Chapter 2 - THE BROTHER WHO WAS ERASED
Elena tied off the clean bandage and sat back on her heels.
“So this is revenge?”
Dominic gave a humorless laugh.
“I wish it were that simple.”
He told her the rest.
Their father, Victor Crane, had built Crane Holdings from a waterfront trucking operation into an empire that touched hotels, construction, private security, casinos, and half a dozen businesses Dominic preferred not to discuss.
Marcus had worked beside him for twenty years.
But Victor never publicly acknowledged him as an equal son.
When Victor died, almost everything went to Dominic.
Marcus received money.
Dominic received power.
For years, Marcus pretended it did not matter.
Then Dominic discovered money disappearing from several Crane companies.
At first, thousands.
Then millions.
Shell companies led to offshore accounts.
Those accounts led to men Dominic had spent years trying to remove from the legitimate side of the Crane empire.
Dominic had planned to confront Marcus privately.
Marcus acted first.
“He knew where I would be,” Dominic said. “My car was intercepted. Two of my security men were killed. I woke up here.”
“Why keep you alive?”
“That’s what bothered me.”
Dominic looked directly at her.
“If Marcus only wanted me dead, I would already be dead.”
A floorboard creaked upstairs.
Elena stopped breathing.
Dominic immediately reached for her wrist.
This time it was not desperate.
It was protective.
“Behind the furnace.”
She moved.
The basement door opened seconds later.
Two men descended.
Neither was Marcus.
Elena crouched behind the rusted furnace, pressing a hand over her mouth.
One man dropped a grocery bag beside Dominic.
The other laughed.
“Boss says tomorrow.”
Dominic’s face revealed nothing.
“Tomorrow what?”
The man crouched.
“Tomorrow you sign.”
He removed papers from inside his coat.
Dominic looked at them.
For the first time since Elena had met him, genuine fear entered his face.
The man noticed.
“There it is.”
He smiled.
“We were wondering what would finally scare Dominic Crane.”
They left.
Elena waited until the basement door closed.
Then she emerged.
“What are those?”
Dominic stared at the papers.
“A transfer of controlling interest.”
“In your companies?”
“In everything.”
“Then don’t sign.”
Dominic looked at her.
“They have my mother.”
Elena went still.
Dominic’s mother, Evelyn Crane, was seventy-one and lived quietly outside Boston.
Marcus had taken her two days before Dominic disappeared.
Dominic had resisted torture.
He had resisted starvation.
He had resisted the certainty of death.
But he would not gamble with his mother.
“I sign tomorrow,” he said.
“And Marcus kills you afterward.”
“Yes.”
Elena stared at him.
“You’re surprisingly calm about that.”
“I've had three weeks to get used to it.”
“Well, I haven't.”
She stood.
Dominic frowned.
“What are you doing?”
“Finding another way out.”
“There isn't one.”
“You're a billionaire who got kidnapped by his brother and chained in a basement. Forgive me if I don't consider your recent decision-making flawless.”
Dominic stared at her.
Then, unexpectedly, he laughed.
The sound was rough from disuse.
Elena almost smiled.
Almost.
She spent twenty minutes examining the basement.
There was one staircase, two sealed windows, an old coal chute, and a drainage tunnel hidden beneath shelving.
The opening was narrow.
Dominic could potentially fit.
If he could walk.
He couldn't.
“Tomorrow,” Elena whispered. “We get you out.”
Dominic shook his head.
“Marcus watches your apartment now.”
Her stomach dropped.
“How do you know?”
“Because I would.”
Noah.
Elena grabbed her coat.
Dominic caught her hand.
“Elena.”
She turned.
“If Marcus knows about your son, you don't go home.”
“My son is there.”
“Which is exactly why he'll expect you.”
She pulled free.
“You don't understand.”
“Yes, I do.”
His voice hardened.
“You think because I'm chained to a wall I'm helpless.”
He reached beneath his torn shirt and pulled something tiny from the hem.
A black plastic capsule.
Inside was a micro-SIM card.
“I stole this from one of Marcus's phones yesterday.”
Elena stared.
Dominic smiled faintly.
“I've been busy.”
He told her a number to call from a public phone.
A man named Samuel Reed.
No explanations.
Just three words.
“Crane needs daylight.”
Elena left.
Twenty minutes later, she made the call.
Forty minutes after that, Mrs. Patterson received an unexpected visit from a gray-haired man claiming to be Elena's uncle.
Samuel moved Noah and Mrs. Patterson to a safe apartment.
Elena did not breathe normally again until Samuel showed her a photograph of Noah eating pizza in front of a television.
Safe.
For now.
Samuel studied Elena.
“You're the cleaner?”
“Elena.”
He looked almost amused.
“I've worked for Dominic Crane for seventeen years. Nobody has found him in three weeks.”
“I opened the wrong door.”
“Apparently.”
Samuel's expression became serious.
“Can he move?”
“Barely.”
“Then we have a problem.”
“No.”
Elena looked toward the mansion.
“We have until tomorrow.”
That night she returned to Dominic.
She brought food, medicine, and something else.
Bolt cutters.
Dominic looked at them.
Then at her.
“You're insane.”
“Probably.”
She knelt beside his chain.
“Hold still.”
The first link snapped after three attempts.
Dominic stared at his freed wrist.
For twenty-one days, iron had connected him to that wall.
Now nothing did.
He slowly stood.
His knees buckled.
Elena caught him.
For a moment, the feared Dominic Crane had his entire weight supported by a cleaning woman half his size.
He looked down at her.
“You shouldn't have come back that first day.”
“I know.”
“You should have run.”
“I did.”
Her arm tightened around his waist.
“Then I changed my mind.”
They reached the drainage tunnel.
Samuel waited on the other side.
Freedom was less than thirty feet away.
Then headlights swept across the basement windows.
Dominic froze.
Elena heard car doors.
One.
Two.
Three.
Then Marcus's voice came from upstairs.
“Bring my brother up.”
A pause.
“And find the maid.”
Dominic looked at Elena.
May you like
Marcus had returned early.
And this time, he knew exactly who he was looking for.
