank transfers.
Photographs.
Audio recordings.
Then a file titled:
FOR ADRIAN.
Password required.
Adrian stared at the box.
Claire approached.
“What would your mother use?”
“I don’t know.”
“Birthday?”
“No.”
“Nickname?”
He shook his head.
Claire watched him.
“What did she call you?”
Adrian looked away.
Mason knew better than to speak.
Eventually Adrian said, “Principe.”
Prince.
Claire typed it.
Incorrect.
Adrian’s jaw tightened.
Another gunshot sounded outside.
Mason moved toward the hallway.
A security guard entered.
“We found something in the basement.”
“What?”
“Not something.”
He looked pale.
“Someone.”
They followed him down.
Claire insisted on coming despite Adrian’s order.
The basement storage area smelled of concrete and liquor.
A man sat tied to a chair.
Bloody.
Barefoot.
Beaten.
Gabriel Easton.
Claire stopped cold.
Gabriel raised his head.
His eyes found her.
“Claire.”
She stepped backward.
Adrian moved instantly between them.
Gabriel laughed weakly.
“You think I’m the monster?”
Claire’s breath quickened.
“Don’t speak to her.”
Gabriel looked at Adrian.
“Mercer did this.”
“Why?”
“Because he thinks I lost the drive.”
Daniel stepped into the room.
Gabriel stared.
For the first time that night, Gabriel Easton looked genuinely terrified.
“You.”
Daniel smiled without humor.
“Surprise.”
Gabriel began pulling at his restraints.
“You don’t understand. He knows.”
Adrian stepped closer.
“Mercer knows what?”
Gabriel looked from Daniel to Adrian.
Then to Claire.
“He knows Sofia’s password.”
Adrian’s entire body went still.
“Tell me.”
Gabriel laughed through bloodied teeth.
“He’ll kill me.”
Adrian leaned down.
“If you don’t tell me, Mercer won’t be your immediate concern.”
Claire whispered, “Adrian.”
He straightened.
Gabriel saw the difference her voice made.
And immediately understood something dangerous.
He smiled.
“There it is.”
Adrian stared at him.
“What?”
“Your weakness.”
Claire’s face hardened.
Gabriel continued.
“You found a broken woman in your alley and decided to play savior.”
Adrian stepped forward.
Claire caught his sleeve.
He stopped.
Everyone noticed.
Especially Gabriel.
He smiled wider.
Then the building shook.
A massive explosion erupted above them.
Dust poured from the ceiling.
Lights flickered.
Mason shouted, “Move!”
Adrian threw himself over Claire as part of the ceiling collapsed.
Sirens began screaming.
Smoke rolled down the stairwell.
Daniel pulled Gabriel’s chair upright.
“What was that?”
A guard ran in.
“Car bomb in the rear lot!”
Mason looked at Adrian.
“Diversion.”
Adrian understood instantly.
“Drive.”
They ran toward the office.
Too late.
The computer was gone.
The bronze statue had been smashed.
May you like
And written across Adrian’s wall in his mother’s blood-red lipstick were four words:
ASK YOUR FATHER, ADRIAN.
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