Chapter 8 - THE PRICE OF THE ROMANO NAMEVictor carried Leo into the panic room with me directly behind him.
The reinforced door slammed shut.
Outside, gunfire thundered through the mansion.
Inside, Leo clung to his father.
Victor checked every inch of him.
“Did he hurt you?”
Leo shook his head.
“Did anyone?”
“No.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yes.”
Victor pressed his forehead against Leo’s hair.
For several seconds, he said nothing.
I watched his shoulders rise and fall.
The feared boss of the Northern Syndicate was trying not to fall apart in front of his son.
Leo looked at me.
“You got married.”
Even in a gunfight, six-year-olds noticed important things.
I looked down at the ivory dress covered in dust.
“Apparently.”
He looked at Victor.
“Does that mean Claire lives here forever?”
Victor’s eyes met mine.
“That is her decision.”
Leo frowned.
“But you married.”
“It is complicated.”
“I hate complicated.”
“So do I,” I said.
The panic room intercom crackled.
Giovanni’s voice came through.
“Victor.”
He hit the button.
“Status.”
“Samuel’s men are fighting Adrian’s men on the east side. Ours hold the foyer.”
“Casualties?”
“Three injured. One dead.”
Victor’s face tightened.
“Adrian?”
“Missing.”
“Samuel?”
“Also missing.”
Of course.
Victor looked toward the small monitor wall.
Camera feeds showed smoke-filled hallways, shattered glass, overturned furniture.
Our wedding had lasted eleven minutes.
A record, perhaps.
Then one camera flickered.
Adrian appeared in the library.
Bleeding from the thigh.
Holding the real ledger.
My stomach dropped.
“How?”
Victor swore.
“Elena.”
He reached for the intercom.
No response.
Again.
Nothing.
“Mother.”
Static.
Leo noticed.
“Where’s Grandma?”
Victor looked at me.
“Stay with him.”
“No.”
“Claire.”
“We’ve done this.”
“Someone has to protect Leo.”
“I will.”
“You cannot protect him and chase Adrian.”
“Then don’t chase him.”
His expression hardened.
“He has the ledger.”
“And Leo is alive.”
Victor stopped.
I touched his arm.
“Choose.”
The word mattered.
His father had chosen the syndicate.
Mine had chosen secrets.
Samuel chose power.
Adrian chose revenge.
Victor looked at his son.
Then lowered his gun.
“Leo.”
“Yes?”
“Come here.”
He knelt.
“If anything happens, you stay with Claire.”
Leo nodded.
“Always.”
Victor looked at me.
“I choose my family.”
Something inside me shifted.
A man like Victor did not say those words lightly.
The intercom suddenly clicked.
Elena’s voice.
“Victor.”
He lunged toward it.
“Where are you?”
“Library corridor.”
“Are you hurt?”
“No.”
“Adrian has the ledger.”
“I know.”
“How?”
“I gave it to him.”
Victor went silent.
So did I.
“You what?”
“He has something I need.”
“What?”
Elena’s voice trembled.
“Proof about Sofia.”
Victor stopped breathing.
His dead wife.
“What proof?”
“He claims Samuel ordered the car bombing.”
Victor’s entire body became still.
“That was always suspected.”
“No.”
Elena swallowed audibly.
“He says Samuel did not order it.”
“Then who?”
Silence.
“Elena,” I said.
Her voice became barely audible.
“Giovanni.”
Victor’s face emptied.
The panic room felt suddenly too small.
“My father killed my wife?”
“I don’t know.”
“Where is he?”
“I don’t know.”
Victor stepped back.
Leo watched him carefully.
I moved between them.
“Victor.”
He did not hear me.
“Victor.”
His eyes snapped to mine.
“Not in front of Leo.”
That reached him.
He swallowed.
Then forced his voice steady.
“Mother. Get to safety.”
“Adrian wants Claire.”
“I know.”
“He also wants the archive.”
“I know.”
“I’m sorry.”
The connection ended.
Victor turned away.
Leo touched his sleeve.
“Dad?”
Victor knelt again.
“Everything is okay.”
It was a lie.
But a gentle one.
Leo nodded because he wanted to believe him.
A knock sounded against the panic room door.
Three quick.
Two slow.
Victor drew his gun.
“That’s Giovanni’s code,” he whispered.
He opened the inner communication panel.
“Name.”
“Your father.”
“Where is Sofia buried?”
Silence.
Then Giovanni answered.
“Rosehill. South garden. Beside the oak.”
Victor unlocked the door.
Giovanni entered bleeding from the forehead.
Victor immediately slammed him against the wall.
“Did you kill Sofia?”
Leo screamed.
I grabbed him.
Giovanni’s face changed.
“What?”
“Did you order the bomb?”
“No.”
Victor pressed the gun beneath his chin.
“Adrian says you did.”
“Then Adrian lies.”
“Why?”
“Because he knows you will believe anything that gives your grief a target.”
Victor’s hand shook.
I had never seen that.
Giovanni looked toward Leo.
“Not here.”
Victor stared.
Then lowered the weapon.
“Talk.”
Giovanni wiped blood from his eyebrow.
“Sofia discovered Adrian was feeding information to Samuel.”
Victor stopped.
“What?”
“She came to me.”
“When?”
“Three weeks before the bombing.”
“Why not me?”
“Because you trusted Adrian more than anyone.”
Pain moved across Victor’s face.
Giovanni continued.
“She wanted proof.”
“You let her investigate?”
“I tried to stop her.”
“You failed.”
“Yes.”
“Again.”
Giovanni accepted it.
