Chapter 7 - Beneath the Ficus
Claudia survived.
The bullet passed through her side without striking a major organ.
Damian hid her in a private clinic under another name.
Then he and Harper returned to the west solarium.
The ficus stood exactly where it always had.
Harper stared at it.
"I spent three hours cleaning this stupid thing."
Damian examined the planter.
"Your suffering may finally have purpose."
"Careful. You're developing humor."
They moved the tree.
Nothing.
Harper crouched.
The marble beneath the planter differed slightly from the surrounding floor.
Damian found the seam.
Beneath the tile was a biometric safe.
"Of course," Harper muttered. "Normal families use photo albums."
The safe required a fingerprint.
Evelyn was dead.
But Harper remembered something.
Her mother's nursing license had been preserved in a sealed plastic folder inside Box 317.
A fingerprint remained on the glossy surface.
Damian's security specialist lifted it.
The safe opened.
Inside sat a hard drive.
Damian connected it to an isolated laptop.
Vittorio Costa appeared on screen.
Damian stopped breathing.
His father had been dead for twenty years.
Yet there he was.
Older than Damian remembered.
Tired.
Afraid.
"If you're seeing this," Vittorio said, "Richard Vale has probably succeeded."
Damian sat down.
The recording explained everything.
Richard had spent decades laundering criminal money through legitimate political donors while publicly building his reputation as an anti-corruption prosecutor.
Vittorio discovered it.
He planned to expose Richard and withdraw the Costa organization from several illegal operations.
Richard arranged his death.
But there was another betrayal.
Someone inside the Costa family had helped him.
Damian's uncle, Salvatore.
Damian stood abruptly.
Salvatore had been his adviser for twenty years.
The man who taught him the business.
The man who comforted him at his father's funeral.
The man who had encouraged his engagement to Claudia.
"He raised me," Damian whispered.
Harper touched his arm.
"He controlled you."
Damian looked toward her.
That distinction hurt more.
Before they could act, Salvatore entered the solarium.
Six armed men followed.
"Step away from the computer."
Damian turned.
"Uncle."
Salvatore looked almost sad.
"You were never supposed to find this."
"Did you kill him?"
"I helped Richard."
Damian's jaw clenched.
"Why?"
"Because your father became weak."
"No. He wanted out."
"Same thing."
Salvatore aimed a gun.
Harper stood beside Damian.
Salvatore noticed.
"And now you're making his mistake."
"What mistake?"
"Thinking love makes men stronger."
His gun shifted toward Harper.
Damian stepped in front of her.
Salvatore smiled.
"Exactly."
Then Mrs. Gable triggered the estate's fire alarm.
Sprinklers exploded.
Lights died.
Damian grabbed Harper.
Gunfire tore through the solarium.
They escaped through a service passage.
Damian's loyal security team stormed the east wing.
For eleven minutes, the estate became a battlefield of shattered glass and alarms.
Salvatore escaped.
But he took the hard drive.
Harper stood in the ruined foyer afterward.
"We lost everything."
Damian shook his head.
"No."
He held up a tiny device.
Before Salvatore entered, Damian had copied the archive.
Harper stared at him.
"You sneaky bastard."
"I've been called worse."
Then Damian's phone buzzed.
A message from Salvatore.
A photograph appeared.
Claudia's hospital bed.
Empty.
Below it:
MIDNIGHT. WATERFRONT WAREHOUSE 12.
BRING THE COPY OR CLAUDIA DIES.
Harper looked at Damian.
"This is a trap."
"Obviously."
"Are we going?"
May you like
Damian picked up his coat.
"Obviously."
