Chapter 6 - MY SISTER CAME BACK BLEEDINGChloe collapsed ten feet from the front door.
My mind refused to connect the words.
Underworld.
Empire.
Controlled.
Then memory began reorganizing itself.
The men who always stood outside restaurants.
The senators who answered his calls.
The unexplained warehouse fires reported in newspapers after someone threatened a Vale company.
The time a drunk businessman grabbed my arm at a gala, only to leave the country permanently two days later.
I had asked Marcus what happened.
He had kissed my forehead and said, “He decided Europe suited him.”
I had believed him.
“How many people have you killed?”
Marcus didn’t answer quickly enough.
My stomach twisted.
“Oh my God.”
“Elena—”
“Answer me.”
“Personally?”
I stared at him.
“That is not the comforting distinction you think it is.”
His jaw tightened.
“I have killed men.”
I stepped away.
He didn’t follow.
“How many?”
“I stopped counting years ago.”
I felt sick.
“You slept beside me.”
“Yes.”
“You asked me to marry you.”
“Yes.”
“You were going to let me have children with you without telling me?”
His face changed.
“I didn’t know you were pregnant.”
“That is not what I meant.”
“I was going to tell you.”
“When?”
“Before the wedding.”
“You proposed eight months earlier!”
“I was trying to dismantle it.”
I laughed in disbelief.
“The criminal empire?”
“Yes.”
“People dismantle furniture, Marcus. Not generations of organized crime.”
“I’ve spent ten years moving everything legitimate.”
“Everything?”
“No.”
At least he didn’t lie.
I turned toward the window.
Outside, security guards walked the perimeter.
I suddenly understood why they obeyed him with such absolute loyalty.
They weren’t corporate security.
They were soldiers.
“I want to leave.”
“No.”
I spun around.
“You don’t get to say no.”
“Not while Victor knows where you are.”
“I’ll take the boys somewhere else.”
“He will find you.”
“You found me.”
“Exactly.”
“I survived four years without you.”
“Because no one knew you mattered.”
The sentence cut.
Marcus saw my expression.
“That came out wrong.”
“No. It came out exactly right.”
“Elena, Victor believed you were gone. Now he knows you gave me sons.”
“Why does that matter?”
“Because blood matters to men like him.”
“And to you?”
Marcus stared at me.
“Yes.”
My chest tightened.
He continued.
“But not because they’re heirs.”
“What else could it be?”
“They’re my children.”
“You met them yesterday.”
“I lost four years yesterday.”
The pain in his voice stopped me.
Marcus looked toward the ceiling.
“I didn’t hear their first words. I didn’t see them walk. I didn’t hold them when they were sick. I didn’t know their names.”
“That happened because—”
“I know why.”
He looked back at me.
“I’m not blaming you.”
That was worse somehow.
I sank into a chair.
“I don’t know what to believe.”
“You don’t have to decide today.”
“I thought you were a businessman.”
“I am.”
“You’re a criminal.”
“Yes.”
“You’re their father.”
“Yes.”
“And Chloe is alive.”
“Yes.”
I covered my face.
“This is insane.”
Marcus crouched several feet away.
“Elena.”
I lowered my hands.
“What?”
“I will get you and the boys out of this.”
“How?”
“By ending Victor.”
The cold simplicity frightened me.
“What does ending mean?”
Marcus didn’t answer.
“Marcus.”
“It means he will never threaten you again.”
“That is exactly the kind of answer that made me run.”
Something changed in his expression.
Regret.
“Then tell me how you want it handled.”
I stared.
“What?”
“You heard me.”
“You’re asking me?”
“Yes.”
“That’s new.”
“I’ve had four years to reconsider several habits.”
I almost smiled.
Almost.
“Police.”
“Victor owns police.”
“FBI.”
“He has people there too.”
“So the law is useless?”
“Not useless. Slow.”
“And your solution is faster.”
“Yes.”
I looked at him.
“No killing.”
His eyebrows lifted.
“No killing unless someone is actively trying to hurt us.”
“You’re giving me rules?”
“Yes.”
A tiny smile touched his mouth.
“I missed that.”
I hated that my heart responded.
“Agree.”
Marcus became serious.
“I agree.”
“Promise.”
His expression hardened.
“I don’t make promises lightly.”
“I know.”
He held my gaze.
“I promise.”
That afternoon, Marcus showed me everything.
