Chapter 5 - The Empty Grave
They reached the cemetery before dawn.
Gabriel left Audrey and the twins inside the armored SUV with four guards.
She objected.
He ignored her.
For once.
Julian Russo's grave sat beneath an old maple tree.
Gabriel had stood there five years earlier while rain fell over a closed casket.
Now another rain soaked the earth.
Carmine waited beside the grave.
Alone.
Gabriel approached.
“You knew I'd come.”
“I hoped you would.”
Gabriel hit him.
Carmine stumbled but stayed upright.
“That was for Audrey.”
Another punch.
“That was for Noah.”
A third.
“For Emma.”
Carmine spat blood.
“What about you?”
Gabriel stopped.
“You'll need more than fists for that.”
“Then explain.”
Carmine looked at Julian's headstone.
“Your brother discovered Vittorio's trafficking network six years ago.”
Gabriel listened.
“He planned to expose him to the Commission.”
“So my father killed him.”
“No.”
Carmine looked at Gabriel.
“I helped Julian fake his death.”
Gabriel's hands curled.
“Why?”
“Because Vittorio had already ordered the hit.”
Carmine explained.
The explosion that supposedly killed Julian had been staged after an earlier assassination attempt. The closed casket contained remains from an unidentified body Vittorio's people believed belonged to Julian.
Julian escaped.
But he didn't disappear entirely.
“He spent years collecting evidence.”
“The flash drive?”
“Part of it.”
“Where is Julian?”
“I don't know.”
Gabriel grabbed Carmine's coat.
“You're running out of answers.”
“I lost contact eight months ago.”
“Why did you hide Audrey from me?”
Carmine's face tightened.
“Because Julian asked me to.”
Gabriel released him.
“What?”
“He found her after she called your office. He already knew Vittorio was alive.”
Audrey had not told Gabriel everything.
Again.
“Julian believed the twins were leverage.”
“Against whom?”
“You.”
Gabriel stared.
“Vittorio knew you wouldn't challenge certain parts of the organization because you believed they were legitimate. If you discovered what he had done, you'd dismantle them. But if he controlled your children…”
“He could control me.”
“Yes.”
Gabriel looked toward the SUV.
Through the rain-streaked glass he could barely see Audrey holding Noah.
A family he had never asked for.
A family someone had already weaponized.
“Why bring me to the grocery store?”
Carmine's eyes hardened.
“Because somebody found Audrey.”
Gabriel went still.
“Who?”
“I don't know.”
“So you arranged for us to meet?”
“I couldn't tell you without revealing I had lied for two years. I needed you to see them.”
Gabriel almost laughed.
“You manipulated me into discovering my children in aisle nine?”
“It worked.”
Gabriel wanted to hit him again.
Instead he asked, “Why now?”
Carmine looked toward the road.
“Because yesterday morning someone accessed a sealed hospital record containing Emma and Noah's birth information.”
Gabriel's anger disappeared beneath something colder.
“Who?”
“The request came through a federal terminal.”
“FBI?”
“Maybe.”
“Maybe?”
“The credentials belonged to an agent who's been dead eleven months.”
Gabriel turned toward the SUV.
Then a shot cracked through the cemetery.
Carmine jerked.
Blood appeared on his coat.
Gabriel caught him before he fell.
His men scattered.
“Shooter!”
Another shot struck the headstone.
Gabriel dragged Carmine behind it.
Carmine struggled to breathe.
“Listen.”
“Save it.”
“Julian…”
“What?”
Carmine shoved a small key into Gabriel's palm.
“Union Station. Locker 317.”
“What's there?”
“The truth about your father.”
Gabriel pressed his hand against Carmine's wound.
“And Audrey.”
Gabriel froze.
“What about Audrey?”
Carmine's eyes moved toward the SUV.
“She didn't hide the twins only because she feared Vittorio.”
“What are you saying?”
Carmine coughed blood.
“She was protecting you from them.”
Gabriel stared at him.
“From my own children?”
“No.”
Carmine's voice weakened.
May you like
“From what their blood proves.”
Then his eyes closed.