“The bomb was meant for her.”
Victor stared.
“Not me?”
“No.”
The accepted story had always been that Victor was the intended target.
Giovanni shook his head.
“Adrian needed Sofia dead before she exposed him.”
Victor’s voice became hollow.
“My best friend killed my wife.”
“Yes.”
Leo buried his face against my shoulder.
I held him tighter.
Victor walked to the monitor.
Adrian appeared on one screen.
He stood in the old family chapel.
A gun pressed beneath Elena’s jaw.
She stood calmly beside him.
Adrian looked into the security camera.
“I know you’re watching.”
Victor went rigid.
Adrian lifted the ledger.
“Claire opens the archive.”
He smiled.
“Or your mother joins your wife.”
Victor hit the intercom.
“Adrian.”
The chapel speaker activated.
Adrian looked up.
“Boss.”
“If you touch her—”
“You’ll kill me. Yes. We’ve covered that.”
Victor breathed slowly.
“What archive?”
Adrian looked toward the camera.
“Claire knows.”
I did not.
My father apparently did.
Thomas’s voice came over another channel.
“The archive is under the estate.”
Victor frowned.
“What?”
“The original Romano house was built over a Prohibition tunnel.”
Giovanni looked shocked.
“You knew?”
Thomas nodded on the monitor.
“Elias Cole helped construct the vault.”
“Where?”
“Under the chapel.”
Adrian smiled toward the camera.
“Exactly.”
I understood.
He had brought Elena there because the vault was below them.
Victor turned.
“You are not going.”
I gave him a look.
He cursed.
Twenty minutes later, Giovanni remained with Leo while Victor and I moved through a service corridor toward the chapel.
I had changed out of the wedding dress into black pants.
The sapphire ring remained.
Victor noticed.
“You kept it.”
“We’re technically married.”
“Technically.”
“You sound disappointed again.”
“I am trying not to become distracted while armed.”
“Good policy.”
We reached the chapel entrance.
Adrian stood behind Elena.
The floorboards had been torn open.
Stone stairs descended underground.
He smiled when he saw me.
“Cousin.”
Victor raised his gun.
“Release my mother.”
“After Claire opens the archive.”
“I don’t know how.”
Adrian tossed me a small metal object.
A key.
It matched the shape of the sapphire ring.
I stared.
“The ring?”
Adrian nodded.
“Romano marriage key.”
Victor looked at his grandmother’s ring.
“The stone.”
“Remove it.”
I twisted the sapphire.
It detached.
Beneath it was a tiny metal pattern.
A key.
We descended underground.
The tunnel smelled like damp earth.
At the end stood a steel door.
No electronic keypad.
Only an old mechanical lock.
I inserted the ring.
Turned.
The door opened.
Inside were shelves.
Boxes.
Files.
Photographs.
Tape recordings.
Decades of secrets.
Adrian exhaled.
“Finally.”
Victor moved subtly closer to Elena.
Adrian noticed.
“Don’t.”
He pressed the gun harder beneath her jaw.
I opened the nearest file.
Names.
Payments.
Government officials.
Police commissioners.
Federal contractors.
Enough corruption to destroy careers across the country.
Adrian pointed toward a locked cabinet.
“That one.”
I opened it.
Inside was a black envelope bearing the Cole family seal.
He grabbed it.
His hands shook.
Not with fear.
Excitement.
He tore it open.
Then his expression changed.
“What?”
He read again.
“No.”
Victor watched him.
“What were you expecting?”
Adrian’s face went white.
He looked at me.
“This is wrong.”
“What?”
He shoved the paper toward me.
I read.
The archive and controlling trust did not belong to Adrian.
Not to Thomas.
Not to Daniel.
To me.
CLAIRE ELIZABETH BENNETT.
Sole living trustee.
Because Elias Cole believed the men in his family were too corrupted by power to inherit it.
Adrian laughed.
A broken sound.
“All this time.”
He looked at me.
“You.”
My blood turned cold.
He raised the gun.
Victor moved.
Elena struck Adrian’s injured leg.
He screamed.
Victor slammed him into the wall.
The gun fired.
The shot echoed through the vault.
Elena collapsed.
“Mother!”
Victor caught her.
Blood spread across her side.
Adrian stumbled backward.
I grabbed the dropped gun.
He froze when I aimed it at him.
“Claire.”
I had never fired at a person.
My hands trembled.
Adrian smiled slowly.
“You won’t.”
Victor looked at me.
“Claire.”
Not a command.
A warning.
I saw the choice.
Shoot Adrian.
Become part of the violence.
Or let Victor do it.
I lowered the gun.
Adrian lunged.
A shot exploded.
He stopped.
Samuel stood at the vault entrance.
Smoke curled from his pistol.
Adrian looked down at the blood spreading across his chest.
Then collapsed.
Samuel smiled.
“You’re welcome.”
Victor aimed instantly.
Samuel raised both hands.
“Before you shoot me, you should know something.”
Victor did not move.
Samuel looked toward the shelves.
“The people named in this archive already know Claire has opened it.”
I stared.
“How?”
Adrian’s dying hand had landed on a small transmitter.
A red light blinked.
Samuel smiled.
“He sent the signal.”
My stomach dropped.
“What signal?”
“The one that tells everyone exposed by those files…”
He looked directly at me.
“…that Claire Romano has the evidence.”
A distant explosion shook the ground.
Dust fell from the ceiling.
Victor grabbed my hand.
Samuel looked toward the tunnel.
“They’re coming.”
“Who?” I asked.
May you like
He laughed.
“Everyone.”
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