Chapter 6 - THE PRICE OF BRINGING A GHOST HOME
Delaney wanted to make the trade.
Immediately.
No debate.
No strategy.
No federal prosecutor.
“My father for the files.”
Luca sat across from her in his study after being discharged against medical advice.
“No.”
Her eyes flashed.
“You don’t decide.”
“They’ll kill both of you.”
“You don’t know that.”
“Yes, I do.”
“Because you’re mafia?”
“Because people who keep a man imprisoned for eleven years don’t suddenly develop integrity.”
Delaney paced.
Marco stood near the fireplace.
Rebecca Sloan had joined by encrypted video.
She agreed with Luca.
Which made Delaney distrust all of them equally.
Sloan said, “The photograph may be staged.”
“He’s alive.”
“We don’t know when that photograph was taken.”
“The newspaper—”
“Could be added.”
Delaney slammed her hand onto the desk.
“He is alive.”
Luca did not argue.
Instead he said, “Assume he is.”
She looked at him.
“Then what?”
“We bring him home without surrendering the only evidence keeping him useful.”
That got her attention.
Luca continued.
“If we give them everything, Thomas becomes a liability.”
Delaney sat slowly.
“So we fake it.”
Marco nodded.
“We copy the files. Encrypt portions. Make them think they received everything.”
Sloan spoke through the screen.
“And track the exchange.”
Delaney looked between them.
“No police.”
“Federal tactical team.”
“No.”
“Delaney—”
“Caldwell has people everywhere.”
Sloan’s face tightened.
“Caldwell doesn’t control my unit.”
“You sure?”
That question landed.
Sloan answered carefully.
“No.”
Delaney appreciated the honesty.
They built the plan around distrust.
Only six people knew the location.
Luca.
Delaney.
Marco.
Rebecca.
Two federal agents Rebecca had worked with for over a decade.
The exchange point arrived by message at 9:15 the next evening.
An abandoned freight terminal on the Calumet River.
Midnight.
Delaney prepared in silence.
Rosa found her tying her boots.
“You planning to get kidnapped?”
“Hopefully not.”
“Disappointing. I made soup.”
Delaney looked at her.
Rosa handed her a small object.
A silver medallion.
Saint Christopher.
“Luca’s mother gave this to him.”
“Why are you giving it to me?”
“He asked me to.”
“I don’t believe in saints.”
“Neither does Luca.”
“Then what’s the point?”
Rosa smiled sadly.
“Sometimes objects don’t protect us. They remind us someone wants us protected.”
Delaney swallowed.
She put it in her pocket.
At 11:52, Luca’s SUV entered the freight yard.
Marco drove.
Luca sat beside him.
Delaney sat in back gripping the fake hard drive.
“You stay in the vehicle,” Luca said.
“No.”
“That wasn’t a suggestion.”
“Then it was wasted breath.”
He looked back.
“Delaney.”
“My father won’t come toward strangers.”
“He knows me.”
“He knew you eleven years ago.”
Luca paused.
She continued.
“He came for me.”
That ended the argument.
They stepped into the warehouse.
One hanging lamp.
Concrete floor.
River water dripping somewhere in darkness.
A man emerged.
Adrian Voss.
Luca’s expression became glacial.
“Where is Thomas?”
Adrian smiled.
“Still alive.”
“Proof.”
Adrian snapped his fingers.
Two men dragged someone forward.
Delaney forgot how to breathe.
Thomas Mercer.
Older.
Thin.
His left leg dragged slightly.
But alive.
He lifted his head.
His eyes found Delaney.
The world stopped.
“Laney?”
She broke.
“Dad.”
Thomas tried moving toward her.
The men restrained him.
“No.”
Delaney stepped forward.
Luca caught her arm.
Adrian raised a pistol.
“Files first.”
Delaney held up the drive.
“My dad first.”
Adrian laughed.
“You negotiate like your mother.”
Thomas’s face changed.
“Melissa?”
Delaney froze.
