Chapter 6 - THE MAN DOMINIC TRUSTED“Put the gun down, Marcus.”
Dominic's voice was quiet.
Marcus did not move.
The woman who had raised Lily retreated into the hallway, her hand pressed against her chest.
Rachel stood beside the table, staring at the man who had escorted her through the mansion countless times without ever raising his voice to her.
“Why?” she whispered.
Marcus kept his weapon trained on her.
“Because she knows too much.”
Dominic shifted slightly, placing himself between them.
“She knows nothing about your business.”
“She knows about the child.”
“And what business is that?”
Marcus gave a bitter laugh.
“Don't pretend you haven't figured it out. Your father didn't build an empire by trusting people. He built it by making sure nobody could threaten him.”
“You were working for my father?”
“I was working for the family.”
“That's not an answer.”
Marcus's jaw tightened.
“Anthony Moretti saved my life when I was twenty. He took me off the street, gave me a job, and made me his personal security chief. When Gabriel started asking questions about the money, your father told me to stop him.”
“Stop him how?”
Marcus glanced toward the photograph of Lily.
“You know how.”
Dominic felt something inside him go cold.
“Did you kill Gabriel's girlfriend?”
“No.”
“Did you arrange the accident?”
Marcus hesitated.
That was enough.
Dominic took another step.
“Did you?”
“I arranged a warning. I was told she would be frightened into silence. The driver was supposed to scare her, not kill her.”
Rachel stared at him.
“She was pregnant.”
Marcus's eyes flickered.
“I didn't know.”
“You didn't ask.”
The accusation landed with devastating simplicity.
Marcus lowered the gun a fraction.
Dominic saw the opening.
“Where is Gabriel?”
“I don't know.”
“Who sent the cakes?”
“I don't know.”
“Who is the woman at the Blackwood Hotel?”
Marcus's expression changed.
For the first time, genuine fear crossed his face.
“You found Eleanor?”
Dominic's stomach tightened.
“So you knew.”
“I knew your mother was alive. I didn't know where she was.”
“You told me she died.”
“Your father ordered it.”
“And you obeyed.”
Marcus swallowed.
“I was twenty-six. Your father had already killed two men who disobeyed him. I thought if I kept you safe, I could eventually get you away from him.”
Dominic's laugh was sharp and humorless.
“By helping him destroy my brother?”
“I didn't know he would go that far.”
“You never know anything until someone dies.”
Marcus looked at Rachel again.
“Let me take her. Gabriel will come out of hiding if he thinks she's in danger.”
Dominic's expression hardened.
“You will not touch her.”
Marcus lifted the gun again.
Before he could fire, the elderly woman knocked a ceramic lamp off the side table.
It shattered against the floor.
Marcus flinched.
Dominic lunged.
The two men crashed into the table, sending the photographs scattering. The gun discharged into the ceiling.
Rachel grabbed the elderly woman's arm and pulled her into the hallway.
Dominic struck Marcus once, hard enough to send him stumbling backward. The gun slid across the floor.
Marcus reached for it.
Dominic kicked it away.
“Enough!”
For a moment, they stared at each other.
Then Marcus's expression changed.
He was no longer fighting.
He was calculating.
Dominic saw the decision in his eyes a second too late.
Marcus threw himself through the open back door.
By the time Dominic reached the yard, the security chief had disappeared into the rain.
Rachel stood in the doorway, shaking.
“He knows where Gabriel is.”
“Maybe.”
“He threatened to use me to get to him.”
Dominic turned.
“Then he'll have to come through me.”
She looked at him.
“Sir, with respect, that's what everyone in your family says. And people keep dying.”
Dominic had no answer.
He called the police and arranged protection for the elderly woman. Then he contacted a private investigator he had trusted before Marcus entered his life.
Within an hour, the investigator located a bank account opened in Gabriel's name three weeks earlier.
The account had been accessed from a rural town outside Boston.
Dominic and Rachel left immediately.
The address led to an abandoned church overlooking a narrow river. The doors were unlocked. Dust covered the pews, and a single candle burned beside the altar.
A photograph lay on the first pew.
Gabriel, older and thinner than Dominic remembered, stood beside a little girl.
Lily.
On the back was a message.
If you came alone, I know you still trust me.
If you brought Rachel, then Evelyn told you everything.
If Marcus came with you, run.
Dominic read the final line aloud.
A metallic click sounded behind them.
Rachel turned.
The church doors slammed shut.
Smoke began pouring from the basement.
Dominic grabbed Rachel's hand and ran toward the side exit, but it was locked from the outside.
Through the smoke, a small voice called from the choir loft.
“Uncle Dominic?”
He froze.
A little girl stood on the narrow staircase, clutching a faded cloth rabbit.
She had Gabriel's eyes.
Dominic stared at her.
“Lily?”
She nodded, tears shining on her cheeks.
“Daddy said you might come.”
Dominic hurried toward her.
“Where's your father?”
Lily pointed toward the basement door.
“He went downstairs to stop the bad man.”
Dominic's heart slammed against his ribs.
“Who?”
The girl began crying.
“The man who says he's my grandfather.”
Then the basement door burst open.
A man stumbled into the church, coughing violently.
Gabriel Moretti was alive.
And in his hand was a gun.
He raised it toward Dominic.
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“I'm sorry, brother,” Gabriel rasped.
Then he fired.
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