Not every crime.
Not every name.
But enough.
Vale Group controlled shipping, real estate, technology, hotels, and private equity.
The hidden organization beneath it controlled ports, high-stakes gambling, protection operations, and smuggling routes Marcus claimed he had been shutting down since his father’s death.
“My father believed fear created loyalty,” Marcus said.
“And you?”
“I believe fear creates enemies.”
“Profound.”
“I’m trying.”
He showed me documents proving dozens of illegal operations had been converted into legitimate businesses.
“Why?”
“Because I wanted children someday.”
I looked at him.
“With me?”
His eyes met mine.
“There was never anyone else.”
The sentence made my throat ache.
“Even after I disappeared?”
“No.”
“You expect me to believe you were celibate for four years?”
“Yes.”
I laughed.
He didn’t.
“Oh.”
Marcus closed a folder.
“I didn’t want anyone else.”
I looked away first.
That evening, Noah and Eli discovered the indoor swimming pool.
Marcus joined them despite wearing a dress shirt and trousers.
Noah pushed him into the water.
The expression on Marcus’s face was so outraged that I laughed for the first time since he arrived.
He looked at me from the pool.
And smiled.
Not the billionaire smile used for magazines.
His real smile.
The one I remembered.
For one dangerous second, I remembered loving him.
Then my phone vibrated.
Unknown number.
A photograph appeared.
Chloe.
She was tied to a chair.
Blood ran from her temple.
Underneath:
COME ALONE IF YOU WANT YOUR SISTER BACK.
I stopped breathing.
Marcus climbed out of the pool.
“What happened?”
I hid the phone instinctively.
Too late.
He took one look at my face.
“Elena.”
I showed him.
His jaw hardened.
“No.”
“She’s my sister.”
“She betrayed you.”
“She’s still my sister.”
“It’s a trap.”
“Obviously.”
“You’re not going.”
“What would you do if it were your brother?”
“I don’t have one.”
“Your mother.”
His face went cold.
“That’s different.”
“No, it isn’t.”
He stared at me.
I lowered my voice.
“She did something terrible. I know that. But she called because she was afraid. If Victor has her—”
“He wants you.”
“Why?”
“Because he knows I’ll follow.”
The truth settled between us.
I looked at the twins splashing with a security guard.
“Then we use that.”
“No.”
“You said I could decide how this is handled.”
“That was before you suggested using yourself as bait.”
“I’m not helpless.”
“I know exactly how strong you are.”
“Then act like it.”
Marcus’s eyes flashed.
“You disappeared while pregnant, built a life alone, raised my sons, opened a business, and managed to remain invisible for four years. I am painfully aware you are not helpless.”
The words silenced me.
Then he stepped closer.
“But strength doesn’t make bullets bounce off you.”
I stared at the picture of Chloe.
“What if she dies?”
Marcus looked at me for a long time.
Then cursed under his breath.
“Fine.”
“Fine?”
“We do it your way.”
I blinked.
“That was surprisingly easy.”
“It wasn’t.”
He grabbed a towel.
“We track the message. We choose the location. You wear protection.”
“I’m not wearing a bulletproof vest.”
“You absolutely are.”
“Under what?”
“I’ll buy you something.”
“You can’t solve everything with money.”
“I can solve clothing.”
Despite everything, I laughed.
Marcus stopped.
For a second, neither of us moved.
There it was.
The ghost of us.
Then Adrian rushed into the pool room.
“We traced the phone.”
“Where?” Marcus asked.
“Boston waterfront.”
He placed a map on the table.
Marcus studied the location.
His face changed.
“What?”
Adrian pointed.
“Warehouse seventeen.”
Marcus looked at me.
“You recognize it?”
He nodded slowly.
“My father died there.”
A chill moved through me.
Adrian’s phone rang.
He answered.
Listened.
Then looked at Marcus.
“We have another problem.”
“What?”
“A car just breached the north gate.”
An alarm screamed through the estate.
The twins stopped laughing.
Marcus grabbed the nearest handgun.
“Get them upstairs.”
A vehicle roared outside.
Security men shouted.
Then glass exploded near the front entrance.
Marcus pushed me behind him.
And over the alarm, I heard a woman screaming my name.
“Elena!”
I froze.
Chloe.
She wasn’t in a warehouse.
May you like
She was outside our house.
And somebody was trying to kill her before she could reach me.
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