He did not know.
Eleven years imprisoned.
He did not know his wife was dead.
Delaney could not say it.
Not here.
Not like this.
Adrian saw the answer anyway.
“So touching.”
Thomas stared at his daughter.
“Where’s your mother?”
Delaney’s lips trembled.
“Dad—”
Adrian interrupted.
“Drive.”
Delaney threw it halfway.
Adrian gestured.
One man retrieved it.
Laptop.
Plugged in.
Files opened.
Adrian smiled.
“Good.”
Thomas suddenly shouted.
“Delaney, run!”
Adrian shot him.
Everything happened at once.
Delaney screamed.
Thomas collapsed.
Luca fired.
Marco dragged Delaney behind a steel column.
Bullets shattered glass.
Federal agents stormed the far entrance.
“FBI! Weapons down!”
Adrian ran.
Luca pursued.
Delaney crawled toward Thomas.
“Dad!”
Blood soaked his side.
She pressed both hands against the wound.
He stared up.
“You got tall.”
She sobbed.
“You got old.”
He laughed weakly.
“Fair.”
“Stay awake.”
“I tried to come home.”
“I know.”
“I tried.”
“I know.”
“Your mother—”
“We’ll talk later.”
His eyes searched hers.
“She okay?”
Delaney could not lie.
Not to him.
Her face answered.
Thomas closed his eyes.
A sound escaped him that Delaney would remember forever.
Not a cry.
Something deeper.
Eleven years of hope breaking at once.
“Melissa.”
Delaney pressed harder against his wound.
“She never stopped looking for the truth.”
Thomas opened his eyes.
“She raised you?”
“Yes.”
“Good?”
“The best.”
He smiled through tears.
“Of course.”
Paramedics entered.
They pulled Delaney away.
“No!”
“We need room.”
Luca appeared, blood on his sleeve.
“Adrian escaped.”
Delaney turned on him.
“You promised.”
“I promised nothing except that we’d try.”
“He shot my dad!”
“I know.”
“You let him escape!”
Luca absorbed the accusation.
Then Marco approached carrying Adrian’s laptop.
“We got something.”
On the screen, files were deleting remotely.
Marco disconnected the network.
Most vanished.
One remained open.
A photograph.
Caleb Caldwell shaking hands with Renato Raldi.
Behind them stood another man.
Luca went completely still.
Delaney noticed.
“Who is that?”
Luca said nothing.
“Who?”
His face had lost all color.
“My father.”
Delaney stared.
Vincent Raldi.
The man Luca had described as trying to expose the corruption.
Standing beside the men who built it.
Marco whispered, “This doesn’t make sense.”
Thomas, being loaded onto a stretcher nearby, heard them.
His eyes opened.
He grabbed Delaney’s sleeve.
“Luca…”
Luca approached.
Thomas looked at him.
“Your father wasn’t investigating Renato.”
Luca frowned.
Thomas struggled for breath.
“He created Harbor Light.”
Silence.
Luca’s world shifted.
Everything he believed about his father fractured.
Thomas continued.
“Renato tried taking it from him.”
Luca stepped backward.
“No.”
“I’m sorry.”
“No.”
Thomas was carried away.
Delaney looked at Luca.
For the first time since she met him, the mafia boss seemed truly defenseless.
Not tied.
Not injured.
Not facing a grave.
Just a son discovering the man he had built his entire identity around might have been the architect of the evil he claimed to fight.
Delaney knew that feeling.
She had experienced the opposite twenty-four hours earlier.
Her father had risen from disgrace into sacrifice.
Luca’s father was falling from honor into darkness.
She stepped beside him.
For several seconds neither spoke.
Then Delaney said quietly,
“You told me people aren’t their last names.”
Luca looked at her.
She continued.
“I guess that includes you.”
And for the first time, Delaney Mercer offered Luca Raldi something he had not expected from the girl whose family his name helped destroy.
May you like
Not forgiveness.
A chance to decide what his name would mean next.
