Chapter 7 - THE GROOM’S CONFESSIONAdrian Vale regained consciousness at 11:32 p.m.
Elena stared at Nora Beckett’s hand.
Red garnet.
Silver band.
Exactly what Mateo had warned about.
Nora looked down at it.
Then back at Elena.
“It belonged to my mother.”
Lorenzo stepped between them.
Nora noticed.
“Don’t.”
“Give me one reason.”
“I didn’t know anything about that letter.”
“You brought us here.”
“You called me.”
The distinction mattered.
Lorenzo knew it.
Still, his eyes stayed on the ring.
Someone rattled the locked door upstairs.
Nora reached for her weapon.
Lorenzo grabbed her wrist.
“Slowly.”
“You think I locked us in?”
“I think somebody did.”
A smell drifted through the basement.
Smoke.
Elena turned.
“No.”
Nora cursed.
“Fire.”
The manager ran toward the stairs.
The door would not open.
Smoke began curling beneath it.
Whoever had trapped them had planned this.
Lorenzo pulled his phone.
No signal.
Concrete basement.
Of course.
Nora pointed toward a maintenance corridor.
“There has to be another exit.”
They moved.
Behind them, smoke thickened.
Elena clutched Mateo’s letter beneath her jacket.
Lorenzo carried the flash drive.
They reached a utility room.
No exit.
Only pipes.
One small basement window near the ceiling.
Too narrow.
Nora checked the wall.
“Old buildings have coal chutes.”
The manager nodded suddenly.
“Storage room.”
They ran.
The fire alarm above them finally started screaming.
In the storage room, stacks of antique chairs blocked a metal door.
Lorenzo and Nora pulled them aside.
Smoke rolled in.
Elena coughed.
The manager unlocked the metal door.
It opened into a narrow tunnel beneath the sidewalk.
They crawled out into an alley as firefighters arrived.
Nora immediately called her office.
No answer from the two agents stationed outside.
Her face changed.
“Something’s wrong.”
They found one agent unconscious in a vehicle half a block away.
The other was missing.
Lorenzo looked at Nora.
“You have a leak.”
She took off the red ring.
Then threw it into the gutter.
Elena watched.
“My brother’s warning wasn’t about you.”
“Apparently not.”
“Then who?”
Nora looked grim.
“My former supervisor wore one almost identical.”
“Name?”
“Deputy Director Harold Pierce.”
Lorenzo knew the name.
Everyone did.
Decorated federal agent.
National television interviews.
Retiring in six months.
Nora stared at the burning building.
“If Pierce works for Victor, this investigation has been compromised for years.”
Elena felt sick.
“Mateo knew.”
“And that may be why he stayed gone.”
Nora looked at Lorenzo.
“No phones.”
He nodded.
“No offices.”
“Yes.”
“No databases unless absolutely necessary.”
“Agreed.”
Elena almost laughed.
The mafia boss and federal agent were suddenly speaking the same language.
Distrust.
Lorenzo’s secure line rang.
Matteo.
He answered.
His face went blank.
“When?”
Elena grabbed his arm.
“What?”
Lorenzo listened.
Then lowered the phone.
“Lena is safe.”
Elena’s knees weakened.
“What happened?”
“Someone tried to enter the property.”
“Who?”
“Two men posing as police.”
Her face twisted.
“My daughter.”
“They never reached the house.”
“How do you know?”
“Because Matteo stopped them at the gate.”
“Alive?”
“Yes.”
She looked at him sharply.
He almost smiled.
“Promise.”
They returned to Lorenzo’s house under heavier security.
Elena ran inside.
Lena crashed into her arms.
“Mommy!”
Elena held her so tightly the child squeaked.
“I’m okay.”
“I know.”
“No, I mean—I’m okay.”
Elena cried against her hair.
Lorenzo stood several feet away.
Lena reached one hand toward him.
He hesitated.
Then walked closer.
She grabbed his fingers.
