Chapter 6 - THE PRICE OF A FAMILY
Roman did not shout.
That was how Matteo knew things were worse than they had ever been.
When Roman was angry, everyone could feel it.
When he became quiet, people disappeared.
“We have six minutes of camera failure,” Matteo said. “Hospital corridor, service elevator, loading dock.”
“Inside help?”
“Almost certainly.”
“Nora?”
“Taken with Claire.”
Roman stood beside the empty hospital bed.
One blanket remained inside the bassinet.
He lifted it.
Still warm.
His daughter had been there minutes earlier.
His wife had been recovering from surgery.
Someone had taken both.
“How?”
“A nurse entered at 12:11.”
“Name?”
“Fake badge.”
“Description?”
“Female. Mid-fifties.”
Roman looked at him.
“Margaret.”
“Likely.”
Roman called Victor again.
No answer.
Matteo studied the card.
“Ledger?”
Roman knew exactly what Victor wanted.
Unfortunately, he did not possess it.
“My father kept a black ledger.”
“Physical?”
“Yes.”
“Where?”
“I don’t know.”
Matteo frowned.
“You never saw it?”
“Once. When I was nineteen.”
Roman remembered his father’s study.
Samuel Mercer had opened a leather-bound book and explained that power was not money.
Power was knowing what everyone else had done to get theirs.
Judges.
Senators.
Union officials.
Police captains.
Bankers.
Gang leaders.
Men whose careers could die because of one page.
“When my father died, the ledger disappeared.”
“Victor thinks you have it.”
“Yes.”
“What if he realizes you don’t?”
Roman looked at the empty bassinet.
“We find it before he does.”
Eleanor arrived ten minutes later.
When she learned Claire and Nora were gone, she seemed to age in front of them.
“This is because of me.”
Roman turned.
“What?”
Eleanor sat.
“Your father gave me the ledger before he died.”
Roman stared.
“You told me you didn’t know where his records were.”
“I lied.”
“Where is it?”
“I destroyed it.”
Matteo cursed under his breath.
Roman’s voice was dangerously calm.
“How?”
“Fireplace. Page by page.”
“When?”
“The night after your father’s funeral.”
“Why?”
“Because those pages were poison.”
Roman stepped closer.
“Victor kidnapped my wife and newborn daughter for something that does not exist.”
Eleanor looked at him.
“Not entirely.”
Roman stopped.
She reached into her handbag.
From an inner compartment she removed a small brass key.
“I kept one thing.”
“What?”
“The index.”
Roman stared.
“Your father maintained a second record. Names and reference numbers, not details. Enough to locate duplicates he stored elsewhere.”
“Where?”
“I never knew.”
“Who did?”
“Victor.”
Roman understood.
Victor did not need the original ledger.
He needed the index because it revealed how to locate backup files.
“What does this have to do with Claire?”
Eleanor’s eyes filled with shame.
“More than you know.”
Roman waited.
“Thirty-four years ago, your father and Victor built the system together.”
“So?”
“So Victor believed half of everything belonged to him.”
Roman frowned.
“He was security.”
“He was more than security.”
Eleanor looked down.
“Victor was your father’s half-brother.”
Silence.
Roman actually laughed once.
Not from humor.
“You’re telling me my uncle kidnapped my wife?”
“Yes.”
“Did Adrian know?”
“I don’t know.”
Roman stepped away.
Every wall in his family seemed to contain another wall.
Matteo’s phone rang.
He answered.
Listened.
Then covered the speaker.
“We found the hospital vehicle.”
“Where?”
“Charlestown shipyard.”
Roman was already moving.
“Get everyone.”
Eleanor stood.
“Roman.”
He turned.
She held out the brass key.
“The index is in a safe-deposit box at Commonwealth Trust.”
“What box?”
“914.”
“Password?”
“Your birthday.”
Roman took the key.
Then Eleanor said, “There’s something else.”
He waited.
“Victor has hated you since the day you were born.”
Roman stared.
“Why?”
“Because your father chose you.”
“I was an infant.”
“Exactly.”
She swallowed.
“Victor had spent years believing he would inherit everything Samuel built. Then your father had a son.”
Roman understood the hatred.
But one detail remained.
“Why wait thirty-four years?”
“Because your father kept him controlled. After Samuel died, Victor expected Adrian would be easier to manipulate.”
“Why Adrian?”
“Because Adrian always wanted what you had.”
Roman’s face hardened.
“Did Adrian help him?”
“I don’t know.”
They reached the shipyard twenty-five minutes later.
The abandoned hospital van sat between two shipping containers.
No Claire.
No Nora.
But Roman found blood on the passenger seat.
His heart stopped.
A paramedic examined it.
“Small amount. Could be surgical bleeding.”
Claire.
Roman gripped the door.
Then Matteo called from behind the van.
“Boss.”
A phone lay on the pavement.
Claire’s.
They powered it on.
One voice recording had been created seven minutes earlier.
Roman pressed play.
Static.
Then Claire’s breathing.
Margaret’s voice.
“Walk.”
Claire: “I just had surgery.”
Margaret: “Then walk slowly.”
A baby cried.
Roman closed his eyes.
Nora.
Then another voice appeared.
Male.
Roman recognized it instantly.
Adrian.
“Stop frightening the baby.”
Roman opened his eyes.
Matteo looked at him.
The recording continued.
Claire whispered, “You?”
Adrian answered, “This was never supposed to happen like this.”
Margaret: “Get her inside.”
Claire: “Roman trusted you.”
Adrian’s voice broke.
“I know.”
Recording ended.
Roman stared at the phone.
His younger brother.
The boy Roman had defended from their father.
The man Roman had given a seat at every table.
Matteo asked quietly, “What do you want to do?”
Roman looked across the dark harbor.
For years, that question had meant punishment.
Tonight it meant something else.
“I want Claire and Nora alive.”
“And Adrian?”
Roman closed his eyes.
“Alive too.”
Matteo looked surprised.
Roman continued.
“Claire asked for courts.”
“You’re serious?”
“I’m trying to be.”
His phone rang.
Victor.
Roman answered.
“You heard the recording?”
Victor asked.
Roman’s blood chilled.
“You left it deliberately.”
“Of course.”
“Why?”
“Because betrayal hurts more when you hear the voice.”
“Where is my wife?”
“Bring the index.”
Roman looked at Eleanor.
“When?”
“Tomorrow. Six a.m.”
“Location?”
“The old Mercer textile mill in Lowell.”
Roman knew it.
Abandoned for fifteen years.
“And if I bring police?”
“Claire dies.”
“If Nora is hurt—”
“Your daughter is perfectly safe.”
Roman closed his eyes.
“You don’t get to say the word daughter.”
Victor laughed.
“Bring the index, Roman.”
The call ended.
Matteo looked at him.
“We can surround the mill.”
“No.”
“You’re not actually going alone.”
“No.”
“That was not agreement.”
Roman turned.
“I’m going to give Victor exactly what he wants.”
Eleanor stared.
“The index?”
“Yes.”
“That information could destroy hundreds of people.”
Roman looked toward the abandoned van where Claire’s blood marked the seat.
“I don’t care.”
Eleanor went still.
Roman’s voice lowered.
“I spent my whole life protecting an empire because everyone told me family required it.”
He looked toward the hospital in the distance, where Grace slept under fluorescent lights without either parent beside her.
“I had it backward.”
Matteo understood.
May you like
Roman took the brass key.
“The empire can burn.”
