Chapter 5 - The Trap at Blackstone HouseDelaney slapped him.
The sound cracked across the storage room.
Thomas stared at the floor.
Teresa said, “Good.”
Gabriel slowly turned his face back toward Delaney.
“You finished?”
“No.”
“Then use the other hand. We’re short on time.”
She almost did.
“You don’t get to use me as bait.”
“I’m not.”
“You literally just said you were giving me to him.”
“I said we would make Vincent believe that.”
“That distinction could have arrived before the heart attack.”
Gabriel rubbed his jaw.
For the first time, she saw the faintest hint of a smile.
It made her angrier.
The plan was simple enough to sound terrible.
Vincent believed Rachel had left something with Delaney.
Gabriel would leak that Delaney had agreed to exchange the evidence for money and safe passage.
Vincent would be watched.
If he made a move against her, they would know.
“No guns near me,” Delaney said.
Gabriel looked at her.
“No.”
“That wasn’t a suggestion.”
“Neither is my answer.”
They stared at each other.
Teresa sighed.
“I see this becoming exhausting.”
That evening, Blackstone House glowed above Narragansett Bay.
Vincent arrived at seven.
He was sixty-three, silver-haired, elegant, and carried himself with the relaxed authority of a beloved uncle.
He hugged Teresa.
He kissed her cheek.
“My God, Teresa. You frightened us.”
Delaney watched from the library.
Nothing about him looked monstrous.
That somehow made it worse.
Vincent saw her.
His smile remained.
“You must be Delaney.”
She felt Gabriel beside her become rigid.
“How do you know my name?” she asked.
Vincent’s smile slipped.
Only slightly.
“Gabriel mentioned you.”
“No, I didn’t,” Gabriel said.
Silence swallowed the room.
Vincent looked at his nephew.
Then laughed.
“Then Thomas.”
Thomas stood near the door.
“No.”
The warmth disappeared from Vincent’s eyes.
Gabriel walked toward him.
“Who told you?”
Vincent sighed.
“You’re making something out of nothing.”
“Who told you?”
Teresa whispered, “Vincent.”
He looked at her.
For one second, grief crossed his face.
Real grief.
“I wish you had stayed out of this.”
Gabriel reached beneath his jacket.
Vincent shook his head.
“Don’t.”
The windows exploded.
Gunfire tore through the library.
Gabriel tackled Delaney behind a stone fireplace.
Thomas dragged Teresa toward the corridor.
Security alarms screamed.
Vincent disappeared behind an overturned sofa.
Gabriel covered Delaney with his body as glass rained across the floor.
“Stay down.”
“You think?”
He fired twice toward the terrace.
Men were coming through the broken windows.
But they were not shooting at Delaney.
They were shooting at Vincent.
One bullet struck his shoulder.
Vincent collapsed.
Gabriel stared.
The attackers were trying to kill the man they had suspected of ordering everything.
That made no sense.
Thomas shouted from the hallway.
“Gabriel! We have a second team at the east gate!”
Gabriel grabbed Delaney’s hand.
They ran.
Teresa was waiting inside the armored corridor.
Vincent stumbled after them, bleeding heavily.
Gabriel aimed his gun.
Vincent raised his hands.
“If I wanted your mother dead, why are those men shooting at me?”
Gabriel said nothing.
“Think.”
Teresa pressed a towel against Vincent’s wound.
“Who are they?”
Vincent looked at her.
“I don’t know.”
Delaney watched him.
Then she remembered the diner.
The leader’s words.
Don’t let the other side find out first.
Two groups.
Not one.
Someone had wanted Teresa.
Someone else wanted whatever Rachel left behind.
“What if Vincent isn’t the traitor?” Delaney asked.
Gabriel looked at her sharply.
Vincent almost laughed.
“Finally.”
“I didn’t say innocent.”
His expression soured.
Delaney continued.
“My mother wrote not to trust him. That doesn’t necessarily mean he killed Antonio.”
Gabriel understood.
“She knew Vincent was hiding something.”
Vincent sat against the wall.
Blood soaked his shirt.
Teresa stared at him.
“What were you hiding?”
For the first time, the older man looked afraid.
“Antonio asked me to.”
“Asked you to do what?”
Vincent closed his eyes.
“Protect his second son.”
Gabriel froze.
“My what?”
Teresa went pale.
Vincent looked at her.
“You never told him?”
“Told me what?”
Teresa stepped backward.
Gabriel's voice sharpened.
“Mother.”
She whispered, “You had a brother.”
“I have a brother. Nicholas.”
“No.”
Teresa’s eyes filled.
“Another.”
Gabriel stared at her.
Vincent explained.
Before Teresa and Antonio married, Antonio had fathered a child with a woman named Evelyn Marchetti.
The boy was named Sebastian.
Antonio secretly supported him.
When Gabriel was fourteen, Sebastian learned who his father was.
He wanted recognition.
Antonio refused publicly, fearing a succession war.
After Antonio died, Sebastian disappeared.
Rachel had discovered payments to him.
That was why she warned Delaney not to trust Vincent.
Vincent had been moving money secretly for Antonio.
Not to betray him.
To support his hidden son.
“Where is Sebastian now?” Gabriel asked.
Vincent looked toward the shattered windows.
“I haven’t seen him in eighteen years.”
Delaney’s stomach tightened.
Thomas entered holding a phone taken from one of the attackers.
“There’s only one saved number.”
Gabriel took it.
No name.
Just four digits.
The same number Rachel had spoken on the tape.
Gabriel looked at Delaney.
Then Vincent.
Vincent whispered, “That wasn’t a bank account.”
Delaney felt cold.
“What was it?”
“A code Antonio used.”
“For what?”
Vincent looked toward Teresa.
“For his firstborn son.”
Outside, gunfire suddenly stopped.
A phone rang on the floor.
The captured attacker’s phone.
Gabriel answered.
A man's voice said, “Hello, little brother.”
Gabriel’s face emptied.
May you like
The voice continued.
“Tell Mother I’m finally coming home.”
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