Chapter 5 - The Dead Man’s Brother
Enzo Duca was supposed to be dead.
Marco had attended his funeral when he was 17.
There had been a coffin.
Flowers.
A priest.
His mother crying.
Now Enzo stood beneath the mansion holding a gun.
Marco aimed at his chest.
“You have 5 seconds.”
Enzo smiled sadly.
“You sound like Victor.”
“Four.”
“I didn’t kill your father.”
“Three.”
“But I know who did.”
Tessa stepped closer.
“And Daniel Morgan?”
Enzo looked at her.
Recognition crossed his face.
“Daniel’s daughter.”
Tessa’s breathing changed.
“Who killed him?”
“The same organization that killed Victor.”
“Name.”
Enzo looked toward Marco.
“The Bell Tower.”
Marco had heard whispers.
A network rather than a family.
Businessmen, fixers, compromised law-enforcement officers, financiers, and criminals who profited by making enemies disappear and evidence become unreliable.
Victor had discovered them inside his own organization.
Daniel had built Janus to expose them.
Before they could release it, both men died.
“Why fake your death?” Marco asked.
“Because Victor told me to.”
Enzo reached slowly into his coat.
Marco’s finger tightened against the trigger.
Enzo produced a key.
“Janus was divided into 3 pieces. Victor kept one. Daniel kept one. I kept the last.”
Tessa stared.
“Where?”
Enzo looked at her necklace.
Tessa instinctively touched the tiny silver pendant she had worn since childhood.
Her face changed.
“My father gave me this.”
“Open it.”
She did.
Inside was something she had always assumed was decorative.
A microscopic storage component.
Marco swore softly.
Enzo said, “Daniel hid his piece with the one person nobody would search.”
“His 14-year-old daughter,” Tessa whispered.
“You’ve carried it for 18 years.”
Tessa looked sick.
Every strange burglary.
Every suspicious van.
Every recent attempt to reach her.
It suddenly made sense.
“Why now?”
Enzo answered quietly.
“Because someone finally discovered who Daniel gave it to.”
Footsteps sounded in the tunnel.
Enzo turned.
“Move.”
Gunfire erupted.
Marco dragged Tessa behind the concrete wall.
Cal fired twice.
Enzo disappeared into the darkness.
The attackers retreated.
When silence returned, Enzo was gone.
So was Tessa’s pendant.
She touched her empty neck.
“No.”
Marco looked toward the tunnel.
“Enzo took it.”
Tessa ran after him.
Marco caught her around the waist.
“Let me go!”
“No.”
“He took the only thing my father left me!”
“And whoever came through that tunnel wants it too.”
She struggled once, then stopped.
Marco felt her shaking.
His grip loosened.
“Tessa.”
“I spent 18 years believing my father fell asleep driving.”
Her voice cracked.
“I was angry at him.”
Marco said nothing.
“I thought he left me because he was careless.”
She pressed a hand over her mouth.
Marco had never been good with tears.
Fear he understood.
Anger he understood.
Grief was different.
He gently pulled her against him.
Tessa resisted for perhaps half a second.
Then her forehead touched his chest.
Marco held her.
No promises.
No meaningless reassurance.
Just silence.
Cal quietly walked farther down the tunnel.
Later, upstairs, they discovered 2 guards injured but alive.
The attackers had escaped.
Marco doubled protection.
Tessa refused to leave.
“You were kidnapped this morning.”
“Attempted kidnapping.”
“That distinction doesn’t comfort me.”
“It comforts me.”
“You’re impossible.”
“You hired me.”
He stared.
She stared back.
Then Marco said something that surprised them both.
“Stay.”
Her expression softened.
“For security?”
“No.”
Silence.
Marco continued before caution could stop him.
“Stay because I want you here.”
Tessa looked at him for several seconds.
Then she stepped closer.
“Marco.”
His phone rang.
Cal.
Marco answered.
“Found Enzo?”
“No.”
Cal’s voice was tense.
“But we identified the man who ordered today’s attack.”
“Who?”
A pause.
“You’re not going to like it.”
“Name.”
“Anthony Duca.”
Marco went cold.
May you like
Anthony was Marco’s younger brother.
And he was arriving at the mansion for dinner in less than an hour.