That simple gesture changed the room.
Elena looked at him over Lena’s head.
For a second, neither spoke.
Then Lena said, “Roman bit a policeman.”
Matteo corrected her.
“He bit a fake policeman.”
Lena nodded seriously.
“Good boy.”
Even Nora laughed.
The moment did not last.
One of the captured men had identification.
Former federal contractor.
Worked under Harold Pierce.
Nora’s suspicion became certainty.
“We cannot bring the evidence to the bureau yet.”
Elena stared at her.
“Then who can we trust?”
“An assistant U.S. attorney named Rebecca Sloan.”
“Absolutely?”
“No.”
Elena looked exhausted.
“That’s not comforting.”
Nora nodded.
“Welcome to my week.”
They spent the afternoon analyzing Mateo’s flash drive on an isolated laptop.
Most files were encrypted.
One opened.
A ledger.
Dates.
Shipment numbers.
Initials.
Payments.
Victor Ashford.
Samuel Crane.
Harold Pierce.
Judges.
Police commanders.
Business owners.
Then Lorenzo saw a name he knew.
Marco Moretti.
His older brother.
Dead six years.
He stopped breathing.
Elena noticed.
“Who is that?”
“My brother.”
Matteo went still.
Lorenzo scrolled.
Marco had received payments from Victor.
Large ones.
“What for?”
Nora leaned closer.
“Protection.”
Lorenzo stepped away from the table.
Everything inside him shifted.
Marco had always sworn their family never touched human trafficking.
Gambling.
Extortion.
Smuggling luxury goods.
Yes.
But never people.
Lorenzo had believed him.
Apparently, he had been a fool.
Elena watched him.
“I’m sorry.”
He laughed once.
Cold.
“Don’t be.”
“This changes things.”
“Yes.”
“You could walk away.”
He turned.
“Why would I?”
“Because this could destroy your family too.”
“Good.”
Matteo looked at him.
“Boss.”
Lorenzo stared at his brother’s name.
“If we profited from this, we deserve what comes.”
Elena saw something then.
Not the criminal.
Not the feared man.
A younger brother discovering that the dead man he had worshiped had betrayed everything.
She approached.
“You didn’t know.”
“No.”
“You’re not him.”
Lorenzo looked at her.
“I benefited from him.”
“That’s different.”
“Not to the victims.”
She had no answer.
The flash drive contained one final unencrypted video.
Date stamped three months earlier.
Mateo appeared on screen.
Alive.
Nervous.
Older.
He looked directly into the camera.
“Elena, if you’re seeing this, I probably couldn’t reach you.”
Elena covered her mouth.
Lena entered quietly and sat beside her.
On screen, Mateo continued.
“Victor thinks Crane controls me.”
“He doesn’t.”
“I stayed because Crane helped keep you alive.”
Lorenzo frowned.
“He’s not what we thought.”
Mateo looked over his shoulder in the recording.
Then leaned closer.
“There is one person who can prove everything.”
“He has the original shipping manifests.”
“His name is Adrian Vale.”
Everyone turned.
The groom.
Mateo continued.
“And he has no idea what his family has been transporting for the Ashfords.”
The video ended.
Elena stared at the screen.
Lorenzo reached for his jacket.
Nora stopped him.
“Where are you going?”
“To find a groom.”
“You think Adrian’s still at the hotel?”
“No.”
“Then where?”
Lorenzo looked at the clock.
“His wedding collapsed twelve hours ago.”
A grim smile touched his face.
“If I were Adrian Vale, I’d be drinking somewhere nobody knew my name.”
He turned to Matteo.
“Find him.”
Matteo’s phone rang almost immediately.
He listened.
Then looked at Lorenzo.
“No need.”
“What?”
“Adrian Vale was just pulled from the Chicago River.”
Elena gasped.
“Dead?”
Matteo shook his head.
“Alive.”
May you like
A pause.
“Barely.”
